Tag: en

Burbuliatorius – 8 sezonas [LT-EN]

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[LT] Gegužės 23 dieną startuoja kasmetinė akcija-renginys “Burbuliatorius“. Jau aštuntas sezonas 🙂 Kaip greitai prabėgo tie metai. Atsimenu šiek tiek keistoką jausmą dalyvaujant pirmam renginy, kai vidury miesto putėm burbulus. Po to tai pasidarė taip įprasta ir jauku. Ateidavai po darbo kaip į namus. Matei pažįstamus veidus, ar tiesiog atsipalaidavusius, linksmus miestiečius, tai buvo proga susitikti su draugais, su kuriais paprastai retai pasimatydavai. Dar nepraleidau nei vieno sezono, nors teko dėl įvairių priežasčių praleist 3-4 renginius. Deja, bet šiemet Vilniuje prasidės Lukiškių aikštės rekonstrukcija ir renginiui šiam mieste teks persikraustyt į kitą, mano manymu ne tokią patrauklią ir tinkamą, vietą. Nežinia ar po rekonstrukcijos žmonės galės vėl grįžti į aikštę ir tiesiog pasėdėt ant vejos ar tai nebus akylai saugomas “porcelianinis” reprezentacinis paminklas vietoj tokių trūkstamų rekreacinių žalių zonų mieste.

[EN] May 23d is the start of the annual event “Burbulator“. Already a 8th season 🙂 Time is running so fast. I still remember the weird feeling of blowing bubbles in the middle of the city during the first event. Then it became so usual and soothing. You were coming there after a work day and it felt like home. Seeing familiar faces or just relaxing cheerful townsfolk. It was a chance to meet friends, whom you were rarely seeing otherwise. I haven’t missed one season yet, except for a 3-4 single events for a various reasons. Alas, this year reconstruction of Lukiškių square will begin in Vilnius and this event will have to migrate to another, in my opinion not so suitable or charming, place. It’s not known whether people will be allowed to come back to the square and simply sit on the grass after the reconstruction, whether it won’t be some delicate representative and vigilantly guarded monument instead of such needed green recreation zones in the city.

Spark – one year of development reboot [LT-EN]

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 [LT] Lygiai prieš metus paėmiau į savo rankas šio projekto valdymą (trumpųjų žinučių programa). Šiandien išleista 2.7.7 versija (aštuntoji nuo 2.7.0). Per metus nemažai klaidų ištaisyta, pridėta naujų funkcijų, pagerintas skirtingų platformų palaikymas ir pan. Išspręsta 100 kreipinių klaidų bazėje. Aišku, dar labai daug lieka padaryt. Nors dėmesys programai šiek tiek išaugo ir sulaukėm apie 10 žmonių pataisymų, bet vis dar trūksta stipraus Java programuotojo šio projekto priežiūrai. Praeitais metais norint padidint programos žinomumą/matomumą paleidau puslapį Wikipedijoj (juolab, kad serverinė dalis “Openfire” jau tokį turėjo nuo seno). Nors vis dar esu “nubas” programavime, bet per tą laiką išmokau kai ką ir iš Javos, ir kaip naudotis Eclipse programa bei pramokau GitHub ypatumus. Beveik pilnai galiu atlikti visą naujos versijos išleidimo procesą (išskyrus paruoštų instaliacijos paketų padėjimą į serverį). Taip pat nebloga patirtis norint sustyguot skirtingų komandos narių atliekamas užduotis, patirtis pateikiamų pataisymų testavime, forume pateikiamų klaidų pranešimų analizavime ir t.t. Įdomūs metai 🙂

[EN] Exactly one year ago i took the lead of this project into my hands (IM client). Today 2.7.7 version has been released (8th since the 2.7.0). A lot of issues have been fixed, new features added, various platforms’ compatibility improved during that year. 100 tickets resolved in the bug tracker. Of course, there is still very much left to do. Although the program gets a bit more attention and we have received patches from around 10 contributors, but a strong Java developer is still amiss for looking after this project. Last year, seeking to improve visibility/awareness of this project i’ve launched its page on Wikipedia (especially as its server part “Openfire” already had one for a while). Although, i’m still a noob in programming, but during that time i have learned a bit about Java, how to use Eclipse IDE and a few GitHub quirks. I can do a new version release almost single-handedly now (except for putting new installers onto the server). It was also a useful experience in managing tasks of a few team members, experience in testing submitted patches, analyzing bug reports in the forums, etc. Interesting year 🙂

Reviewers, reviewers [LT-EN]

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[LT] Žiūrint eilinį video įrašą iš mano Youtube prenumeratos pagalvojau, kad galėčiau išvardinti kanalus apie stalo žaidimus, kuriuos aktyviai seku, žiūriu, kurie daro įtaką mano pasirinkimams ir šiaip smagūs žiūrėti.

[EN] While watching another video from my Youtube subscription a thought came to me, that i should list all the channels about board games which i actively follow, watch, which influent my choices or are just plainly fun to watch.

 

Dice Tower

[LT] Tai kanalas, nuo kurio viskas ir prasidėjo prieš jau turbūt 7 metus. Tuomet, tai buvo vieno žmogaus (Tom Vasel) varomas video podcast’as. Dabar gi po jo sparnu yra nemažai kitų apžvalgininkų, video kūrėjų, šiaip stalo žaidimų mėgėjų. Kai kurie iš jų jau turi ir savo atskirus kanalus (bus pavardinti žemiau). Aukščiau įdėtas video yra šios savaitės savaitinis epizodas, kuriame Tomas surenka video iš įvairių žmonių ir padaro mini laidą.

[EN] It’s the channel which started it all for me probably already 7 years ago. At that time it was a video podcast driven by a single person (Tom Vasel). And now there are a lot of other reviewers, content creators and board game lovers under his roof. Some of them already have their own channels (will be listed below). Video above is this week’s episode of a weekly series in which Toms gathers videos from various contributors.

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Tiny Wooden Pieces – a webcomic about board games [LT-EN]

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[LT] Vienam iš paskutinių įrašų pamiršau paminėti kas mane įkvėpė nupiešti kažką susijusio su stalo žaidimais. O gi tai, kad jau apie metus laiko skaitau internetinį komiksą apie stalo žaidimus – Tiny Wooden Pieces, kurį kadaise paminėjo Dice Tower kanale. Ne daug yra komiksų apie stalo žaidimus (bent jau aš atsimenu tik vieną, bet jis buvo ne piešiamas, o su tikrais žmonėmis ir keliais pliušiniais žaisliukais). Šis komiksas išleidžia naują įrašą kas penktadienį (kai penktadieniais einu pietaut ir išsitraukiu savo planšetę, visada pagalvoju “valio, turėtų būti naujas įrašas!”). Visi įrašai būna smagūs, humoristiniai ir dažnai iš mūsų (stalo žaidimų žaidėjų) tikrų gyvenimo situacijų 🙂

[EN] In one of the latest posts i forgot to mention what inspired me to draw something board games related. And that is that i’m reading this webcomic about board games for about a year – Tiny Wooden Pieces, which once was mentioned on the Dice Tower channel. There are not many comics about board games (at least i remember only one, and it wasn’t with drawings, but with real people and a few plushy toys). This comic releases a new issue every Friday (on Fridays when i go to lunch and take out my tablet i always think to myself “wohoo, it should be a new issue today!”). All the issues are fun, humorous and often based on our (board games players) real life situations 🙂

First win in Pergamon [LT-EN]

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pergamon_250[LT] Pagaliau pavyko laimėti ir šiame žaidime (bandau nuo rugpjūčio). Ta proga nupiešiau šį paveiksliuką, kuriame pavaizduoti visi žaidimo artefaktai. Keista, bet archeologai šiame žaidime visus artefaktus randa suskaldytus į dvi dalis 😀 Laimėjimas galbūt paaiškinamas skirtingu žaidėjų lygiu, bet gal ir aš išmokau geresnės strategijos šiame žaidime. Iš pradžių stengiuosi surinkt daugiau pinigų ir nesivaikau brangių eksponatų. O surinkti pinigai leidžia vėliau užimti geresnes pozicijas renkantis iškasenas, kurios labiau tinka prie tavo jau turimų. Kaip ir sakiau anksčiau, šiame žaidime man labiausiai patinka lipdyti atskirus gabaliukus į ekspoziciją.

[EN] Finally i’ve managed to win in this game (trying since August). For this occasion i’ve drawn this little picture, which shows all artefacts from this game. Strange, but archeologists in this game find all artefacts split in two pieces 😀 My victory can probably be explained by different level of players, but maybe i’ve learned better strategies in this game. At first i always try to collect more money and do not chase after pricy exhibits. And the money i have amassed helps me later to take better place when choosing fossils more fitting to ones i already have. As i’ve said before, in this game i like gluing different pieces into exhibition the most.

Board Game Mini Reviews [EN]

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So, this time only two new games (will not count one game of “4 in a row). Maybe will have to post about one new game right away and not wait until i gather more in the future.

 

Kahuna

I hated it after the first play. Then i decided to give it one more chance. I’ve won the second game. After the third one i’ve decided that i don’t want to play it anymore. Even when i’ve managed to win, it didn’t feel that i did something clever or outsmarted my opponent. I was just lucky to get the right cards. The problem with this game is, that once you did a few bad moves you will drag on a second place for the reminder of the game without a slight chance to come back. This is unacceptable, especially in an abstract game for two. The game is from 1998 and it feels (visually it is not very attractive either). Most probably there is some deep strategy, tactics in there, but i don’t even want to discover them. 5/10

 

The Voyages of Marco Polo

First of all, that name?? Some publishers don’t consider that simple names are letting people to share their impressions easier and to find information on the internet. By the way, the biggest problem with this game is exactly that “travel” part. Because the game is too short and you have to do lots of things in it to collect enough points, so the traveling part is very limited and leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth. I’ve played 3-4 games of it. In one of them i’ve tried to concentrate on traveling and still wasn’t able to fulfill both of my travel tasks. On the other hand i’ve collected very few points in other parts of the game. In other sessions i wasn’t thinking about traveling at all and concentrated on fulfilling the orders. True, i still didn’t won, so maybe one has to keep a balance and try to do everything. But when you are not able to complete just one traveling task, it is not allowing to get full satisfaction from a game. And the other parts (action selection, orders fulfillment) are fun. That’s why it gets a higher rating. But every session i’ve played felt too short. 7/10

Inventor of Jenga [LT-EN]

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[LT] Jenga, kaip ir Monopolija, yra žinomas visame pasaulyje žaidimas. Bet turbūt mažai kas žino, ką reiškia žodis Jenga. O pasirodo swahili kalboje tai reiškia – stato. Įdomus interviu su šio žaidimo kūrėja, apie tai kaip jai teko kovoti su leidėjas dėl jai patikusio pavadinimo ir kaip neįtikėtinai jai dabar atrodo toks šio žaidimo žinomumas ir populiarumas.

[EN] Jenga, same as Monopoly, is a game known in the whole world. But not many know what word Jenga actually means. In swahili language it means – build. An interesting interview with the inventor of this game, about her struggle with publishers because of the name she liked and how incredible game’s popularity looks to her today.

/top10: Best MP games for 2 players [EN]

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bgames-popuri

As i often play games with two (live or on BGA/Yucata sites), even when a game is meant for larger count of players, i’ve decided to share a list of my best games meant for larger number of players which can be played with two. Most often i play with two because of a faster gameplay. Because when playing on the Internet it already takes very long as you take a turn or few per day. So this way you are not forgetting what you were going to do in the game, your turns come faster. Also, some games, in my opinion, have too much chaos and luck when playing with larger count of players.

 

10. Firenze

I often play this game with three. But it is also much fun with two. There is still plenty of space for competition with a fewer count of players. Also, when you only have one opponent you can have some long-term strategies without fearing, that someone will grab the card you need or take the spot you want on a tower.

 

9. The Palaces of Carrara

Same as with Firenze, this game is well enough with 3 players, but when you play with two there is a wider strategic space. Also the game lasts a bit longer and you manage to build more buildings, while when playing with three the game often ends unexpectedly.

 

8. Voluspa

The game is interesting enough with 3 players as well, because you can always have a better turn while two others fight with each other. But this game is very simple and fast, so in general i tend to want to play it with only two. Then it gives a feeling like you are playing chess or a similar game.

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/top10: Best games (v.2015) [EN]

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bgames-popuriAs this year approaches its end i’m presenting my list of best games at this moment. This is not a list of best games released or played this year, but best games for my taste to this day (year of 2015). Of course, there are still a few days to try something new and very impressive. Also, i’m currently on my second play through of a new game, which in theory has chances getting on this list. But, maybe it will get lucky next year 🙂

 

10. Race for the Galaxy

One of the best card games where cards work as resources and also as buildings/technologies and as war force. Although the new dice game “Roll for the Galaxy” is getting lots of raving ratings lately, until i have played it “Race..” is still the best for me.

 

9. Cacao

Released this year. Very simple. Very addictive and hella good looking.

 

8. Summoner Wars

One of the best tactical games for two players, which doesn’t take half a day.

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Board Game Mini Reviews [EN]

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bgames-popuriIt’s time to post about 3 more games which i had an opportunity to try out recently.

La Isla

I’ve seen a video review of this game recently. It seemed simple and kind of interesting. I’ve read the rules and decided to give it a try on Yucata. And.. didn’t like it much. It just has too much choices and the game itself felt a bit dry and “mathy”. When you are choosing which card of 3 to use for what purpose you have to to go through the whole map, and evaluate where you can use it most effectively. And as there are also 3 phases where you can use a card, brain burning process intensifies even more. Same as with Helios game, this one is too heavyweight and you don’t enjoy it while playing, but it feels like you are solving a hard mathematic exercise. 6/10

Port Royal

This game was available on Yucata for a long time, but i’ve decided to try it only after seeing a video review by Tom Vasel. I’ve started playing it even without reading the rules. That’s how simple this game is. Money, special abilities and victory points, everything is in a single cards deck. The game is of “push your luck” type, when you are revealing card by card and hoping that bad card won’t come up and you will manage to gather more money or get some good character or a lot of points. But the risk grows with every revealed card and you have to weight it. Although there are ways to mitigate this risk, but the game felt too much depending on luck. So, after playing more sessions of this game i’ve ranked it one point lower than at first. 6/10

Cacao

After just seeing first pictures of this game, first review, i thought, i must like this game. I have played 3 sessions of it so far, but impression is good so far. It reminds Carcassonne a bit with tiles laying on the table (although there is no puzzle mechanism in this game). But the game is very different of course. And very simple. It will suit families and those, who is doing their first steps in the modern board games world. You lay your workers tiles next to already laying tiles on the table and try to gather more resources or sell for the highest price ones you already have. There are also a few other options to score points, which you shouldn’t overlook. So far i have a hard time winning in this game (i haven’t figured out what is the best balance between different points scoring strategies), but scores are usually very tight by the end of the game. 8/10