This type of game play is something I prefer now that I am older instead of the "race to the end" type of game I played a lot of as a kid.

A lot of the games I played as a kid were race to the end types of games, these were especially fun with my brother -- we were super competitive.

I definitely feel intimidated going into this, but also excited to learn how to create a game and see what I come up with.

When developers are creating a new game is this something that they already have in mind or will this slowly come together through the process of developing the game?

Among Us is a really fun "traitor" game, where there are several cremates, and 1-2 "imposters". The cremates move around the ship completing tasks to get home safely, while the imposters move around trying to sabotage the tasks or take out the cremates. The better part is that no one knows who the imposters are, except the imposters. During discussion after a body has been found and players are discussing potential culprits, the imposters can work together to vouch for each other's validity as a cremate, or they could throw the other under the bus. It is very interesting to see how different friend groups play this so differently.

When my husband and I play overcooked we are constantly talking back and forth. If the level doesn't go how we like or we want to challenge ourselves we will work out a strategy together and test it in the next round. This usually pays off (we actually beat the level or get 3 stars) versus times when we just yell orders at each other.

Most likely, from past experience I'm more inclined to say "yes" to this rhetorical question. Especially if the friend or sibling they came with is still in the game and they are "stuck" in the room.

This reminds me of Catan or Risk, those games definitely have niche players that enjoy to be challenged rather than those kids that state they "don't like to think" when playing games.

This is a good thing to keep in mind, especially when planning games, keeping in mind the background knowledge of the kids can help guide the decision on which games to pick. If I were choosing for my current group of kids, I would probably choose the game that uses the die to determine speed instead of the other game.

Yes, I dislike games like Monopoly or Yahtzee because it is all luck of your roll - there's no skill involved, so when I'm losing but it isn't because I am bad at the game is frustrating. It's frustrating because there is nothing I can do to change the outcome of me losing. (this eventually leads to arguments with friends or family that happen to be winning)

I have definitely had several arguments with friends and family that there is no real strategy to Monopoly because it is luck based, I definitely agree with this statement.

I had never thought about this until falling in love with Stardew and learning everything I absolutely could about the game and designer. I will now (probably for the rest of my life or until I lose interest in playing games) follow Eric Barone's career. I'm curious if I'll recognize some of the "designer games" this article is talking about though.

It will be interesting to see if others try to replicate his approach and if it is easy to duplicate for other players.

This is exactly how I feel about reading this article!

The fact that anyone was able to memorize an entire dictionary in a different language in 9 weeks is amazing.

I really enjoy the Stardew subreddit group, it is where I learned a lot of the games "Easter eggs" and it's always fun to see how others play the same game but differently.

Going back to my Ghost of Tsushima comment, this game allows players to clear out an enemy camp using various different methods. You can use your Ghost tools to sneak through the camp killing the enemies one by one in a sneak-attack type of way. OR you can call out to the entire enemy camp and attack them head on using different sword stances that you learn throughout the game. You can also use a combination of both of these, which I typically do, where I go around the perimeter and Ghost kill the people defending the camp in the towers and at the gates, and then call out the remaining enemies and fight them head on. You have to know the different combinations available, and utilize the button combinations correctly when interacting with enemies.

I am totally this person, this made me chuckle.

I personally am so glad that a lot of platforms have auto-save options now. I have had my dreams and efforts crushed too many times in vain.

A really good example of a game that utilizes the controller, in my opinion, is Ghost of Tsushima. The game offers different attacks and counter-attacks with different button combinations. To me it has been one game that I have played in a long time where I feel like I actually use the controller. You can tell the developers really thought about how to give the player an authentic battle sequence through button combinations.

This is probably silly, but this reminds me how I feel when trying to do simple math in my head. When I was going through grade school and learning multiplication tables, we were basically taught to memorize the table, so I am really good at multiplication within the realm of that table, but when you start asking me what 13x14 is I have to pause and really think about it. This reminds me a lot of how I feel in that situation.

This is really nice to be able to put a term to something that I have experienced first hand. When I was growing up I was super into Pokemon, as were a lot of my friends and other kids at school. We had a Pokemon club where we could play or trade cards, it was legit. This was totally an affinity group -- we traded cards, tips on playing the game, etc.

I think this is why patrons get confused when I use jargon related to my profession in librarianship. An example is when talking about an item in circulation, and they had no idea what that meant in the context of the library. It seemed so obvious to me that I never even thought that people not soaked in this world would correlate what it means for an item to circulate.

This is very similar to the idea that a lot of people have toward audiobooks in that it is not considered "real reading" because one is not physically reading a book but instead listening. It is still reading, even though the format is different.

I think this is very important. An example that comes to mind is learning to drive and being able to read road signs and determine what they mean. I remember struggling so hard remembering what the divided highway sign looked like (I am originally from a super small town and I had never seen a divided highway sign). Because I didn't have the background knowledge of seeing this sign on the road while riding in a car growing up, I struggled trying to remember what it looked like when it came time to take my permit test.

You would be surprised at the amount of parents that come into the library and dismiss graphic novels/comic books because of the format. I really like to offer these as options to kids that are reluctant readers. Just because there are a lot of bright action-packed illustrations doesn't mean the kids aren't reading!

I would also like to add that memes, emojis, and GIFs are also forms of visual literacy. (Which is kind of cool to think about)

I am really excited about this, definitely the coolest/most interesting "final" I've ever done.