#kongai

[kong-ai]

Meet Your 24/7 AI Chatbot Agent! Ready to handle customer inquiries anytime, anywhere! I’m here to help you deliver instant support across your Website, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Email—whether through text or voice responses. https://kong.ai/ai-agents/chatbot

[andamanenseethailand2018]

Von Koh Lanta mit dem Longtail Boot nach Koh Chuek, Koh Mook, Koh Maa und Ko Ngai (wie schön bist du denn!?) und zurück.

Viel geschnorchelt - u.a. Clownsfische gesehen.

Durch eine 80 m lange und dunkle Höhle bei ordentlich Wellengang geschwommen und am Ende eine versteckte Bucht gefunden, die Piraten einst dazu diente, ihre Schätze zu verwahren. Ihr kleiner Strand war umgeben von Steilklippen, die dicht bewachsen waren. Affen hangelten sich die Lianen hoch und riesige Schmetterlinge flogen von Ast zu Ast. 😍

Die schaukelige Fahrt in unserer kleinen Nussschale bei den Wellen hat auch super Spaß gemacht.

Ein toller Tag.

[barindoma]

Ko Ngai island, Thailand #thailand #kongai #thai #longtailboat #landscape #andreymalykh #trang #sea (at Ko Ngai)

[andreaht-blog]

Så tenner vi tre lys i kveld... #thaidalsjul #thailand #advent #kohngai #kongai (ved Thanya Resort)

[rawketlawncher]

Forgotten Realm: Kongai

Kongai is Kongregate‘s online collectible card game, which was once full of players but now is the undead king of all undead games that were once popular. As a semi-regular Kongai player, I felt the need to write a little bit about it.

Kongai started its life around 2008, as the Kongregate‘s definitive -or defining- game. It served as a purpose to make more use of the features that the site has -mainly achievements-. The idea was simple and effective, players could win cards by playing other games and earning achievements in those games. Then, after collecting a bunch, they could make online matches against other players.

There are also other ways to get cards, like winning online matches or buying them with “Kreds” (The virtual currency used at Kongregate). You also have a chance to choose 3 starter cards that you can keep. Some cards are character cards that fight and some are item cards that help your character cards with damage and other abilities. You have a deck builder where you can arrange a 3-card or 5-card deck, as Kongai has 3vs3 card or 5vs5 card matches. It also has a nice skill-matching system to prevent high profile players to abuse the newcomers or lower ranked players.

If you want to learn more about how the game was conceptualized, check this article by Sirlin. The game has “easy to pick up and play but hard to master” qualities. The damage system is fairly simple and nearly all cards are balanced well. There are no overpowered cards that win against every other card, but there are card match-ups that can be unlucky for either side. Kongai is more about building a good deck and strategy to go along with it.

There is a thing -a very important one- to consider while playing. You have to guess the opponents next move and you should play accordingly. It is generally referred to as “Yomi”. If you ignore your opponent, s/he may read your moves and guess what your next move would be and may change her/his strategy to counter yours. There are times when actual luck might decide a match, but that happens very rarely.

You can have a look at the Kongai Wiki and learn the details about the game. Kongai has a practice mode against the computer to get you familiarized with the gameplay and when you think you are ready for facing others, pay attention to how people react to certain situations and gain experience. Once you get how to read the opponent, you can start to stack some wins.

Unfortunately, Kongregate does not seem to care about Kongai as much as they used to and although the game is not completely dead, it is near dead with less than 10 players online on average during the day. It used to be much more. You can check my profile at Kongregate and if you see me online, hit me up and I may help you with gameplay and Yomi.

[designroulette]

Resource of the Week: Sirlin.net

Easygoing. Compromising. Humble.

None of these words describe David Sirlin, game designer and world-class Street Fighter. Sirlin can be a controversial figure, and he doesn’t tolerate fools (say something asinine or belligerent in the comments on his site, and he won’t hesitate to tell you to get the hell out), but the man has a ton of experience with balancing video games, both as a designer and as some who regularly placed at EVO, the Olympics of fighting games.

Sirlin’s a smart guy and good writer, and his breakdown of the decision-making process for the games he’s worked on lead to quite a number of “shocking insights,” as his title banner used to proclaim.  Specifically, he’s heavily interested and invested in what he calls “asymmetrical design,” or making a game fair and fun to play when each side has different starting advantages and disadvantages.  Among his balancing projects are Kongai (which unfortunately seems to be dead these days), Puzzle Fighter HD, Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix, and Puzzle Strike, all of which exhibit his “balance in asymmetry” philosophy.

Sirlin also has a lot to say about “playing to win.”  He points out the fallacy of not using every resource allowed in the rules to win, and also advocates rewriting rules that are vague or counterproductive to this attitude. Basically, if strategy works but is actively not being used because it’s “cheap” or “unfair,” either the player community needs to adapt, or the rules need to be clarified to eliminate this behavior. A lot of exploits in games would be removed more quickly if devs assumed that anything not explicitly covered by the rules will be used to a smart player’s advantage.

He also attends a lot of developer conferences, and reading over his summaries and reactions are often equally enlightening.  Sometimes I feel like I’m getting all the content from a talk on the cheap from his site, as his recall of the content is extraordinary.

Any developer or fan of game design, especially PvP, should take a look.

Sample posts:

http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2012/8/1/playing-to-win-in-badminton.html http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2012/3/7/gdc-2012-day-1.html http://www.sirlin.net/articles/street-fighter-hd-remix-zangief.html