{"id":2583,"date":"2013-11-01T20:39:34","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T20:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/?p=2583"},"modified":"2017-01-24T20:22:53","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T20:22:53","slug":"space-station-argo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/blog\/2013\/11\/01\/space-station-argo\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Station Argo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1391853_10151961329419884_281470204_n\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Vous vous r\u00e9veillez dans les pods d\u2019une salle d\u2019hibernation qui ne semble pas tout \u00e0 fait celle dans laquelle, quelques semaines ou quelques ann\u00e9es plus t\u00f4t, vous avez \u00e9t\u00e9 endormis. Vos camarades des autres \u00e9quipes devant participer \u00e0 la construction de la nouvelle station spatiale internationale se r\u00e9veillent \u00e0 vos c\u00f4t\u00e9s. Vous ouvrez paresseusement vos yeux quand soudain des lumi\u00e8res rouges se mettent \u00e0 clignoter et une voix m\u00e9tallique annonce \u00abpr\u00e9sence extra-terrestre d\u00e9tect\u00e9e, pr\u00e9parez-vous \u00e0 \u00e9vacuer la station, autodestruction dans GRRRZZZZRRR minutes\u00bb.<\/p>\n

Space Station Argo – il s\u2019appellera sans doute autrement – est un projet d\u00e9j\u00e0 ancien, dont Serge et moi avons r\u00e9alis\u00e9 la premi\u00e8re version en…. je ne sais plus bien quand, vers 2003 ou 2004. Peu apr\u00e8s, nous avions sign\u00e9 un contrat d\u2019\u00e9dition chez Fantasy Flight Games, qui nous avait demand\u00e9 d\u2019apporter au jeu quelques modifications, qui l\u2019avaient un peu complexifi\u00e9. Et puis, apr\u00e8s deux ans d\u2019attente, Fantasy Flight a finalement renonc\u00e9 \u00e0 publier le jeu, nous avons conserv\u00e9 notre modeste avance et repris nos droits. Depuis, nous l\u2019avions un peu retravaill\u00e9, et finalement en 2013, ce jeu a suscit\u00e9 l\u2019int\u00e9r\u00eat d\u2019un autre \u00e9diteur, Flatlined Games<\/a>, qui devrait le publier en 2014. Flatlined Games est un petit \u00e9diteur belge, une entreprise individuelle men\u00e9e par \u00c9ric Hanuise, qui a publi\u00e9 l\u2019excellent Rumble in the House, de Ken Rush, et, plus r\u00e9cemment, Twin Tin Bots, jeu de programmation de Philippe Keyaerts.<\/p>\n

Cette fois, il nous a fallu simplifier le jeu, mais ce ne fut en rien un simple retour en arri\u00e8re. La plupart des ajouts demand\u00e9s par Fantasy Flight, et notamment l\u2019individualisation des personnages, ont en effet \u00e9t\u00e9 conserv\u00e9s, mais Eric Hanuise a souhait\u00e9 acc\u00e9l\u00e9rer le d\u00e9roulement des parties et all\u00e9ger les r\u00e8gles. Ce sont donc la structure des modules de la station spatiale, qui ne sont plus divis\u00e9s en cases, et les r\u00e8gles de d\u00e9placement, qui ont \u00e9t\u00e9 modifi\u00e9es. Les modules sont aussi moins nombreux et leurs effets ont un peu chang\u00e9. Les aliens, qui ne pouvaient appara\u00eetre que dans l\u2019un de leurs quatre nids, sont d\u00e9sormais susceptibles de se mat\u00e9rialiser un peu n\u2019importe ou dans la station. Ils peuvent m\u00eame remporter la partie si les joueurs les y aident un peu en poussant les astronautes adverses dans leurs bras, ou dans un t\u00e9l\u00e9porteur en d\u00e9rangement. Et nous continuons \u00e0 bricoler un peu le prototype pour rendre les choses plus simples, plus m\u00e9chantes et plus dr\u00f4les encore.<\/p>\n

Flatlined est un petit \u00e9diteur, aux moyens limit\u00e9s, et la publication d\u2019Argo aura vraisemblablement recours, selon la mode actuelle, au \u00abfinancement participatif\u00bb sur Kickstarter ou Ulule. Apr\u00e8s l\u2019exp\u00e9rience un peu d\u00e9sagr\u00e9able de Formula E, je m\u2019\u00e9tais promis de ne plus avoir de jeu publi\u00e9 selon ce syst\u00e8me, mais il semble trop se r\u00e9pandre pour qu\u2019il soit possible d\u2019y \u00e9chapper. D\u2019ailleurs, je continue moi-m\u00eame \u00e0 l\u2019encourager en \u00abpledgeant\u00bb r\u00e9guli\u00e8rement des jeux qui m\u2019attirent (le dernier, il y a quelques jours, \u00e9tait l’excellent Two Rooms and a Boom<\/a>), et je continue \u00e0 penser que le principe est excellent. Il est juste psychologiquement beaucoup plus confortable pour le souscripteur que pour l\u2019auteur, et sans doute que pour l\u2019\u00e9diteur.<\/p>\n

\n

\"argo2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019re waking up from the hibernation pods. The hibernation room doesn\u2019t look like the one in which you were being sent to sleep. In the nearby pods, your comrades from the other national teams that are to help you build build the new international space station are also slowly emerging from their pods. You\u2019re eyes are not yet completely open when alarms start flashing red and a metallic voice shouts from the loudspeakers \u00ab alien presence detected, evacuation in progress, self destruction in GRRRRZZZRRRRR minutes\u00bb. <\/em><\/p>\n

Space Station Argo – it will probably have some other name – is an old game design by Serge Laget and I. We made the first version of it in 2003 or 2004. Soon after this, we signed a publishing contract with Fantasy Flight Games, which asked us to make some change to the game rules, mostly adding more variety and making it a bit more complex. Then, after two years, Fantasy Flight finally resigned, we got our rights back and kept our modest advance. Since then, we had regularly worked on it, trying to find a new publisher. It will finally be Flatlined games<\/a>. Flatlined Games is a small Belgian publisher, the one person company of Eric Hanuise, who has published Ken Rush\u2019s outstanding Rumble in the House, and more recently Philippe Keyaert\u2019s programming board game Twin Tin Bots.<\/em><\/p>\n

This time, we had to make the game simpler, but it wasn\u2019t just moving back to our original version. Most of the changes initiated by Fantasy Flight, and first of all the different abilities of characters, are still there, but Philippe wanted to make the game faster and the rules simpler and more consistent. This was achieved through lots of changes, some minor, some more important. The station\u2019s modules are no more divided in spaces, and the movement rules have been completely revamped. There are fewer modules, and their effects have sometimes changed. Aliens, which could appear only in one of their four nests, can now materialize almost anywhere in the station. They can even win the game if the players help them a bit, pushing opponents astronauts towards them or into dysfunctional teleporters. And we’re still working on the prototype to make the game even more fun, simple and nasty.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Flatlined is a small publisher, with limited means, and Argo will probably be published using crowdfunding, as is becoming more and more usual. I didn\u2019t like my first experience of this, with Formula E, but it looks like it\u2019s becoming impossible to always avoid it. Furthermore, if I didn\u2019t like it as an author, I like it as a gamer and still regularly pledge for games that look interesting (the last being the outstanding Two Rooms and a Boom<\/a>, a few days ago). It\u2019s just psychologically much more comfortable for the pledger than it is for the designer or for the publisher.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"flatlined\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vous vous r\u00e9veillez dans les pods d\u2019une salle d\u2019hibernation qui ne semble pas tout \u00e0 fait celle dans laquelle, quelques semaines ou quelques ann\u00e9es plus t\u00f4t, vous avez \u00e9t\u00e9 endormis. Vos camarades des autres \u00e9quipes devant participer \u00e0 la construction … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[298],"tags":[269,313,236,61],"class_list":["post-2583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-argo","tag-argo","tag-flatlined-games","tag-science-fiction","tag-serge-laget"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2HNOP-FF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2583"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6753,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583\/revisions\/6753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}