Messages

1

Happy Meeple community / Re: Final Day Heads up and Thanks for Everything

« on: 06/12/24, 03:54pm »

Thanks for everything guys! Wish there was a way to preserve this and keep it going but I understand. Is there anyway you could let us know a date for final day so we can all gather one last time?

I don't know exactly, I am sorry. Between 15th and 20th December most likely.

2

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 29/11/24, 04:39pm »

Jimmy, I find it quite riddling why you never really answered the questions if there is any possibility HM could be sold or given away to another owner to maintain it. A simple "no" would do, or if it's a "yes" many of us would love to know your conditions and difficulties for such a deal. Even if HM members might lack finances/skills to do the job, we all know people and if we had any idea what the terms of such transfer would be (technically and money wise) we could look for a buyer. For instance I have friends working in gaming industry and their employers could be interested, but for now all we could tell them would be "They said in the HM inn 10 000 000 sounds good"  I feel some stubbornness going on, like "I'm not about to maintain it anymore, you all get over it", but even having full understanding of your own right to drop your project I'm curious about the reasons for not wanting to give it to anyone else at any circumstances:)

Kcekce.

I made my decision indeed.

I expected people to ask whether there was a way to make it work. When a community like HM is about to "die", there is always a lot of willingness to help, give money, etc. But actually making it work in the long term is another level. It is very hard. Especially when the main developer has gone to other projects.

This does not mean that I should not have tried to ask what you all thought a while ago. I always felt the odds of anything really meaningful coming out of it were slim. But I should still have tried, that's for sure. I said it earlier in the post, I think. My apologies for that.

Projects are a wonderful thing when you are building them and hoping to grow. They become a burden when you are on to the next thing and you still have to work on the old one. At least, that's the case for me. I have had that feeling many times already in my life. Maybe other people are different.

I honestly did not think there was much hope, given the size of our community, that it would be of interest to anyone. I contacted BGA though, thinking it was the best hope and indeed something was possible in the end. But I am still doubtful that there was any other serious possibility. In the last 12 years, no one in the board gaming community has really noticed Happy Meeple, so I really doubt anyone would have been interested in doing something with it.

I hope this answers your questions. More or less.

3

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 26/11/24, 05:43pm »

So Jimmy (or Nicolas), do you have any tips for the AI?
I'm trying to rebuild some games just for fun.

That's too general a question. You may want to contact me directly.
I think I wrote an article about the AI somewhere. On Boardgamegeek or in this forum maybe. Very general.

I know it's very general.
I'm new to explicitly creating some AI, but I know some general things about math, physics, informatics, statistics, web development, computer achitectures, administration and model building as I studied math, went over to physics for a short time and now cumulated in computational science where I'm currently writing my Master's thesis.
Furthermore, I'm interested in such things for a long time and started programming 25 years ago at the age of 8 and stick to the computer since then.

So I'll give it a try.
Maybe you could give me some general hints about common errors or good practice. Or some clue about promising strategies.

I'm sure I'll run into some errors and will learn from them but it might be more motivating if I can ask some luminary. So may I ask you even beyond the end of Happy Meeple? I'm not angry if you deny but I would appreciate.


Last but not least in my wish list: As you created Raging Bulls, may I use your concept for non commercial use? Just your concept, no graphics, sounds or anything.
When I have enough time, I'd like to recreate something looking partly similar (well, I'm no graphics guy...) to raging bulls for the people here who liked it.

Get in touch via contact@happymeeple.com please.

4

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 25/11/24, 08:44pm »

If you already had a BGA account before and followed the link that was given on the forum, did you manage to see the 1-month offer there? Or did you get a message saying the link did not work? If you have had difficulties, please give me your BGA username so that I can investigate with them.
One player said it has not worked and I have not managed to get in touch with him to get to the bottom of it (by email).
Thanks for your help!

5

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 25/11/24, 02:56pm »

So Jimmy (or Nicolas), do you have any tips for the AI?
I'm trying to rebuild some games just for fun.

That's too general a question. You may want to contact me directly.
I think I wrote an article about the AI somewhere. On Boardgamegeek or in this forum maybe. Very general.

6

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 25/11/24, 02:49pm »

Hi Jimmy/Nicolas/Roitelet- I echo all the sentiments above and want to express my gratitude to you for sharing your multiple talents in creating this space. I've enjoyed the puns and will miss starting the Beauty and the Beast song whenever there are 5 Bonjour!'s in a row in chat. Anyways, do you have any public facing projects we can support or visit?  Or causes that you would want good vibes directed to? -Much thanks!

Not really no. Thanks for asking!
I'd be very happy if the "Happy Meeple players" group started to liven up a bit. So if you want to contribute, by organizing something (tournament, game discovery, discussion with the BGA team...), you are more than welcome. There is not much traction there yet. That would make me happy.

7

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 24/11/24, 11:54am »

I am myself an artist and designer and I particularly loved the design of Happy Meeple: it’s intuitive, simple, welcoming, cute and have this neo-retro style I love so much !
As we say : “less is more”.. that is an esthetic for ever.
In a lot of creation field, many people have bad taste, and it’s necessary to let go some critics

As you are an artist and designer, I appreciate your thoughts on the matter more than a random person. It is important to me and makes me think.
I am not emotionally attached to my creation and my ego is not bruised if people don't like what I do. I know many creators take it personally when their baby is criticized. It is a common issue that can be quite depressing and it is normal after you instead a lot of time on a major project. I don't think I suffer from that.
In terms of design, I don't consider myself too bad but I also know that I am not a pro. So I oscillate between thinking that what I do looks good and the opposite when several critics basically say the same thing. I read several times about the 2000 feel and it would have been foolish to ignore it. There is truth to it obviously. Now maybe it was an asset rather than a liability. Maybe it meant retro rather than outdated. I felt it meant outdated, that's for sure.

8

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 24/11/24, 11:41am »

ich kann mich nicht bei BGA registrieren er nimmt meinen Benutzernamen nicht an könnte mir jemand schreiben wie es geht? habe den link benutzt aber ich bekomme bei Benutzername immer nur einen roten Balken

Probably someone has already taken your username (BGA has 10 million users!).
Please try another username if you have not already done it.

9

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 23/11/24, 06:26pm »

...the cosy family atmosphere that could be found here.
Daft, really, to feel so attached to something so abstract. But it's a testament to what a damn good site this has been.

I am semi-surprised to read so many of you saying something similar. I knew there were many players attached to the platform, coming daily, etc. I read many positive comments in the chat. However, I cannot remember any glowing review of the platform. To be honest, there have been very few reviews and I initiated most of them. I don't remember reading an article or even a post saying "Wow Happy Meeple is wonderful, you must try it, it's so good, so special". As a result, an organic growth was difficult.

This doesn't explain everything. I am sure that the lack of blockbuster games (although we had Lost Cities and Cartographers) and the small number of games did not help (the platform mainly grew when we added games). And I guess that what most of you found great about the platform was not liked so much by the others who tried the platform. Another assumption I have is that because we offered bots and 2-player games only, players did not really need to invite their friends to the platform. Paradoxically, the design of the platform, aiming to solve the critical mass issue and thus allowing to play quickly even if there were not many people available may have hindered the growth.

A few times, I had the idea to ask the community to communicate. I think that's the thing that would have been most helpful. Maybe a challenge like "let's get to from 400 to 600 daily players together by whatever means" would have been embraced by the community and yield results. I don't know. A community can sometimes build incredible things. My bad for not trying to unleash your obvious potential.

There are many things that could have been tried, but many of them were hard to put in place. One of them was to change the food system. But then what to do with the world, the granaries, the wheat wield, the roads? It would have required a lot of changes for a very uncertain gain. Opening the platform to multiplayer games (3+ players) was another idea, but required a major rewriting of the platform too. Maybe develop more complex games?

As has been written here in various forms, it is very likely that the design choice of the platform gave it a particular feel and that that particular feel could only please certain kind of people. Hence a niche product with little financial viability. It is all conjecture obviously. We'll never know.

I have to agree that you were a great community. People fight everywhere online nowadays. And not only on X. You were incredibly easy to deal with. Yes, we were quick to get rid of aggressive people and unacceptable behaviour, but honestly we did not have much to do on that side. So all I can conclude again is that the design of the platform attracted a particular set of people.

Please join the "Happy Meeple Players" group on Board Game Arena and let's try to recreate that bubble. Anyone wants to organize a tournament? Or something similar? The group has a "messaging system", so it's easy to communicate between members.

Finally, you should absolutely know that I am absolutely convinced that Board Game Arena has grown thanks to its community. It would not be nowhere near what it is now if it had not relied heavily on its volunteers to code new games, write tutorials or translate the games in many many languages.

10

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 23/11/24, 01:53pm »

I would very much like to join the “Happy Meeple players” group on Board Game Arena. Unfortunately, I can't get the referal link to work. Clicking it (while logged on to BGA) yields the following message for me: "The referral has not been registered (it may have already been registered, or the link may have expired)". You said the link would be valid until November 2025, so why is it not working for me? (No, I was never a premium member there.) Anyway, I'll definitely look for the group and try to join it manually!

I have asked BGA to investigate and will come back to you. Maybe logging out of BGA first will do the trick. I'll let you know.

11

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 22/11/24, 11:16pm »

Please note.
After the platform closure, the website happymeeple.com will display for a while the text published her.
So if you forgot the Board Game Arena link, you should be able to find it by visiting happymeeple.com again.

12

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 22/11/24, 11:10pm »

i will finish on positive note : it has always a pleasure ton play on happy meeple. it's cute, people are nice, the meta game is a good idea (game within the game : build a village to produce food to be able to play : wow), the training mode is perfect.

if BGA editors can steal some idea and implement in their platform , would be great. if BGA is a factory or an industry, happy meeple was that local shop you are attached to.

I like your final word very much. Great touch!!! Many thanks for that! I'll keep that with me for sure.

13

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 22/11/24, 12:01pm »

I am sorry that so many of you are angry at me for not letting you know about the situation ahead of time. Of course, that was an option I considered. I honestly think that there was very little chance that a viable solution could come up. The problem was not only a problem of money, it was also a complex technical problem.

Many of you compare BGA and Happy Meeple, saying HM was more cozy, etc. Of course, that's what you think as many of you decided to go to HM rather than BGA. Over the years though, I heard quite a few (honest) people tell me that HM felt outdated (like a website from 2000). Not being a design guy, I failed to understand what was exactly wrong and how to correct it but I was pretty certain that they were right. It was probably simple things like shadows and rounded corners, or the font. But I never really delved into the issue.

Regarding BGA criticism, I think you are being too harsh. I created a test account a few days ago and was quite impressed with the way they were explaining new players what the options were and what they exactly meant. I think they did a fantastic job on that. I have also played quite a few games on BGA myself and was also impressed with many of their tutorials. To be honest, I was always proud of my tutorials here and felt a bit disappointed that they had managed to do a good job at that too. For a long time, HM was the only platform with tutorials. People who really know the game and love it decide to take on the task of designing these tutorials and that's probably why they are so good. I should add that in the last few years, it is noticeable that they hired designers. The last iteration of the platform is really neat and is a noticeable improvement on the previous years, and even on last year.

BGA offers many more options than HM. We always kept things standardised here, not offering any game variant for example. BGA lets you play with more than 2 players. It also offers asynchronous (turn by turn) play which is a more relaxed way of playing (for example, one move per day) than real-time play. They offer game variants. Most importantly they let you play blockbusters like Ticket To Ride or Catan.

So please be patient with BGA, they have a lot to offer. And the interface is not as daunting as it may seem especially after they improved it so much.

Finally, let me suggest you a few games that Happy Meeple players may particularly like. Most are quick-playing:
 
- Ticket To Ride (a must)
- Can't Stop (Push your luck that I should have put on HM but stupidly discarded)
- On Tour (another contender for HM)
- Patchwork (best-seller)
- Welcome (best-seller, Flip and Write, excellent)
- Splendor (best-seller, engine building)
- Chakra (could have been on HM)
- Azul (best-seller)
- Forest Shuffle (excellent but a slightly more complex)
- Sea Salt & Paper
- Lucky Numbers (simple like Finito)
- Kingdomino (best-seller, simple rules)
- Faraway (new and good, award-winning, quick engine-building)
- Akropolis (award-winning)
- Jaipur (quite good, mid complexity)
- Century spice road (quick engine-building)
- Diamant (oldie but goodie, good with many people)

I will update this list as new suggestions come up.

14

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 22/11/24, 11:03am »

I 

Edit: Oops, I did not want this to be posted as is. 

15

Happy Meeple community / Re: Bad news - Good news

« on: 21/11/24, 11:36pm »

Thanks for your nice words. It goes to my heart.

To answer some of your questions:

1) The association with the group "Happy Meeple Players" is not done 100% automatically. Someone has to run a script for that to happen and they planned to do it from time to time. I have asked (a bit late) if they could automate it, like every 10 minutes or 1 hour. I am still waiting for an answer. I don't see why it could not be done. So hopefully, it will work better soon.
You can also join it directly here: https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=17167668

2) Level X is known as "Mountain Goats" on Board Game Arena. That's its new name. Same rules I think but different layout/theme. And you can play with more players on Board Game Arena.

3) Yes I am French 

4) You can discuss things in the BGA group. Maybe that's the best place to coordinate an action to ask the platform to develop a game you love. Their process, as far as I know, is to get a license first, and then ask if one of their (voluntary) developer is interested in coding the game.