Contrasting Maigret on screen and on page

 My exploration of Maigret expanded into watching one of the adaptations. Over the last few weeks, I watched the first ‘episode’ of ITV’s 2016 adaptation, as well as reading The Night in the Crossroads. 

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Okay. Let’s be real. I watched that version because it had Rowan Atkinson as Maigret and I had to see that. Beyond only being known for his comedic work (in fact, I read this was his first serious role in a career that started in 1978. I have no idea if that’s true), he is the physical opposite of Maigret. 

I also use the word episode with quotes because each of the four episodes was movie length.

My reactions were mixed. I actually felt Atkinson did a strong job as Maigret. However, I felt that it took what was already one of the more melodramatic books I’ve read in the series (don’t get me wrong, I loved Maigret Sets A Trap) and made it much more melodramatic.

I feel that Simenon had a lowkey approach, that he undersold drama to make it more powerful. There is a grounded element to the books that I felt was lost in the TV show. Maybe that’s an inevitable difference between mediums.

As for The Night at the Crossroads, I think it’s one of the shortest of the series I’ve read. I tore through it in a couple of sittings. I had felt a little off Maigret after the the TV show but this book got me back in track.

A man is found murdered in a car that belongs to someone else and that car is in the garage of another somebody else. And it all takes place in a rural crossroads where there are only three houses.

Remember how I talked about melodrama? There are elements of that going on but Maigret himself notes them and he knows something is off.

And when the reveal is pulled off, it turns out that the melodrama was all just an act. More than that, just about every suspect turns out to have been in on the murder, as well as other crimes. Simenon grounds us and makes it satisfying, not feel like a cheat.

Maybe I should just stick to the books or maybe I just tried the wrong TV version. But, at the moment, I feel like sticking to just reading the books.

61 feullies d’automne, a game designed for charity, a game designed for everyone

61 feullies d’automne or 61 Autumn Leaves is a Roll and Write that was created as a charity game for the French non-for-profit Accessijeux which promotes assessable gaming. It is part of four games made for Accessijeux, each themed around one of the seasons. 

The artwork has since been released into the wild. Since it’s a one-sheet R&W, that means the game is now a free download and there’s even a low-ink version. For those of us who speak French very badly, there are fan translations of the rules. A special shoutout to Benjamin Cronshaw who provided translations for all the games.

61 Autumn Leaves is a multi-player Roll and Write solitaire, meaning that, technically, the number of player sheets you have on hand is the player limit. You do get a bonus for completing a section first so playing with a 100 people might be tricky.

I will also note that the artwork is lovely and thematic. Which is good because the artwork is the only thematic element. Nice warm colors and fall images. The artwork definitely sells you on playing the game.

The play sheet consists of the six mini games, one for each pip of the die, and a leaf track. Each turn, three dice get rolled. You use one to pick a mini game, one to use in that game and one to add to the leaf track.

Each of the mini games is pretty simple, with almost all of them being either filling in numbers that are either all identical or all different. You earn points by completing steps in the mini games and the first person to complete each mini game gets by bonus points.

I find the leaf track to be the most Interesting part of the game. It is cumulative, meaning each turn you add to the total. And if you get exactly 11, 21, 31, 41, 51 or 61, you either get a wild number to add to a mini game or bonus points.

The game ends when either someone hits or exceeds 61 on the leaf track or there have been twenty turns (which is also the end of the leaf track) Most points wins.

The structure of 61 Autumn Leaves is one that I’ve seen before. For instance, the Dark Imp’s Beach Life and Restaurantrepreneur immediately came to my mind. (And I feel Restaurantrepreneur is still the strongest game of this type O’ve played) Compared to the Dark Imp designs, 61 Autumn Leaves is simpler, streamlined.

What sold me on 61 Autumn Leaves is the leaf track. Trying to get those bonuses, particularly the wild numbers, is big. It adds a lot of tension to the game and makes the leaf die not a throw away choice. Compared to some (not all) games made up of mini games, 61 Autumn Leaves is shorter and simpler (shout out to Rolling Realms!) but the track keeps me coming back.

As of me writing this, I’ve only also played the winter game in the series but I’ve also looked over the rules for summer and spring. That said, I feel safe to say that autumn is the simplest, I’d even go so far as to say most basic. I’d also say that you need to prioritize certain mini games to maximize your points.

 With those critiques said, I do think that 61 Autumn Leaves is very engaging and accessible. This is a game you can get small children and great-grandparents on board with. Between the appealing artwork and easy-to-learn mechanics, this is a game for anyone.

While I honestly expect to enjoy every other game in the series more, I also expect that Autumn Leaves will see a lot of play from me.

My June Gaming

 June ended up seeing me learning more games than I really expected. Some of that was from me looking at Board Game Arena for new games. A lot of that was because Button Shy had a wave of play tests that I was able to participate in.

I learned:

Dice Pyramid

The Great American Fox Hunt

Flip Freighters

Forest Rivals (playtest)

61 Leaves of Autumn 

Road Trip Solitaire

Villainopolis 2.0 (playtest)

Astronotl (playtest)

So, on a whole, it was good month.

Like April, I went to Board Game Arena early in the month to make sure I learned something, particularly because I wasn’t sure what the month would be like. Dice Pyramid is pleasant enough that I’ll probably make a hard copy and I was happy to finally play Flip Freighter, which I’ve been meaning to learn since it first came out.

I hadn’t expected Button Shy to be so generous with the playtests. I don’t feel comfortable on going into any details but Villainopolis (renamed Crime Sprawl) and Astronotl are particularly strong. I had jolly good fun.

I had vaguely heard of the season games made for Accessijeux charity but then I learned that they are available as free PnP games. The first one I tried was 61 feuilles d’automne or 61 Autumn Leaves. It was a streamlined, nifty little experience. And now I have learned that Accessijeux exists.

Good month.

My June PnP

 June was a craftier month than I feared it would be. There were two reasons. Button Shy had some very solid play tests. And I made some little Roll and Writes for a trip. (I don’t end up using them much but the thought was there)

Dionysia + Soliloquy expansion

Criss Cross

It’s Rotten

Villainopolis (second playtest)

61 Leaves of Autumn 

16 Lights of Winter

66 Flowers of Spring

62 Suns of Summer

Pinball Dice - Dragon Slayer

Astronotl (playtest)

My big project for the month was Dionysia and its solo module. I enjoyed the playtest of it so I felt it was a safe bet for a build. And, at the time, I didn’t know how much crafting I’d be doing.

I also learned during June that the season games that had been designed to for the Accessijeux charity had the artwork released so you can make them as a PnP. And that included low ink version, which is always nice. I made double sided so I had two seasons per sheet of paper. I’ve only played the Autumn one so far but they’ll all get played in the coming weeks.

I am hoping to make July another PnP heavy month because I figure life will get back to being hectic in August.

Pokopia is blends different ideas for maximum engagement

 From what I can tell, the DNA of Pokémon Pokopia is 50% Minecraft, 40% Animal Crossing and 10% Pokamon.

Now, that opinion comes with the caveat that I have not actually played the game. Instead, I watched my wife play Pokopia. (And it is enough of a time sink that only one member of a household should be playing it at a time lol)

When I first saw the trailers for Pokopia, I had very mixed feelings. From what we saw, it looked promising. However, it was so chibi that I was worried it would be aimed at a very young audience and not interesting from an older audience. And by older audience, I mean eight and older.

We got burned by Detective Pikachu 2. We had hopes for a story-heavy game with interesting choices. Instead, our then eight-year-old felt that it was too juvenile for him, let alone his parents. You can have games and other media that work well for the very young and the not-so-young but Detective Pikachu 2 was not an example of that. I was afraid that Pokopia would be one tiny valley's worth of stuff and that you'd fill it up in a half hour.

Thankfully, that was not the case. Pokopia, while not huge by open world standards, has enough room for you to stretch. It has plenty of goals to keep you going. And the underlining story is actually pretty dark. Engaging but dark.

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(I mean, some of this is in the trailers so it's not much spoiling but hey)

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Pokopia pulls the good bits from different genres. You've got dollhouse decorating and social management from Animal Crossing. You've got resource harvesting and management with the ability to make everything under the sun from Minecraft. Ands it's got the Pokémon from Pokémon.

You take on the role of a Ditto, which is a Pokémon who has shape-changing powers. Although if you didn't know that, you are way outside of the games target demographic. Dittos have been around since the first Pokémon game but (and this took me a little bit to realize) the reason to make the player a Ditto to justify them learning and using different abilities. The game turns your Ditto into the Swiss army knife of the Pokémon world. 

So, here's the hook. Pokopia takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Humanity messed up the ecology so much that they had to abandon the planet. Now, the Pokémon who were put in electronic storage are awakening. And it's up to the Pokémon to restore the world. Humanity destroyed the world. Pokémon must save it. If you liked the movie Wall-E, this is the Pokémon version.

Honestly, the concept is so dark that it's fascinating that the developers were able to make it so cute and relaxing.  And make no mistake; this definitely falls under the cozy genre. You turn a bleak wasteland and turn it into a beautiful garden and find hundreds of Pokémon while you are at it. Honestly, the whole build up an environment is a well-traveled genre for video games. That part isn't new. The fact that it's Pokémon and the fact that they have to basically save the world, that's the engagement.

While I said that only 10% of the game's DNA comes from Pokémon (Although there has been so much media created for Pokémon that there could already be a cozy world building Pokemon game and I just don't know it), that's still an important part of the game. It's not just Pokémon is an IP that can apparently sell anything. Using Pokémon means that you already know the cast. You know Squirtle will have water powers and Charizard is going to do something with fire. So much of the explanation is already there for you. And part of being a beloved franchise means that the game sinks its emotional hooks in you.

The fact that it's blatantly draconian doesn't mean it doesn't work lol

The world building is solid and the gameplay seems to be strong. I was afraid that Pokopia would just be a cash grab with Pokémon slapped on. Instead, it blends different ideas into a lovely new work.

Toy Story is still Pixar’s gold mine

 A question I asked myself before Toy Story 2, Toy Story 4 and Toy Story 5 was ‘Other than money, is there any reason this had to be made?’

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Well, Toy Story 2 ended up being so good I didn’t question Toy Story 3 existing. Toy Story 4, while I feel like it’s the weakest movie, is still heaps better than too many kids films.

And I thought Toy Story 5 was a step up from that. A good question with a sequel is ‘Did we tell everyone’s story already?’ And by the end of Toy Story 4, it did feel like Pixar had gotten the toys pretty well covered.

So Toy Story 5 shifted the focus to the kids.

While still told through the eyes and actions of the toys, the actual story is ultimately about Bonnie and newcomer Blaze. They are both creative, imaginative kids who struggle to find friends. (And, yes, of course they become friends at the end of the movie because this is Pixar, not Shakespeare)

For me, Andy was defined by his relationship with the toys. Heck, sometimes he felt like some kind of deity for them. I am going to argue that Toy Story 5 treats Bonnie as more of a complete character.

A key moment in the movie is her being cyber bullied. (The movie fails to give a simple answer to technology and screen time, which is fair) Her sadness and her withdrawal is very realized. It’s believable and, probably for too many, relatable. 

The toys do get plenty of focus. Jessie has an involved story arc, which includes her finding resolution with her original kid. It’s still _Toy_ Story. If you just came for the toys, you’ll still get them.

There is also a wonderfully insane subplot about a shippjng container of the latest Buzz Lightyear toys getting ship wrecked, resulting in a horde of confused Buzz Lightyears going across the land. I kept thinking it was the 1991 film Small Soldiers done right.