Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Comboness (Roguelike Celebration 2024 Talk)

Why do people play games with combos? The same reason they play any game—to revel in the anxiety of their actual lives.

In this talk, we’ll take a whirlwind tour through the world’s first formal definition of combos, a brief combo-centric overview of the entirety of human history, and the reason why 3-pick-1 upgrade screens are actually a lot smarter than you think.

Transcript

1. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Comboness Talk @ Roguelike Celebration 2024 By Andrew Cedotal (andrew.cedotal@gmail.com)
2. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Yours truly, Andrew Cedotal Current Project: DesignLife (Furniture ecommerce + procgen)
3. Intro 1: A Definition of Combos 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo 4: What Combos Evoke
4. 1: A Definition of Comboness
5. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Given a set of three or more possible upgrades, a combo is: • A subset of upgrades, • of size > 1, • That has a value greater than the sum of its individual parts, • When accounting for conditions internal to the subset.
6. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke • A has value 2 • B has value 1 • C has value 0, unless B is also present, in which case it has value 3 • [A, B] = 3 • [A, C] = 2 • [B, C] = 4 ([B, C] is a combo, because it’s preferable)
7. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke • A has value 10 • B has value 1 • C has value 0, unless B is also present, in which case it has value 3 • [A, B] = 11 • [A, C] = 10 • [B, C] = 4 ([B, C] is not a combo, because it’s dispreferable)
8. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Given a set of three or more possible upgrades, a combo is: • A subset of upgrades, • of size > 1, • That has a value greater than the sum of its individual parts that exceeds the highest unconditional value of all subsets of the same size, • When accounting for conditions internal to the subset.
9. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke • “A has value 2” • “B has value 1” • “C has value 0, unless B is also present, in which case it has value 3” (Not a combo) • “A has value 2” • “B has value 1, take a Foo token” • “C has value 0, and also grants 3 value for each Foo token” (A combo, barely)
10. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke (Non-obvious, so very high “combo-ness”)
11. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Given a set of three or more possible upgrades, a combo the degree of comboness of: • A subset of upgrades, • of size > 1, That has Is, roughly, the product of: • The degree to which its value that exceeds the highest unconditional value of all subsets of the same size, and • The non-obviousness of the conditional value, When accounting for conditions internal to the subset.
12. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke A combo is a subset of upgrades whose value is: • Higher than what you’d get if you picked purely on unconditional value, and • Non-obvious.
13. 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated
14. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
15. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Everything humanity has ever had to worry about, plus: • Technological trends creating + destroying careers? • Geographic economic divergence? • Infinite subcultural buffet? • Don’t get Internet-grifted? Class of 2028
16. COMBOS Increasing the importance of:
17. 3: Biography as Combo
18. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke A combo is a subset of upgrades whose value is: • Higher than what you’d get if you picked purely on unconditional value, and • Non-obvious.
19. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Biography #1: The Cratedigger Biography #2: The Ice Skater Biography #3: The Military-Intelligence Archivist Who Also Invents Shark Repellent
20. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Biography #1: The Cratedigger ?
21. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
22. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
23. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
24. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
25. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Luca Galante: Legendary Roguelite Creator
26. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Luca Galante: Legendary Roguelite Creator
27. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Vampire Survivors Ultima Online
28. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Luca Galante: Legendary Roguelite Creator
29. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Biography #2: The Ice Skater ?
30. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
31. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
32. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
33. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
34. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Vera Wang: Legendary Apparel Designer
35. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Vera Wang: Legendary Apparel Designer
36. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Vera Wang: Legendary Apparel Designer
37. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Biography #3: The Military-Intelligence Archivist Who Also Invents Shark Repellent ?
38. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
39. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
40. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
41. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
42. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Julia Child: Legendary Chef
43. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Julia Child: Legendary Chef
44. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Vera Wang Julia Child Luca Galante
45. 4: What Combos Evoke
46. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Life is like Games Games evoke Life
47. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
48. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
49. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
50. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Combo-wise, constructed tends to reward... Combo-wise, drafting tends to reward… Memorization Theorycrafting Reading “the meta” Spotting optimization functions Finding global maxima vs. vs. vs. vs. vs. Improvisation Gauging probability Valuing optionality Calculating opportunity cost Finding local maxima
51. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
52. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Vera Wang Julia Child Luca Galante
53. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke “Drafting Mullet” Drafting in the front… Constructed in the back!
54. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
55. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke
56. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Areas of further investigation: How does the “drafting mullet” interact with: • Methods of creating combo density? • Rarity systems? • The interaction of upgrade systems with simulationist world models?
57. Intro • 1: Definition of Combos • 2: Life Keeps Getting More Combo-licated 3: Biography as Combo • 4: What Combos Evoke Takeaways: • Combos are, definitionally, non-obvious. • Life is increasingly complex, and thus increasingly about finding combos. • To reflect the anxieties and reliefs of people’s real lives: ◦ Design your game’s upgrade system to open a subset of possible upgrade areas, ◦ Then give players freedom to choose which combos within that subset to pursue.
58. Questions? andrew.cedotal@gmail.com Essay version at: bitly.com/lifelibertycombos