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Uchi no Heya

During a Sumo stream, the streamer I watch mentioned he was playing “Manage your stable” game in his browser, so I checked it out.

Uchi No Heya (“Inside the stable”) is … OK. I mean, I played for several hours. The game is still in Beta, with several issues (including seeing several “NaN”s where numbers should be), but the idea is sound. You recruit and coach young rikishi (sumo wrestlers) and guide their training; the matches are auto-battlers1. You can watch it play out or just hit “Quick” to see the days results.

Most decisions occur during the 8 weeks between tournaments. Random events, assign stat points, manage money.

Last year I started sketching out a game with a similar idea (A board game, not a computer game, but the idea stands). And in a total coincidence, I played shortly after I wrote up ,my 20th Century Project on PB(E)M games, where I talk about the Soccer Simulation League I ran for a season or two (CMU-EFL). So having this come out is up my alley.

I. Have. Opinions.

Some things Uchi no Heya gets right:

  • There is morale and personalities, and sometimes personalities clash. This is a big deal. Baseball and Basketball games often have synergistic players … Sumo wrestlers live together. Imagine the impact of conflicting personalities. I could see making that practically the sole game (Like New Orleans Big Band) where your entire result is based on recruiting, and the tournaments are a minor part of the game. (Perhaps one die roll or card flip for everyone!). From what I’ve seen of Sumo, this is entirely reasonable.2
  • I love the idea of “Who is the main cook during the tournament, and how much did you spend on ingredients?” The wrestler (effectively) brews Chanko potions, and can get better at it.
  • When you scout recruits you have a rough idea of his maximum stat (via error bars).
  • I don’t mind the graphics, but they are old school.

But Many things are frustrating:

  • Most decisions seem minor. Given that its an autobattler, I’d like to “Quick resolve” the entire tournamen (with interruptions for “Should you pull a person who is battling through injury?” or “Who gets the potion?”
    • The personalities clash system? Seems relegated to some random events.
    • The Chanknabe potions affect a stat by a few percent for one match. (The fatigue and morale improving potions do carry across matches, etc).
    • Managing finances / when to grow the stable seem important, but planning isn’t a big deal. Random events can give or take away multiple months worth of expenses.
    • Some events are “Dispute between two wrestlers” where you have no basis for resolving, because it’s a “A said, B said” thing, or there is no information.
    • Some events have “Do it,” “Skip it,” “Raise the stakes” (with a bigger risk/reward), but the chances of winning for “Do it” vs “Do it all out” are the same.
  • I’ve played through several years; none of my wrestlers have voluntarily retired. Just feels wrong. A bunch of people coming in for a few years and deciding they can’t cut it is a big part of the sport, and I’d like to see “Who do you encourage to stay, and who do you let go?”
  • It seems odd to me that you can dump 4+ points into one stat (like Weight!) in a month, instead of slow progress.

Overall the game has lots of insignificant decisions. After a few hours I got the definite feeling of a grindy freemium game (which is what struck me after writing up the PBM article). “Numbers go up.” And …. that’s it.

What I’d have liked to see:

To fit the theme, you are assumed to help all your students, but with limited resources for “special help” and “resolving problems.” (For example, students should train their own points automatically instead of you assigning them, but you do get to do specials sessions to allocate bonus).

Grinding has been done (much better) in other games, why not try for an Ultima style Dilemmas? Or have a system like Blood Royale where you have to work with what you get (in terms of stats) or Divine Right where the personalities/quirks are revealed slowly3. So you get “Star Recruit” but it turns out he has anger issues, etc…

Anyway, I might still pick up the steam game when it releases (it has other modes of play, which might be better … for example many of the mechanisms might work well if you were focused on a single wrestler … and for a few bucks I’d like to see more Sumo games created, so sure ).

But I’m also thinking about how I’d do it again … and I might take another crack at it. OK, unless I get really inspired I doubt anything will come of it, but whatever. I’m thinking about it as a background task.

Rating — Indifferent (if you like Sumo, or are looking for a numbers go up kind of background game), avoid otherwise.

Update — The game is out on Steam and the designer has indicated that the bug I mentioned above was indeed fixed.

  1. Wrestlers have 8 trainable stats, plus frame size, etc, and can learn techniques. ↩︎
  2. Many larger stables have people in them for a decade or two, and it is clear they are never going to get anywhere near a .500 record, much less a pro level, but they are affable, good cooks, etc. ↩︎
  3. I only played maybe half a game of Divine Right in my first semester of college, so I have nothing more than a vague memory of “the rulers had personalities, but they weren’t revealed up front.” ↩︎
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