That is some stiff competition. Scythe’s complete absence, Terraforming Mars falling into limbo…there were some big disappointments.
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Eesh, forgot about those… I’m sure there’s something else lurking out there…
Widower’s Sky comes to mind…
As long as Dire Wolf comes through with an awesome version of Mage Knight, all will be well.
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Oh my god. It’s the first time I hear about this!
I think there’s definitely something bigger to dig into regarding digital board game adaptations on mobile. Asmodee Digital were bringing everything of theirs to mobile at one point and now they’re… not.
And then you’ve got all these indie people who’ve games have been a mix of really good to not as good as they could be. Say Raiders of the North Sea on one end and then Evolution on the other.
I k ow very little about the industry but it seems the profit just isn’t there for most board game adaptations. That said, I believe @RachetAcram has stated that the bulk of their sales come from mobile. I’m also going to (wildly) guess that a nice chunk of board game app sales come relatively close to release, driven by hype and the board game community who is eager to gobble up any new apps from their respective hobby. That would explain why so many board game apps fall by the wayside and aren’t maintained as well as they should be (ahem, Asmodee). This is why I tend to be more loyal to developers these days than to any specific game adaptation; you know the quality you are getting. CGE could come out with a Monopoly app and I’d buy it sight unseen, for example.
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The problem with evolution is that is was in development for 4 years which is what you’d expect from an AAA title, not a niche board game that’s going to sell for under $10 on the App Store.
there was no way they would recoup the Dev costs unless the app was as polished as…well something from CGE. That was their intention by polishing and polishing. Hell, we saw the app working and playable for 2 gen cons before it came out and kept getting told that they wanted it to be the board game app to beat all board game apps. Then to release without the main feature (online multiplayer) that could have made it a contender?
It’s as if they’d never played another board game app.
Anyone trying to make a BG app (that’s not based on a solo game…I will take my Black Sonata or Mage Knight app sans online multiplayer, thank you) should be worshipping at the altar of Playdek and CGE and, if you can’t pull off something at least close to their online model, don’t bother.
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And that’s being generous to RotNS, which launched with reliability issues and questionable design decisions as grumbled about at length in the game thread.
Unless your point is that the range from RotNS to Evolution (in whichever direction) is the best we can hope for for board game ports nowadays.
[quote=“Neumannium, post:35, topic:1771, full:true”]
Anyone trying to make a BG app should be worshipping at the altar of Playdek and CGE and, if you can’t pull off something at least close to their online model, don’t bother.[/quote]
Quite. This is a solved problem. At least, maybe realise that other devs have done the hard work and come up with a good model.
Maybe that’s a good interview question, or the no-brown-M&Ms test. “So, what do you think of Playdek’s multiplayer?”
Can confirm, PC is still a token of what iOS or Switch do for us.
In terms of multiplayer - it’s a journey to develop that, make it actually work and keep it working. We (Acram) are improving ours slightly game after game, and I myself am one of the main combatants here to keep it running.
On one hand I do realize why studios don’t. As I said, it’s a ton of work and inconvenience. On the other, if you promised players a working multiplayer, or they simply expect it due to the nature of the game, say, oh I don’t know, a DIGITAL BOARD GAME, you kinda need to deliver. Else, in my opinion, you’re releasing an incomplete product.
At least half of the appeal, at least in my opinion, comes from an operational multiplayer when it comes to digital board games.
I’m also going to (wildly) guess that a nice chunk of board game app sales come relatively close to release, driven by hype and the board game community who is eager to gobble up any new apps from their respective hobby.
Actually not really the case. Sure, the release is a spike, but our games keep selling at a steady trickle, so to say. I’m not in on the exact numbers, and even if I were I would not be sharing those, but yeah, our stuff keeps selling, and it’s definitely not counted by “this better pay for itself on release”. Then again there’s never been a hype around any of our releases like there was around Scythe or Terraforming Mars so 
P.S. I should probably write all that from my personal account rather than work account, but I don’t have one so… oh well! 
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Thanks for the insight! I’m not fishing for any closely held inside information; I do think it is interesting to hear industry insights, though.
Oh yeah, totally. I was more saying that to myself so I don’t say something silly that I should not have 
I know it all comes down to money, but it does sadden me that this is something that you actually have to fight for though…
I might be naive, but can you “buy” the playdeck online package and weave it into your game? Buy/licence whatever?
If I remember correctly, Acrams port of Steam released without online multiplayer. I think there was a ‘coming soon’ type promise too. But then Acram actually delivered. That just about blew my socks off. Delivering in that kind of promise seems to be the exception rather than the rule sadly.
In other news, I played evolution at the table the other day and it played pretty well. I managed to out score the intelligent pack hunting carnivore player, which is handy because the table seemed to think that combo was a bit OP.
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quite the contrary.
designer Dominik Crapuchettes was a very engaged and successful Ascension player in the early BGG tournaments.
so he knows very well how important online playability is and how well it can be done.
the less i can understand the Evolution debacle.
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For what it’s worth, the developer responded to my review and said thy at they’ve got their asynchronous bugs worked out plan on beta testing it “on or before Dec. 6.”
and then i will instantly buy the 8 euro full-unlock IAP.
itm it’s just another promise.
good news nonetheless!
Well sure, yeah, we use two third party thingies for this, but they still need to be put into the game, innit.
Good point 