Ryan Laukat's Eight-Minute Empire going digital

Front Page Discussion
#1

Originally published at: http://statelyplay.com/2017/03/14/ryan-laukats-eight-minute-empire-going-digital/

iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux •


Ryan Laukat is the Leonardo da Vinci of the board game world. Not only does he design interesting and much-loved games, but he also does all the artwork, graphic design, and publishing. He’s a true renaissance man, and it was only a matter of time before one of his designs made it to digital. Turns out the first digital title is also one of his first physical titles, Eight-Minute Empire, and it’s coming this summer.

Eight-Minute Empire is a 4X game that plays in not quite 8 minutes. More like 20-30, but it manages to cram in that 4X-epic feel in the time it would take to bake a pizza. Think of it as The Battle of Polytopia for the board game world.

Acram Digital–the blokes behind the digital version of Steam–are the ones developing Eight-Minute Empire for both desktop and mobile and it should have cross-platfrom online multiplayer from the get-go.

Brad over at 164 spoke with Acram at GDC and unearthed the news as well as the following screenshots. That’s right, he gets to go to GDC and he didn’t even buy me a stinking t-shirt. Humph.

We can expect Eight-Minute Empire for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android this summer. Until then, take a look at Brad’s pictures. So shiny.

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I guess I’ll choose “Recruit Troops”[/caption]

 

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This is me playing any game with my kids right after they pull out their phones.[/caption]

 

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Hail, hail Freedonia.[/caption]

#2

I’ve only played this once, but I quite enjoyed it.

Seems like a perfect digital candidate. Hopefully they took the lessons they learned from Steam and it will be awesome from the get-go!

#3

Never played this one - does it lend itself to async play?

#4

I honestly don’t remember. It’s been 2-3 years since I played it.

I just remember that I liked it well enough.

I don’t remember anything that would make async difficult, though.

#5

I believe that it will work just fine and dandy as an async game.

Wiith 4 players you would have (if I remember right) one bidding turn (for first player) and then 8 “choose a card and take the associated action” turns. More turns for fewer players. The cards also confer an ability or an end-game bonus.