Dredge is a great game. Its not massively long (I got 12 hours out of it having explored most of the secrets) so if thats an issue for you I thought Id mention it.
But it’ll be a great fit for ios if they get the controls right. Lends itself nicely to bite size sessions, or longer sessions if you really want to get into it
Impressions of recent Next Fest demos:
Into the Restless Ruins: My favorite demo by far. Start with fog-obscured dungeon rooms scattered across the board; your cards are rooms you add to connect parts of the dungeon and improve your health, attack power, time to explore, etc. After using your build points, explore what you’ve built to uncover pre-defined rooms, earn points to improve your deck, and eventually reach the boss after several build/explore cycles. Exploration feels a little Dungeon of the Endless-esque, and the deckbuilding meshes nicely with that layer.
Is This Seat Taken?: Cute puzzler where you place “people” (blocks with attitude, really) in vehicles or rooms. The challenge is each person has one or two constraints–maybe they want a window seat, or to be next to a specific friend. The demo nicely adds varieties of constraints to make the puzzles trickier as levels progress.
Monster Train 2: The title should tell you whether you’re interested or not.
Siegecaster: I really wanted to like this game but didn’t get it. Semi real-time tower defense, where you build walls around gems that grant you abilities and new towers. You have the ability to cycle between the building and attack layers, and the attacks don’t pause for building. Devs posted tutorial videos after I tried it, so I may go back after watching those.
Tempopo: Puzzle game from the Unpacking devs. Basically, for each level, you place “actions” on a board so when your characters start moving, the correct actions lead them to pick up tokens and reach the exit. If it were just that, I might like it, but this game’s theme is way weirder. The tokens are singing flowers, you collect them to rebuild some creepy little kid’s musical garden, and your “characters” look like pink flower bulbs with eyes … ? Mumbled one last “what the fuck?” after a giant flying tortoise took its third lap around one of my levels and closed the game for good.
Calico is set to release digitally in a week as “Quilts and Cats of Calico.” I’ve never played the board game, but this is the second game from the developer of Wingspan and looks to continue their tradition of great-looking apps. Wingspan is by no means perfect and has had its issues, but this is a developer I’m inclined to support.
Rolling Realms is out on iOS, but it appears to be iPad-only, which is a shame. It isn’t a game I’m yearning for, but it’s something I would likely grab if it were on phone.
Not out on Android, so that’s been my goto for it.
Calico is out now on iOS. I can’t decide if I want to kill the trigger on this or Cascadia for an upcoming flight.
@Codington needs to add both to the vote for next seasons ladder polls.
Both of these games look great I just watched dice tower reviews of them, but I need to buy Istanbul and learn how to play before that game comes up in the ladder.
Istanbul should be simple to learn.
Cascadia ís pretty classic Dire Wolf - not perfect, but well done.
Unfortunately, it’s also worse than most in terms of an async experience - not because of Dire Wolf’s implementation, but because of the nature of the game. It just doesn’t translate all that well to async. Playing at table is already pretty close to solitaire other than some minor competition for terrain majority, but on mobile async there’s basically no interaction to speak of.
Still a good game if you’re into “puzzle with a theme” type games, but a bit like watching paint dry as far as the async experience goes IMO.
I’m much more excited to see how Ark Nova (on Steam Early Access now) translates to mobile. It’s a somewhat daunting game but really not that complicated beyond the sheer variety of cards available. Definitely a tabletop favourite both in my family and my gaming group that likes thematic and “heavier” / longer games.
Absolutely agree. I like the game for its puzzle like game play. I keep coming back to the app for “one more game” as much to push along my campaign and achievement progress. I actually played the first few games in the solo mode before eventually taking on AI multiplayer- solo seemed a natural fit for the style of game. Clank I enjoy against AI or live opponents. Dune Imperium I prefer async online - I’ve learnt more playing against live opponents than against the AI. Cascadia? Don’t have any interest in asynchronous multiplayer yet I’m still strangely hooked on the solo / AI play.
While true, I alway, always prefer to at least have an asynchronous option. Dire Wolf has a couple of games where they do not have asynchronous play and because of that, they don’t get played by me often. I admit that Fox in the Forest would be very quick turns and maybe be a slog asynch, but without it I played the challenges and never looked at it again. Wings of War suffers horribly for not having asynch. Looking around at some of my games, there are some that I feel would be a staple around here like Mystic Vale, except it lacks the thing that makes games like Ascension a decade-long hit - asynch.
As for Ark Nova, it can’t come soon enough. As much as I say I’m a purist and tabletop is superior to digital, the fact is that with big, long games lieke that, I will play them a couple times at the table but possibly hundreds digitally - Through the Ages case in point.
Love the physical game and I’ll probably end up buying it all again in digital if they do it well. One of the best solo games ever made and loads of replay value.
Saw this today too, don’t know anything about it but I’ll try anything on iOS.
It sounds like the Digimon TCG is coming to mobile soon. I know what you’re thinking - oversaturated market, yet another money sink, Digimon?, etc.
I personally like when cardboard CCGs make their way to mobile because I am likely to at least give them a look if not play them for a while. Yu-Gi-Oh is a big case in point - I’ve never owned a card and I think the game pales in comparison to games like Magic, but I’ll pick it up from time to time digitally.
I’m looking forward to Digimon if only to give it a go. I know it is one of the more popular CCGs (or is it TCG? Is there a significant difference?) on the market.
Now we need a dedicated app for a couple others, like Flesh & Blood and Lorcana. Maybe the new Star Wars?
Anyways, back to some casual Magic Arena I go.
Just downloaded the Cascadia app, and hoping to review it. Anybody want to hop into a multi-player game and help me?
I’ll play an asynchronous game, but it sounds like you’re looking for something faster? I’m Mirefox+9516.
Sorry, I did mean async. I guess “hop on” implies real time, but not what I meant!
Sent you a friend invite!
@whovian223 - see above regarding a less than exciting async experience - having said that, I’ll play! 
I’m Codington+3619…