Digital Board Games

Greetings. What do you think about the idea of digitally focused "board games"? The games that look and are played very much like your normal tabletop games, but with some extra bits of functionality that, probably, would not work in physical table-top game?

Do you think it is worth simplifying the game to make it possible to publish a physical version of it, or do you think that it might be worth it to add extra mechanics and sacrifice that option?

I know it depends on a specific case, but still, what do you think? Do you know examples of such digital games that are almost like tabletop games? (Except the card games that we all know.)

 

I've often thought the same question: is it a good idea?

I still don't know. I talked to someone once before who advised against it because people wouldn't want to play a board game unless they're in the same room. I think he's wrong but I know it'll take the right kind of game. I think that without the "extra bits" of functionality your game wouldn't stand out very much. At worse, someone would easily take your idea and clone it with a twist that you already thought of. It'd be worth it for some people so they wouldn't lose the pieces, instructions are easier, and setup time is much quicker.

Monopoly and Risk are popular games remade for PC. Mario Party is the biggest one with extra bits. Fusion Frenzy is probably a clone of that. RPGs fully evolved from "table top" games -- old pen and paper DnD. I think, as with any genre, you really have to accurately hone in on what makes players play the genre in the first place and enhance that experience in a way that can't be done with a box and a board. Then really, really nail it down.

 

I think the biggest problem with tabletop games is that they don't hold up to more modern options. Why would someone want to sit down a play a game like old school board games when they can play call of duty and so on. I think it has to do with waiting their turn and having to just sit there. Attention spans, lol. But I think that's where the functionality comes in. If you can add more to it and catch the players attention and make them enjoy themselves then whether they have their opponent right there in front of them across the table or across a digital table online, they will play.

My favorite game back some time ago was Tactics Arena. It was a flash designed game that played like chess, but with knights, wizards and dragons for pieces. It was a free to play game that allowed you to purchase the ability to get new unique game pieces before these pay to win games came out. Someone with those pieces had good advantage, but weren't unbeatable. It always reminded me of Star Wars when chewy was playing Luke. I always wanted to see something like that and to finally see it on a pc flash gaming site was amazing to me.

I think ultimately to make any game you just need some good old creativity and oomff to it. If it's something that could make you and your friends keep playing then it'll likely catch the eyes of others. That's something a lot of game designers these days forget imo.

 

Most people I know who still play tabletop games are primarily playing D&D or Pathfinder. I haven't gotten around to trying it myself due to living in a rural area, but listening to them describe how their game went makes it sound far more interesting and involved than most video games.

 

I do agree on that part. I started playing MTG about a couple years ago because some of my friends played it and kept talking about their experiences with it. For the most part I wasn't into the idea until I actually sat down and played. But my little brother for example will like the idea from the stories, sit down for like 2-3 turns, then jump up to go play LoL. I've noticed it quite a bit with some of the younger people I know. I think you can get quite involved with tabletop games, but too many people feel that way about online games today as well thanks to all the social media like youtube, twitch, curse, etc. And the worse part about it is how they all want to become "professional" at it because of some leaked bank account from ad revenue.

I do enjoy them myself, but I think games have transitioned into digital and while people do occasionally trickle back to nostalgic games they always end up moving back towards the more recently developed ones. But I have definitely noticed a recurring rise in a couple tabletop games.

 

Risk

 

I've got a couple groups of friends that still play board games regularly. They have a once-a-month gathering at someone's house and play whatever games people want to play. Risk Legacy, Settlers of Catan, Forbidden Island/Desert, Apples-to-Apples/Cards Against Humanity... These are the kinds of games they play.

It really isn't *that* different than playing facebook or mobile games along the same lines. I play them at times that I wouldn't play games like Assassin's Creed or Skyrim or CoD, but I play them.

My conclusion is that there *is* a market for this, but the digital market is largely interested in games that can be played over days, 1 turn at a time, whereas the physical market is interested in games that can be play in a sitting, about 1 hour.

I don't think anyone wants to sit at a desktop computer and play board games for hours.

 

My perspective is different from what most of you are saying. I get together with a group of friends and play D&D every week; at home, we have big stacks of boxed games (current favorites are King of Tokyo, Alien Frontiers, and Forbidden Island) and card games (Pokemon with the younger one, Magic with the older) which we frequently play. At my local game store slash coffee house, you can walk in any evening and find 5-20 people gaming. And boardgamegeek.com certainly has no shortage of activity.

So tabletop gaming is alive and well, and has a good market of dedicated players who think nothing of dropping $60 for a decent game (plus another $20 each for expansions). Compare that to what your typical mobile gaming customer pays (i.e., zero). Even if there are a lot more casual mobile players, a whole bunch times zero is still zero.

Now, that's actual tabletop games. What about computer versions? I don't have any hard stats, but it seems to me that those do pretty well too. We've got iPad versions of several of our favorite games: Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, etc. These games sell for much cheaper than their boxed versions — I think they tend to go for about $10. But that's still a lot more than most mobile games. We enjoy them because setup and play are faster, and we can easily take them with us when we travel.

(Sometimes setup and play are MUCH faster — I own both the boxed and the iPad version of Risk, but never play the boxed version anymore, because it takes 2-3 hours, whereas I can do a single-player game of Risk against the computer in about 20 minutes, and a multiplayer game in not much more than that.)

Finally, the original question was about games that are board game style but designed right away for the computer. This brings to mind Civilization. Civ came from a long line of turn-based board games, but they took advantage of the computer to add quite a bit of calculated effects that would be just too onerous to do in a board game. The result, of course, was one of the most popular video games of all time. I think there's much to be said for that. When designing a tabletop game, one of the big challenges is always to minimize paperwork and bookkeeping for the players. Often this means simplifying the game more than you would really like. With a computer game, that's just not an issue; keep all the books you want, because the computer does it for you.

 

Well look at MTG for example. When I got into it I bought my first starter deck. I then started buying boosters, I then started ordering online, next thing you know I was spending 20-30 dollars on 1 card to complete my "uber" deck. So like you said you can find dedicated players who are willing to shell out cash.

But I wouldn't say that to mobile gaming gets zero in revenue. In fact mobile games can be rather lucrative due to the fast paced nature of society today. People play/watch on the go. It's a quick form of entertainment and you'd probably be surprised on how many people do pay for in app purchases. Though I think it has died off a bit, as the biggest thing as of late is the ad revenue people have been earning to help when business is slower. After a while people get tired of shelling out cash or simply don't have it.

With that said, I think there are plenty of examples out there of tabletop games gone digital or digital games based around tabletop concepts.

 

It's worth noting there is a way to play actual board games digitally, too.

http://www.vassalengine.org/

It has many many 'modules' (games), and works really quite well. Nothing comes close to actually sitting down and playing a physical board game, but Vassal is as close as you can get with a PC, I've found.

 

Well, they offer completely different experiences, for one. I play a fair bit of both types of games and neither can really replace the other.

As for modernness, board games do some pretty interesting stuff these days. Sure it's nothing they couldn't have done 50 years ago with tech available at the time, but they weren't. Check out Eclipse or Netrunner or Tzolk'in or Betrayal at the House on the Hill or Shadow over Camelot.

And on the topic of attention spans and waiting your turn, a modern board game isn't Monopoly. Modern games generally give you multiple, competing decisions and potential strategies. There's constant player interaction, and winning involves paying attention to what others are doing in order to compete or cooperate. Plenty of games have actions you can perform on others' turns, cooperative games give you plenty to discuss, and any well designed game gives you plenty to consider between turns. There's often light role playing opportunities, and lets not forget that these are typically social games in any case. The experience of playing a board game is far more than just the move you make when it's your turn.

 

Agreed. Most modern board games have decent interaction which I think is a necessity these days. I think the more you get the player involved into their role in that game the more successful and enjoyable it will be. Whether it's making a critical defensive play or picking a role and/or applying teamwork. Some games do a very good job at this. Though this is not always the case. Some games are biased on the selection of what the player chooses as a role or strategy catering to a select few or a lucky happenstance. Whatever the case, I think if you find the happy medium then you can easily make a tabletop turn digital like many others have before.

But there are also many digital games out there that target the same crowd with similar styles like Mario Party, or even card games online that allow the players to do the same thing as they would sitting around a table. The only difference is they don't need to get together, go out, and can sit conveniently behind a desk or table and play with friends from a network. I think in the end they have a lot of similarities, but provide different experiences like you said. It's just a matter of providing the customer/players with a convenient method for how they want to play at that time.

Like MTG, I wouldn't trade sitting with my friends with an online experience. I doubt there would be so many laughs and betrayals online as there are in person. But we prefer to play board/party games on consoles.

 

That's interesting. I didn't know that.

 

Interesting conversation. I've had a compelling idea for a board game and then I thought what if I don't have to work around the limitations of that medium and can just make a game that looks like a board game but is more complex and computer handles all the calculations. But then I love board games and It would be a shame to not be able to play it around the table.

I certainly think there is a market for digital board games and games similar to that formula. I like the feel of the board games, that is something I want to capture if I would make a digital only game.

One interesting thing to consider is that sometimes digital versions of physical board games more than double sales of the physical version. (Check out Small World story.)

 

The same crowd as what?

 

I meant crowds towards those who play tabletop games whether they are board games, card games, or role playing. Most of the bigger names already have digital versions out.

@illinar Yeah I agree 100%. I'd actually like to see more of these style games with more complexity to them myself as well. My biggest inspiration was the hologram chess in Star Wars.

 

If someone could make a super bada$$, fantasy, sci fi full of special effects, version of my favourite board game, Ludo. I would be very happy!!

 

I'd heard of Sorry!, Aggravation (my childhood), and Parcheesi, but this is the first I'd heard of Ludo. I'd love to see a scifi version of it, too, but I'm not sure how much that really adds to the game other than presentation.

 

Yes!!! I currently play in two campaigns. We have a full table and often a few extras who join in for the night. I belong ot a "Guild" that meets twice a month, has 30+ dues paying, rpg playing members along with a new board game group that merged with us that has at least 20 members. Our group has been in existence for over 10 years, and in the deep south of central Florida. Yeah, that part of Florida is deep south, where Magic Cards are witchcraft and DnD is evil.

I would take a real life gaming event with real live people any day over sitting at my computer killing nameless/faceless virtual people.

As for just Pathfinder or DnD, I ran a long running (I mean years) World of Darkness game and several short FATE campaigns. We have had Savage Worlds, Call of Cthulhu, Gurps, some older style rpgs, Shadow Run, lots of and lots of Star Wars campaigns (some still going) and a current D20 Modern game.

Our group has grown recently. I also get lots of emails about new and wonderful ways to play a campaign online. Not sure how I got on that list. Tabletop is not dying and I think is resurging among the youth. We have a lot of younger kids in our club, teens mostly but some preteens as well. Most are adults from 20 to 60. Very cool.

Sorry had to step in. Eurogaming, boardgames that are fancy and complex, is really really popular right now. I have shelves full of them that we rarely play unless we take them to Guild but they are fun. You might consider making a game in a Eurogame style for the computer.

 

Hearthstone is a table-top based game concept, created as an AMAZINGLY compelling digital experience. There are many behaviors in Hearthstone that would be nigh impossible with physical cards such as M:TG or Star Wars CCG. Take a popular old concept, and update it with a fresh modern design == a recipe for win!

Gigi

 

I positively think there is a business opportunity for computerized prepackaged games and games like that recipe. I like the vibe of the table games, that is something I need to catch on the off chance that I would make an advanced just game.

I would take a genuine gaming occasion with genuine live individuals any day over sitting at my PC killing anonymous/nondescript virtual individuals.

science fiction loaded with embellishments, adaptation of my preferred board game,We have Jigsaws, Brain Teasers, Word Puzzles, 3D Jigsaws, and Puzzle stockpiling and accessorie. I would be extremely cheerful!