Category Archives: apps

apps

Dune Imperium Goes Digital

apps, first look, iOS

Last week Dire Wolf Digital released on Steam/iOS/Android the digital version of Dune Imperium.

I’ve been a fan of this worker placement and deck building hybrid ever since it came out in 2020. For me Dune Imperium was a better game than its “rival” with similar mechanics Lost Ruins of Arnak.

When the expansions came out they were instant buys for me. And like all good expansions they added new elements to the game with little overhead, and made the game more enjoyable.

Eventually once finances allowed I even splashed out for the deluxe upgrade that upgraded the components and a larger storage box for the core game and expansions.

Then once Dune Imperium Uprising aka Dune Imperium 2.0, was released it wasn’t if I would buy it but when.

So it’s pretty safe to say that I was pretty excited to be finally able to buy and download the digital version of the game.

At a penny short of a tenner it’s priced at what is standard pricing for a digital version of a boardgame these days.

Dune Imperium (the app) does allow cross platform gaming. So when you play an online game your opponents could be playing on any of the platforms the game is released on. It’s the way it should be. There is no excuse for not doing this.

However I do wish more developers with a game on multiple platforms followed Wise Wizard Games and Star Realms. Buy once and play on any platform.

Sadly Dire Wolf Digital prefer to make you pay for each copy on the various platforms, and games I assume don’t follow you. I say assume because I’m not going to buy the game a second time to find out. But I love that I can start a Star Realms game on my iPad, then later when out and about take a turn on my iPhone, then if at a computer take a turn there.

This is very much a digital version of a board game. I can see new players who have never played Dune Imperium before being a bit overwhelmed by the screen. But it is a fairly accurate representation of the physical board.

Obviously there are quality of life things playing a digital boardgame brings such as highlighting the spaces on the board you can go to. Or playing a solo game against AI opponents.

I’ve not played online yet. I don’t like playing against random opponents, and currently none of my friends have the game.

My solo plays against the AI opponents were fun, and challenging. It was kind of refreshing because I’ve not played the core game for a long time. I usually play with the expansions. Talking of which the first one Rise of Ix comes to the app in the Summer.

I do think Dire Wolf have done a pretty good job bringing Dune Imperium to the digital space. Definitely a must buy for fans of the game.

Hulk Smash

apps, iOS, life, the universe, and everything, star realms

It’s been a while since I’ve racked up some massive damage to defeat an opponent in Star Realms.

So when I finally achieved a big hit that won me the game.

Well it had to be shared with the world via social media.

This is not the time or place to debate the eternal Star Realms issue of whether it’s morally right to over kill an opponent. And let’s just enjoy the delivery of lots of damage.

Really peeved I missed out on gaming this week due to the cold I had on my days off.

But the good news is I’m nearly over it, and I didn’t pass it on to mum.

Videos are starting to appear on YouTube for the second Dune Imperium expansion Immortality.

It looks interesting. But I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it.

Obviously I’m going to get it.

But will it be a must include when playing expansion? Which I think the previous one was.

I can see the playtime going up, especially the analysis paralysis side with players.

We’ll find out once I get my grubby mitts on the new expansion and get it to the table with some willing participants.

And that game (whenever it is) will be using the newly laminated leader mats. Yes they were probably the first thing I laminated with my new laminator.

I hated how flimsy those leader mats were. But Direwolf aren’t the only publishers guilty of scrimping in this area. Now the issue is “solved”.

But that’s enough of my ramblings I’ll see you in the next post.

Gloom Digital First Impressions

apps, first look, iOS

Since Gloom has had my interest reignited in it in the past week or so I was pleasantly surprised and delighted to find out there is a digital version of the game.

I don’t know why I was surprised at all.

These days it would have been more surprising if there were no app version of the game.

But still I was.

So I parted with the pennies, all £5.99 to download it. Another £2.49 of them would get me the Unhappy Homes expansion as an in app purchase. Which I didn’t part with until I had at least decided if I liked the app.

Naturally the app version uses the same art style and art of the physical game. I personally do like the art.

I love the music for the game, it kind of has that Danny Elfman Batman Returns feel to it. It’s suitably atmospheric. There are also little sound bites for each of the family members to try and give them a bit of character.

The BIG surprise for me is this is a solo game where you play against up to three AI bots. Which you can’t even change the difficulty level of. Multiplayer and/or pass and play (standard features in other digital adaptations of board games) should have been included. But are sadly missing.

Speed of play is a little bit of an issue for me. There is no way to speed up the AI turns (something you’d expect should be there from the start). This digital version isn’t going to be one of those games you turn to when you find you have five minutes to fill.

I did find it nearly unplayable on my iPhone. The cards are just too small and unreadable. This is much better on an iPad.

Personally I think some sort of card zoom feature similar to that in Epic the Card Game could have been used.

Naturally playing against the AI looses something from the physical game. The storytelling element. Even with online play against others this would be missing without some sort of voice chat. But that’d never be implemented in app. You’d have to use a third party service like discord or zoom to get the voice side of things. Without the storytelling Gloom is reduced to “just” a card game.

Overall this app version of Gloom has an alpha/beta release feel to it. It’s missing what I’d consider to be core functionality that you’d expect to be there.

Stonemaier Games Release Official Scoring App

apps, first look, iOS, news

As part of the tenth anniversary celebrations for Stonemaier Games (which strangely for a fanboy I haven’t written about yet!) have just announced and released a free official Stonemaier Games Scoring app.

The app will initially act as a digital score pad for Wingspan, and record high scores. Other Stonemaier games will follow over time.

So how will this effect the unofficial, nothing to do with Stonemaier Games, Wingspan scoring app Wingmate?

Although technically they do the same job in other ways they differ.

Firstly Wingmate will cost you money. To score a game (other than the free to try single player scoring), use the automata, use either/both the expansions for scoring, you have to fork out hard digital cash.

As mentioned earlier in the post the Stonemaier app is completely free.

Wingmate is designed to be used during play.

At the start of a game you set up the end of round objectives either using the app to select them or draw them randomly physically and let the app know which ones you are using.

Then during the game at the end of each round you record each players score for that objective.

The official app is designed to be used at the end of the game.

It’s here that I noticed a difference in the nectar scoring.

Wingmate calculates the end game scoring on the rules where points awarded are based on majority in each habitat. Whilst the official app gives a point for each nectar collected!

When did this change? Shouldn’t the official app use the rules or give the option to chose between the two?

I don’t play using the Automata so I haven’t used that option in Wingmate. And I’m not paying £1.79 to see what it does! I’m not that dedicated.

The official app keeps a high score table, which Stonemaier plan to have so that you can see how you rank against other users of the app.

It also allows you to record scores for three other Stonemaier games (no score pad functionality) for their own respective high score tables. With the same future plans.

Currently Wingmate does not have this functionality. Will they add it? I’m not sure.

I’m not sure what the future of Wingmate is. I think the official app will meet the majority of players needs. Despite the change in nectar scoring. Whether that takes away enough in-app purchases income to justify stopping the further development of Wingmate I don’t know. Maybe it forces Wingmate to drop the in-app purchases and go completely free also. It’s going to be interesting to see what the developer decides.

I do like the end of round scoring functionality of Wingmate. I’d definitely add this to my wish list of features for the official app after sorting out the nectar scoring. Which for me is the top priority.

As a first release the official app is pretty cool.

Although I only cover iOS apps this will as soon as the Google app approval process allows be out on that other platform too.

My bgstat Origin Story!

apps, bgstat

I’ve been logging my plays of boardgames with the bgstat app since 29th December 2015.

To date that means I have played 374 games (not all mine!)

My all time stats to date
My 16 most played games to date

But why did I start recording my game plays?

Back in 2015 things were not brilliant at work.

I was being bullied and it made me ill.

I was off work with depression. I was not in a good place.

My line manager was doing nothing about it apart from enabling it.

Luckily I was referred for cognitive behaviour therapy (cbt) and didn’t have to wait months to get my first appointment. Something I’m not so sure would be the case now.

During the treatment I decided I needed a way to try and have an early warning sign that I was becoming ill again.

So I started logging my game plays with the bgstat app.

The logic being if I started to become depressed again then I’d be playing less games (pandemics not accounted for). I’d start to withdraw. My monthly stats were my canary down the mine for my mental health.

My journey to becoming well involved leaving that toxic environment (I quit my job and did a short stint doing supply teaching), as well as doing things I enjoyed (or used to).

Since then logging my game plays has become an addiction. The app itself has grown considerably since those early days. In some ways unrecognisable.

But I love the insights it gives me. Not just in what I’ve played, but into me.

The challenges I’ve started using aren’t just gaming challenges, but also another way to encourage me to do something I enjoy.

And to be totally honest September was never a great month for me with it being the anniversary of Dad’s death. But with the first anniversary of my Nan passing away so close to Dad’s. This year it’s a pretty rough month emotionally.

It’s going to take some Herculean effort to get through this month. And any little trick I can use to get through it like the bgstat app and forcing myself to play games will help.

I don’t know how to end this post. So I’m just going to stop and see you in the next one.

Railroad Ink on iOS

apps, iOS

I think it’s fair to say I like roll/flip and writes.

After all I have one or two in my collection.

However there is one that has been on my wish list for a while, and instead of purchasing a physical copy I bought the digital version.

That game being Railroad Ink.

Having played the app version of Railroad Ink I will never purchase the physical version! That’s despite loving the game.

I admit that I’m going to miss that physicality and joy of rolling dice. However I can see I won’t miss drawing the different train tracks on the pad.

I’ve only played the app as a solo game.

I’ve not played it online against others, or even taken part in the daily challenges against others scores. At the moment I have no interest in doing so either.

My actual games have been on my iPad and iPhone. And it looks and plays brilliantly on both.

For me this is a great game to play when I have a spare five minutes to pass away. Although that five minutes somehow turns into much longer.

This app version of the game does have that “just one more game” magic baked into it. I think the fact games are so quick helps a lot. Along with the “I know I can beat that score” pushing you to try again.

I love the aesthetics of app. The pastels and “hand” drawn look. Obviously the art is way way better than anything I can draw in real life.

The Railroad Ink app is fastly becoming one of my favourite iOS ports of a physical board game.

My Top 9 iOS Boardgame Apps

apps, iOS

The end of last week saw some of The Dice Tower crew (Tom Vasel, Zee Garcia, and Mike DiLisio) do their Top 10 Boardgame apps.

You can watch the video below and get all the chit chat that goes with the list.

Or you can just look at the following screen grabs if you think life is too short.

The Dice Tower Top 10 Boardgame Apps

There was also a Top 10 viewer list at the end of the video as well. I won’t put that here and leave you to discover that at your own leisure if you are so inclined.

I did watch the video, and like so many who have done the same, thought “what about…?”

So here are my Top 9 iOS boardgame apps. It would have been 10 but that doesn’t fit conveniently into a 3×3 grid.

My Top 9 iOS Boardgame Apps

Here are three iOS boardgame apps that very nearly made the list.

My Top 3 Runners Up

The nice thing about this sort of video by the Dice Tower is it gets you thinking about the apps you already have, let’s you know about app versions you never knew were out. For instance I never knew Cartographers or Railroad Ink had app versions. You can bet they are now on my iPad waiting to be played. Particularly Railroad Ink is a cheap way to try the game before “investing” in the physical version.

What app versions of boardgames make your top ten/nine?

Tired and on autopilot, that’s my excuse…

apps, star realms

Below is a very short video I posted on Instagram today of a MASSIVE misplay in a game of Star Realms with my friend Freddy.

Instead of just smashing face and claiming victory I just…

Well I can’t explain it apart from I’m tired, and was just in autopilot mode taking my turns in the games I’m playing.

Look it’s been a looong day ok?

Just saviour the moment of this epic misplay below. If I get another turn and win there is no justice in the world. I don’t deserve to win after this.

I hope you had a chuckle at my expense. It’s the least I deserve.

UPDATE: 2 hours after posting!

I did in fact get another go! And this time I was ruthless and finished the game off.

So my epic misplay that we all had a good roflmao moment with went unpunished.

Portal finally release their version of Neuroshima Hex

apps, iOS, neuroshima hex, news

The weekend saw Portal Games finally release their in-house developed port of their classic board game Neuroshima Hex.

I was wondering how Portal would handle the free update for existing customers. And it appears that when Portal took back the rights to the digital version of their game, they got the iOS dev account for the previous version as well. Which makes life so much easier for this sort of thing.

On a side note it’s no secret what my opinion on board games that rely/require apps to play. I don’t mind companion apps that are not integral to game play, but are optional and enhance the experience. It’s a subject that Ignacy Trzewiczek and I do not see eye to eye on. Why am I bringing it here? Well Ignacy or whoever at his company wrote the app release notes made my point for me!

Before this new version was released players of the app have been in limbo for about 2 years (I think that is correct, it’s definitely over a year). In that time we have seen os updates that have broken it. It has been unplayable. It’s nice for Portal to admit this, and prove one of my points.

I have to say this new version looks beautiful. I really think the game screen pops!

I do have a major criticism of this initial version. There is no in app help. It’d be handy for the iconography used in the Create Game menu option. It’s very much stumble around, trying things to work out what they are.

Plus I’m not too impressed with how to set up an online game via the Create Game screen and the Join the Game menu option.

To play with a friend I need to know their id first. I can’t just set up a private game and have them join. There is no friend list that I can see.

For me setting up an online game isn’t well thought out. Hopefully future updates will remedy this.

I look forward to playing this once more on a regular basis, and getting all the extra armies I had back.

Spirits of the Forest digital now live

apps, iOS, news

The post title says it all really.

The app version of the tile set collection board game Spirits of the Forest is “finally live on both Google Play and iOS App store and it’s free for everyone to download and play in both solitaire and multiplayer.”

Here are the all important links.

My username is surprise, surprise, whitespider1066 if you want to hit me up for a game or two.