5 ms·

I can tell this is much more than just “Tabletop Simulator on a tablet”, although at $500 you’re likely to get a lot of attention from the Twilight Imperium and

I can tell this is much more than just “Tabletop Simulator on a tablet”, although at $500 you’re likely to get a lot of attention from the Twilight Imperium and Gloomhaven crowd. I know more than a few childless people in my local gaming circle who would drop a half-large on accessories that simplify game execution. But clearly this product isn’t about making existing board games easier to set-up/play/clean-up. I think the marketing dept has a lot of heavy lifting to do, convincing buyers that this isn’t just Juicero for existing board games.

Novosell 11mo ago
Exact same thoughts here. This should, imo, be marketed at boardgame nerds, who are adults, and not 3-7 year olds which it seems to currently be. Which toddler is asking for this for christmas? I suppose a boardgame nerd might buy it to use with their toddler, but that is a niche of a niche of a niche.
- 0xDEAFBEAD 11mo ago
  Maybe if they pitched it as a way to get your kids away from solitary iPad usage and interacting with each other instead?
  - mindjiver 11mo ago
    Well, parents could also set some ground rules for iPad usage and enforce them! I don't think another screen is a good solution to get someone off a screen. You can just play a normal board game with the kids.
2muchcoffeeman 11mo ago
I play games like Gloomhaven and TI4. Not sure how this product would simplify anything. Far too small for any of the more complex board games. I guess I could scroll around but then what does physical piece detection give me? Then it’s $500USD. My game group and myself got Gloomhaven from Epic for free and played through the campaign together. BGA subscription is cheap. So many games have online implementations that are free. And I can buy a lot of boardgames for $500. What’s the draw here?
- 0xDEAFBEAD 11mo ago
  Maybe they need to work with the creators of Gloomhaven etc to design their next game specifically so it can be played on this tablet, to cut down on the need for bookkeeping.
  - 2muchcoffeeman 11mo ago
    The main problem with games like Gloomhaven and TI4 isn’t the book keeping. It’s getting the people around a table at the same time. Need 6 players for TI4 and the same group multiple times for a campaign. Hence why I’ve been playing the digital versions online with my group.
    - 0xDEAFBEAD 11mo ago
      That's fair, I do believe there are games where bookkeeping is a problem though.
      - 2muchcoffeeman 11mo ago
        You’re right. But it’s only a problem if you can play in the first place. Of course solving book keeping effectively can lead to more possible times to play since you don’t need as long. Online platforms like BGA solve both problems and are pretty cheap and constantly implement new games. And I can play with friends that have moved overseas! And if you have a regular group, you only need to pay one subscription. Could have an old fashioned LAN party for online boardgames for an order of magnitude less money.
    - mnky9800n 11mo ago
      That problem extends into a lot of spaces of adulthood.
- sleepybrett 11mo ago
  it does open up some possibility for mechanics that exploit the fact that the play area ("board") is almost infinitely mutable. But honestly concepts like this, mixing of physical and digital, have been tried to very little success in the gaming space for years. Out best success is wii-motion controls and rockband-era .. elaborate controllers. But there have been card games that utilized cameras to read the cards, skylanders, etc. Actually this is closest to some of the things that original run of microsoft surface tables could do. I played some backgammon on one with physical dice and disks. It was .. fine, but it was just backgammon, they were just showing off the object tracking features. The only thing you could do with the board was some fancy animated board themes. Anyways all of that stuff is largely abandoned. So I wish these guys luck.
cush 11mo ago
Board seems cool, but it's not a way to consolidate your collection of euro, war or 4x games into one surface. The appeal to me is making new experiences involving physics, exciting visuals, and sound. Sure maybe you can replicate some smaller abstract games, but this would make playing TI or Gloomhaven absolutely miserable. People that don't play complex games assume that the scale and number of components is a burden, but they're carefully designed to give the ability for the players to make sense of and organize the scale and complexity of the game itself (especially in TI)
Suppafly 11mo ago
I don't think the existing board game community is their market, but it's for people who like to be early adopters of tech and think they'd like to play games and have extra money, which is a pretty small market.

Novosell 11mo ago

Exact same thoughts here. This should, imo, be marketed at boardgame nerds, who are adults, and not 3-7 year olds which it seems to currently be. Which toddler is asking for this for christmas? I suppose a boardgame nerd might buy it to use with their toddler, but that is a niche of a niche of a niche.

0xDEAFBEAD 11mo ago
Maybe if they pitched it as a way to get your kids away from solitary iPad usage and interacting with each other instead?
- mindjiver 11mo ago
  Well, parents could also set some ground rules for iPad usage and enforce them! I don't think another screen is a good solution to get someone off a screen. You can just play a normal board game with the kids.

2muchcoffeeman 11mo ago

I play games like Gloomhaven and TI4. Not sure how this product would simplify anything. Far too small for any of the more complex board games. I guess I could scroll around but then what does physical piece detection give me? Then it’s $500USD. My game group and myself got Gloomhaven from Epic for free and played through the campaign together. BGA subscription is cheap. So many games have online implementations that are free. And I can buy a lot of boardgames for $500. What’s the draw here?

0xDEAFBEAD 11mo ago
Maybe they need to work with the creators of Gloomhaven etc to design their next game specifically so it can be played on this tablet, to cut down on the need for bookkeeping.
- 2muchcoffeeman 11mo ago
  The main problem with games like Gloomhaven and TI4 isn’t the book keeping. It’s getting the people around a table at the same time. Need 6 players for TI4 and the same group multiple times for a campaign. Hence why I’ve been playing the digital versions online with my group.
  - 0xDEAFBEAD 11mo ago
    That's fair, I do believe there are games where bookkeeping is a problem though.
    - 2muchcoffeeman 11mo ago
      You’re right. But it’s only a problem if you can play in the first place. Of course solving book keeping effectively can lead to more possible times to play since you don’t need as long. Online platforms like BGA solve both problems and are pretty cheap and constantly implement new games. And I can play with friends that have moved overseas! And if you have a regular group, you only need to pay one subscription. Could have an old fashioned LAN party for online boardgames for an order of magnitude less money.
  - mnky9800n 11mo ago
    That problem extends into a lot of spaces of adulthood.
sleepybrett 11mo ago
it does open up some possibility for mechanics that exploit the fact that the play area ("board") is almost infinitely mutable. But honestly concepts like this, mixing of physical and digital, have been tried to very little success in the gaming space for years. Out best success is wii-motion controls and rockband-era .. elaborate controllers. But there have been card games that utilized cameras to read the cards, skylanders, etc. Actually this is closest to some of the things that original run of microsoft surface tables could do. I played some backgammon on one with physical dice and disks. It was .. fine, but it was just backgammon, they were just showing off the object tracking features. The only thing you could do with the board was some fancy animated board themes. Anyways all of that stuff is largely abandoned. So I wish these guys luck.

cush 11mo ago

Board seems cool, but it's not a way to consolidate your collection of euro, war or 4x games into one surface. The appeal to me is making new experiences involving physics, exciting visuals, and sound. Sure maybe you can replicate some smaller abstract games, but this would make playing TI or Gloomhaven absolutely miserable. People that don't play complex games assume that the scale and number of components is a burden, but they're carefully designed to give the ability for the players to make sense of and organize the scale and complexity of the game itself (especially in TI)

Suppafly 11mo ago

I don't think the existing board game community is their market, but it's for people who like to be early adopters of tech and think they'd like to play games and have extra money, which is a pretty small market.