ipad board games

a.grajirena

i was walking home tonight and i started thinking about ipad board games. the possibilities seem endless and it seems like the perfect platform. i got home and googled it and there were plenty of articles. what do you all think? would a board game be a good GS project?

adado

Board games would be great on an iPad but until GS has arrays/indices for a data type/structure, there would be a lot of manual work on board spots/landing areas (i.e. their rules, position, linking to each other) and player piece/avatar movement along those items. This is coming from a "Game of Life" or "Sorry" type game. For games with more logic in their movement or game play (i.e. checkers, chess, card games, etc.) the lack of arrays/indices and switch/case type decision making would probably create some headache rulesets.

I'm sure one could pull it off but they may be kicking themselves in the pants if two months later GS has those features.

If it was a kiddie board game, it would probably be a bit easier since they are usually simpler and smaller/shorter.

a.grajirena

Ya that makes sense, a lot of the more complicated games would have to wait.

Check this out though, I found an app called GameTable (http://www.gametableapp.com/) that offers checkers, chess, backgammon and cards without any built-in logic! just pieces that can be moved around. so, basically as with a normal board the players are responsible for handling the rules. I thought it was a great idea.

maniraptor

Interesting idea. I like it!

One could probably get around some of the design constraints by reworking traditional board game mechanics in ways that take better advantage of the way GS handles data and game logic. The complexity involved there, however, does make my head hurt. Arrays would make creating these types of games much easier.

A Candy land-style game wouldn't be too hard, but a game like Settlers of Catan would be impossible (obviously). I'm wondering if some Euro-style board games would be easier to make on the iPad. There was one I played with rocks, where the goal was to build the biggest cairn...

The one drawback to these games on iPad is that the board gamers I know REALLY love the "goober", ie the tangible bits and pieces (like meeples, and those rocks) that come with board games.

scorelessmusic

There is really a tactile element to physical board games and the like and people still pay a premium for quality they can touch and feel.