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Imagine you’re a guard or servant of the Pharaoh, the divine beings you serve occupy their time laughing and cursing over a long flat box upon which strange symbols and names are carved. You are careful not to be caught watching as they throw flat, two-colored twigs and move stone pieces on the box’s surface. What they are doing must be critical to have the living gods themselves be so engrossed.
Gaming is old. At 3500 BC or earlier, Senet, predates the invention of paper when board games were carved into actual boards or clay tablets. More importantly, as soon as there’s been a segment of the populace with discretionary time there’s been a board game for them.
As civilization and technological advancements free up more time for more people, we have the first evidence of gambling in China in 2300 BC predating the scissors by centuries (and we wouldn’t combine rock-scissors-paper together until around 200 BC.) Throughout history, as things got better for more people, we’ve had humans looking to spend time together over games. Not just any time either, their “free” time, their most precious moments, when individuals choose their own course of action free from the obligations of society or survival.
Why games? What differentiates gaming from other types of recreation? All activities can be enjoyed by either witnessing or doing/making. Cooking, crafting, hiking and gardening are all examples of things that were fundamental to human survival but with progress have since become pastimes. What differentiates other forms of entertainment from gaming, for the most part, is the presence of a winner.
Competition and cooperation are two engines for improvement and evolution. From team sports to geek fandom to industry, humans are driven to group up and explore conflict. (I skipped some of the more awful examples. See ending of the 5th Element for more details.) At some level, gaming may tap into those same urges wired into our brains as a species. If done right, hopefully, these engines create bridges between people. The Olympics was intended as a more peaceful alternative for conflict driven by nationalism. Idealistically, the goal was to bring the world together with sports.
Board gaming and e-sports are now a world phenomenon. Folks travel from all over the world to celebrate them at conventions and games themselves travel the globe to get to us. Technology has made their manufacture, finance, improvement, and celebration possible. More and more, we acknowledge that the “true fan” is the one who opens up the hobby for others. There are worlds filled with dungeons & dragons, meeples & mechanics, people & possibilities and those places welcome everyone.
Gaming is important. Historically, it is a pastime of those with the most influence. Individually, people spend their most precious time doing it - their free time. On a societal level, it has the potential to bring us together in a time when we could really use a laugh and see that we’re not alone and we’re all in it together. How does this relate to making an online board gaming platform? We take our fun very seriously, because fun can have beneficial effects for everyone. We’re excited about making a gaming table big enough to seat the world.
Our next topic is making gamers.
Release Updates
New Camera Function - Inspect Mode
Developers have been designing a system which will allow users to inspect game pieces in closer detail. This will allow people to view reference cards (rules, boards, etc) more easily and appreciate the art in games as well.
Users will be able to select a game piece which will bring it into more of a ‘screen space’ view. From there, they will be able to zoom and rotate the object to view it from different angles.
We are looking to push out the first version of the feature in the coming weeks and we look forward to getting initial feedback on it!
Things to look forward to:
Inspect Mode
Publisher: Adam's Apple Games
Sovranti Developer: Paul
We really appreciate all the players sending us support tickets. Paul fixes those reported bugs as the tickets are submitted.
Things to look forward to:
Makeshift Corporation
Other corporations!
Publisher: Gamewright
Sovranti Developer: Andrew
Forbidden Desert is now complete! All the character abilities have been implemented. Recently, Andrew added game configuration options including adjusting the difficulty level and selecting the adventurers.
Things to look forward to:
Additional usability and user experience adjustments to polish the game play experience.
Publisher: Magpie Games
Sovranti Developer: Eric
Eric revised kitten selection, drafted ‘Chaos Mode’ and ‘Two Player Variant’!
We are trying to replicate the kitten selection experience that would happen in real life - for example, if you are too slow with selecting your kitten, someone else might have already grabbed it! It was challenging getting the timing to work correctly when 2 or more players try to grab the same kitten at the same time.
We’re excited to see all these features in action and this finishes up the base game.
