![]() ![]() On the one hand I think the game itself is nicely presented and everything you need is there without too many menus which is always welcome.īut it's the quality of life, practical details such as a lack of undo button, the fact it's hard to press the 'Pass' and 'Skip' buttons on a phone screen, no Android notifications - all that bothered me fairly quickly. Figuring out how to set up our first game took up the best part of an hour and that's time I'm not going to get back… I mean it's difficult. PETE: I think there's certainly a lot of features lacking in the app and I don't know if that's because it's older or because it's from Asmodee. It all added up to an experience that pales in comparison to my more commonly used online multiplayer apps (Patchwork, Ascension, Shards of Infinity, Morels). Several times, I got logged out of the online system for reasons that remain unclear. I was the only person in my online games who had notifications for turns, so games were usually very slow. Adding friends was not as simple as it should have been. Is there a feature of the app you feel particularly strongly about?ĪARON: Despite the online functionality having improved marginally since early reviews, I still found it pretty frustrating. Four 'chapters' that don't patronize, explain important parts of the game succinctly and then leave the rest for the player to work out by playing out things to see what happens, or chatting with other players. So for me I consider an essential part of a good board game app. ![]() I tend to find reading rule books a pain - my eyes glaze over andmy brain switches off - and I'm definitely the kind of person who learns better with someone explaining the rules to me. I don't think I saw an effective energy card or microbe card in either of my first two plays. Had to get a couple of games in before I fully understood how some of the basics worked, partially due to the large amount of mechanics and partially because there are SO MANY CARDS in this game. They were largely very effective in teaching me the game, though this one is meaty enough that I didn't absorb all the rules right away. How did you learn the rules of the game? If you used the in-app tutorial, did you feel it was an effective way to learn?ĪARON: I used the tutorials in the app. Thanks to Aaron Bolner and Pete McDonald for taking the time to answer some questions about their experience, see the full interview below. This is the first in our series about these digital tabletop learning adventures, and it is about none other than Terraforming Mars, one of the biggest games in the space. In such cases, they have graciously decided to chronicle their experiences learning the game through the app and playing it for a bit. While their individual lists may be different, they do include overlaps from time to time. See an app on sale for a good price, why now drop $3 on it, you'll eventually get around to learning it at some point, right? Much like physical games, the answer is often 'maybe.'Ī few of our regular on the Pixelated Cardboard Discord server ( link again) have decided to band together and clean some games off of their digital shelf of shame by learning them. The Shelf of Shame is not only a physical board game reality, it also very much exists in the digital tabletop world. ![]()
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