If you enjoy card games and you own an iPad, then I’m pretty sure you’re one of those who seriously roll their eyes when they hear the word “Dominion." For the uninitiated, Dominion was created by game designer Donald X. Vaccarino and published by Rio Grande Games in 2008 and is seen by many as the grandfather of deck-building card games, and even though some find it a bit boring, its influence is seen in many great card games including Stoneblade’s Ascension. Back in 2012, Goko Games tried to develop an HTML5-based platform in order to enable iOS players to enjoy cross-platform gaming without needing to download a separate app. Goko based its whole marketing on launching Dominion as its flagship game to prove the technology worked. Notable as the ambition was, it failed so miserably that it actually became a joke among iOS gamers.
Well, apparently the joke’s over (maybe) because Dominion Online has entered closed beta last week and its developer, Making Fun, (really, really appropriate name given the history of Dominion on iOS) has said that if all goes as planned, you’ll be able to download Dominion Online on your iPad by June this year. The app is 80% complete from a technology perspective, but there’s still work to be done. Dominion Online will offer cross-platform multiplayer games and rewritten single-player campaigns that introduce variants of traditional Dominion play. Making Fun doesn’t seem interested in developing an iPhone version of the game, because they don’t feel an iPhone 5/5s screen would be big enough for the game, and since Apple doesn’t allow them to release only on the iPhone 6/6 Plus, the game will in all probability be iPad only.
So, stay tuned for the upcoming (?) Dominion Online app. I’m a very optimistic person by nature, so I believe the game will be making its way on the iPad soon, maybe.
