Playdek have been very silent about Nightfall as well as Smash Up!, another AEG license that was explicitly in the pipeline. It has already been more than an year since the last half-expansion was released, it's looking more and more like both projects have been shelved and Nightfall will not receive the remaining two expansions that have icons in the app already (Blood Country, Coldest War). My suspicion is that this has to do with Playdek's inability to meet deadlines. LoW is the only case in recent memory where they have met a stated deadline very punctually, possibly because WotC would not negotiate any delays as might be seen from the always on time Magic apps. They have hinted on Facebook that the I & K update will bring a major update to their online infrastructure, with chat. But then they have been saying "chat and infrastructure updates are coming" for years now. Also, push notifications already lead to games directly ever since the SW infrastructure update.
Cafe International, now that is a fun and easy to learn game that every one should try. It reminds me of Mind Your Language...
Actually, they gave up the license for Smash Up! and it is supposedly being negotiated with another developer. I'm guessing that they had too much on their plate after the WoC deal, and some projects had to go or be put on hold. If you were a popular but small and relatively niche developer, would you rather work on a game with the D&D license or Smash Up???
Smash Up! is incredibly popular and I don't see why they couldn't have held on to it, I am certain it is perfect for the mobile market in the same way that Ascension proved to be a breakout hit for them. LoW is a great gateway euro backed by a rich legacy but it's not nearly light enough to bring in the non-board gaming crowd. In any case, can you cite your source for AEG negotiating the license with another developer? Oh also, Playdek isn't as small as niche as you might have been led to believe,
Sounds like a likely explanation, and something of a downer, since I don't actually see AEG working with any other devs to remake Nightfall and give us more content. (But then, the Stoneblade case at least sets some precedent, even if a graphically less appealing one ) There goes my hope for a Playdek-ported L5R. But then, I always hoped Playdek would NOT be the ones to realize such a project I wonder if Playdek or any other board game-focused developer is courting FFG for a standing license for LCG ports. Those monthly/quarter-monthly expansions of Call of Cthulhu, Netrunner, etc, could have been both a smart source of revenue for the devs and a great feature for iOS board/cardgamers. I never got into SW async in a way large enough even to notice, but if this means LoW feature that sorely needed improvement, that alone is cause for a very small and limited celebratory self-five. I take it Nightfall and Ascension never received these updates to the multiplayer infrastructure? (If they have, that update is not working its magic for me, at least ) And yeah, here's to hope. Hope that this promise will finally materialize, but also that they don't simply attach chat messages to end-of-turn propagation, as per rocco's original chat system for Starbase Orion (apparently, GameCenter has very limited support for chat messages in this manner), but instead deploy their own, dedicated server with separate push notifications. EDIT: If this turns out to be true, I'd be happy to be proven wrong over my above prediction for AEG's handling of Nightfall
Ascension does bring you directly into a game from the notification, but I don't remember about Nightfall since it has been so long since I've played that...
Hey guys just curious if you would recommend this game to someone who's never heard of it? The last card game I've played and loved is Ascension on iOS. Is there any stat tracking for solo play since I don't play online games on iOS? Thanks!
Fun theme, much more graspable than other famous worker placement games like Agricola or Le Havre, and with the scads of quests and buildings, each session can really play out differently.
So if I was a dummy, per say, and didn't understand a bit of Agricola, could I figure out this game? It "seem" more up my alley but was scared to pull the trigger... Figuratively speaking of course cause I'm a genius not a dummy
On a 1-10 scale of difficulty, I would consider Agricola and Le Havre to be about an 8. I would put LoW at about a 3 or 4. It's VERY accessible. It's also my GOY so far.
I just had a 3 player game time out one turn from the end. Player 1 timed out about half way through the game, but player 2 timed out one move from the end. And that was it, the game was over, I had won. I didn't get to see if all my hard work had won me the game for real, I didn't get to see my score or theirs. But I got the elo for it. Yay. I appreciate this is better in some ways than playing out the game against the AI, but it feels like an anticlimax when it's like this. I could give a metaphor for that feeling, but it wouldn't fit with the pg-13 rating of this board.
Lords of Waterdeep in my region at last.(Alas not in physical form still.) I love board games, especially ones with little resource cubes.(As in Age of Mythology Boardgame, best in my book.) And from the news I get that, they will be bringing more of the Wizards D&D boardgames like Castle Ravenloft. This will be a good year
I actually enjoy this game, it's much easier to grasp the concept of the gameplay. Pay careful attention to the tutorial and even go through it twice if you miss something. The cubes represent your fighters and you play your workers to get more fighters to complete quests for points. That's the dumbed down version but much more enjoyable and understanding for me then other types of board games
I don't play many board games but I'm really enjoying this. I'm currently on the last round of my first online game but one of my opponents hasn't made a move for 15 mins now... And I'm in the lead and everything, argh.
I've always scratched my head at the price point of these boardgame ports. Granted, the tried-and-true Catan's of the App Store represent substantial replay value but these titles are always priced as if they are a niche products targeting the fringes of the boardgame geekdom, who won't even hesitate. That may be a keen angle, but as someone who loves board games, I DO hesitate, especially when a dev asks me to pay 2-3x the AppStore median price point. Now with that being the case, even though I'm no BgG, and never heard of or played this boardgame, the enthusiasm and anticipation I saw in the TA forums convinced me to disregard my frugal sensibilities and give it a shot. Well, I'm glad I did, and even though it broke my monthly game budget, it is one of my better recent purchases. What a great implementation of what is seemingly a great boardgame. While I've never played Agricola, I understand this is a high-fantasy reskin/take on that revered game. It seems that, Like all great board games, LoW is accessible and easy to learn (tutorials withstanding) but strategically deep enough to to take some time to master and allow players to refine a preferred/dynamic strategy. I've played a half-dozen games against easy AI and am 3 for 3, every game being close, with the AI always keeping it challenging. The game, obviously using the ported assets, is polished and quick. While the art is good, it's not at the level you'll see in the latest tablet tcg's, where the card art consists of multi-layer, particle-enhanced, parallaxing images; Still, it looks good, and what you would expect from a fairly recent WotC publication. Long-story-short, once again, I have TA and you fine users to thank for leading me to yet another great purchase. If you are even remotely interested in board games, and/or the D&D campaign setting, this will more than satisfy. If you are hesitating based on price alone, don't; this is a great product, and well worth your gaming dollar/pound(s).
@gmattergames: I appreciated your post, but just wanted to make one adjustment (since I most certainly AM a board game geek). LoW is in no way a re-theme or re-skin of Agricola. I say this because that comment alone could scare people off. The only similarities between the two titles is that they could both be considered worker placement games. That being said, LoW is an entry level (and great) worker placement game, while Agricola is much more complex. I'm not trying to nitpick, but it would be like saying Rayman is a re-skin of Super Mario Bros. because they're both platformers.
+1 This is much more user friendly than Agricola... That isn't taking away from Agricola or saying that LoW is easy... I have played 2.5 games against AI so far and not won but came in 2nd... Point being I get the strategy and understand the rules... Wins will come and I'm not throwing my phone in frustration because I don't get it
