Not a lot of time today, so I’m going to just touch on a little nibble that I found last week but haven’t been able to coerce a certain forum member into divulging any details. Yet. It all stems from a tiny little blurb in last month’s GMT Games newsletter.
iPad, Android tablets, PC/Mac/Linux • Last Thursday I stopped by Steam several times to see if Handelabra‘s port of One Deck Dungeon was live. One of these trips — for no good reason — I scrolled down to read current Steam reviews. Negative reviews weren’t hard to spot, all complaining that this game uses too much “RNG” which is, apparently, a cool thing all the kids are saying. It means random number generation and if you’re complaining about randomness in a game that has you chucking literal handfuls of dice each turn then maybe you’re playing the wrong game. One Deck Dungeon is nothing but randomly generated numbers and, if you’re into that kind of game –other ports I can think of are Elder Sign and Roll for It! — then you’re in for a treat.
Tabletop • Before I left for Europe I was asked if I wanted to attend PDXCON, Paradox‘s annual navel gaze, in Stockholm. Of course I said yes, but before you think I’m a lucky bastard, I should tell you that I didn’t go. I’m traveling with my dad and deviating from our itinerary nearly put him in the cardiac ward, so I had to crawl back and turn them down. Luckily, there’s this thing called the internet and you can pretty much be there without actually, you know, being there. It’s been a big week of announcements thus far: Age of Wonders: Planetfall, Imperator: Rome, and more. That said, the biggest announcement (in my board game centric eyes) was made today. Paradox is bringing some of their biggest franchises to the tabletop.
iOS, Android • I’m anything but an expert traveler, but I feel worldly enough to share this one travel tip: when using Airbnb, double check that the apartment you’re moving into has WiFi. If you’re wondering where I’ve been this week, I basically failed to follow this rule and have been unable to post due to being in an apartment sans internet since Monday. “But there are tons of places with WiFi in Vienna!” I can hear you screaming. This is true, but I’m traveling with my father who doesn’t view writing as a “real job” and therefore has little patience for me to whip out my laptop when we’re sitting at a cafe. I’m learning he has little patience in regards to just about everything, actually. It’s been a fun couple of weeks. Anyway, there has been activity on the App Store, so I’m going to try to post something while we’re on the train to Salzburg. It may be brief because the WiFi on the train isn’t great and it’s only a 2 hour ride, but at least you know that I’m still alive. As for our WiFi-free apartment, we move out on Saturday to a new apartment and, yes, I checked that it has WiFi. Next week should be far more productive.
iPad, Android Tablet, PC/Mac/Linux • Not to get all Galadriel on you, but the world has changed. I can feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I sense it on the App Store. Earlier this week saw the actual, zeroes-and-ones release of a digital board game, Among the Stars. Today we learned that another much-anticipated game is coming to life next week. If the headline didn’t give it away, it’s One Deck Dungeon from Handelabra.
iPad, PC/Mac/Linux • It’s always nice to wake up to a surprise unless said surprise involves wet sheets and a horse head. Today’s non-horse-head-based surprise comes from our Discord channel, where Athros discovered that Aspyr Media is at it again in regards to Civilization VI for iPad. Yep, a new update has landed and it’s a doozy.
iPad, PC/Mac/Linux, Switch, PS4/Vita, Xbox One • While I know Darkest Dungeon isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, I think we can all agree that, yep, it probably is the darkest of all dungeons. You can bring torches along, but it’s still dark. In fact, the only color you’ll see while playing is blood red, and that’s when your beloved heroes go insane, which is better than death. Or is it? In June there will be more color coming to Darkest Dungeon, namely a new expansion called The Color of Madness.
iOS Universal, Android • In this year of endless betas, we’ve had at least one launch that was worth talking about, the Tinder-ish roguelike, Meteorfall. I really liked the game even though — yes, you were all right about this — it’s not a substitute for Dream Quest. Is anything, though? Today Meteorfall received its first major content update since its January launch, something called the Necrodude.
PC/Mac/Linux • Well, that headline was embarrassing. Fear not, our headline writer has just been sacked and replaced with a mindless stooge [it’s Dave. It’s always been Dave -ed.] who has agreed to write boring headlines for half the price. While it was embarrassing, this headline was relevant to the game at hand, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire which has a Golden Age of Piracy vibe mixed in with its Infinity Engine roots. Why should we care? Because PoE2: Deadfire releases today.
iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux • Acram Digital made their digital name with a well done port of Steam: Rails to Riches and, later, Ryan Laukat‘s Eight-Minute Empire. Both games nailed what made their cardboard cousins so much fun and presented everything polished to a glistening shine. Even better, their releases weren’t just for mobile, but the PC/Mac/Linux crowd could get in on the fun as well via Steam. Looks like those salad days are behind us, however, as all of Acram’s titles have been removed from Steam due to the folks at Acram being naughty.