iOS Universal, Android, PC/Mac •
Way back in August we assured everyone that the 64-bit update to everyone’s favorite Playdek game involving questing with cubes, Lords of Waterdeep, would be released on August 23. For those of you without a working sundial, that means the new LoW was supposed to be here over a week ago. Making software is tough, things happen, bugs are found, and sometimes even Wizards of the Coast gets involved. All that is over now, though, as we can expect the new Lords of Waterdeep to arrive later today.
Playdek has upgraded the Apple version of LoW to make it 64-bit compliant, granting a stay from 32-bit execution when iOS 11 releases in the next month or so. That’s not all, though. For the first time, you’ll also be able to play Lords of Waterdeep on an Android device or, for those too cool for mobile, on your PC or Mac via a Steam release.
So, what’s new? The game has been rebuilt in Unity, and has converted the board to have that pseudo3D/parallax look that we’ve seen before in games like Sorcery!. For those of you who find that nauseating, you can turn it right the heck off and flatten the entire city back into only two dimensions. Early images also seem to indicate that landscape mode is now a thing, so turn your phones and see what happens.
The update will be free for owners of the iOS version with the Android version selling for $10 and the PC/Mac version going for $15. To celebrate the launch, however, the mobile versions will be half-off this week, available for $5, and the PC/Mac version will be 30% off as well. IAP will also be on sale, and you can pick up Undermountain and Skullport expansions for $3 each.
Brad over at 164 has a preview video up if you want to see the new LoW in action. Check it out below.
- Lords of Waterdeep for iOS Universal, $5
- Lords of Waterdeep for Android, $5
- Lords of Waterdeep for PC/Mac via Steam, $15
And the feverish searching for the Android version on Google Play begins.
The PC/Mac version isn’t going live for another 4 hours or so. Expecting the Android to go live around the same time. If someone finds the Android link, please post and I’ll add it to the story.
Great news! Thanks, Playdek!
Now how about an IAP that changes my cubes into meeples😝.
iOS update is live. Interesting that the map is now landscape orientation only (unless I’m missing something)–I’d taken the game off my iPad because I rarely play portrait games on that device. And the in-game chat is a pleasant surprise.
Steams up too. Waiting on that Android version like…
Good! Other companies, who sell much more expensive games, seem not able to provide this transition to 64 era to their customers. “It’s all apple fault… bla,bla bla”.
Hat tip to playdek. Please give me an option to throw some money at you guys… I’m really begging you… give me a game, and I’ll give you my money. I’ve even considered to name my boy Gary, but my wife objected.
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playdekgames.waterdeep
The changes to the board have caused me to remove the game from my device. Things are blurry, it looks like a port rather than the native iOS game it is, the overall usability has dropped to me. It’s very aggravating to me since this is one of the few worker placement games I enjoy.
I feel like the blurriness has to be a mistake. Why would they make the game look worse?
It really is … most welcome.
Of course everything looks strange at the moment because it is … but will probably seem completely normal after a few turns … landscape is good … and necessary for a version that will also be on PC.
@athros The universality no doubt led to some compromises … so far I don’t see that the usability has dropped … everything is there … but I guess you mean that the look is just too off-putting for you to use the new version comfortably …
@Neumannium
I think like this is a bit of an indictment on us gamers as a while; the new version is different so we immediately go negative. Yes, the old version was pretty much perfect, and no, I can’t stand the parallax effect either (so I turned it off), but the forced landscape orientation and new UI are still completely serviceable and will be intuitive after a game or two. Our options are this new version or no Waterdeep at all and this new version is fine. The outcry seems a bit much.
it’s a tapfest now
card texts in many screens are too small, so tap to enlarge this, tap to enlarge that, tap, tap, tappititap.
for me it looks and feels like a browsergame now. adapted to big fat flatscreen monitors.
i must even tapswitch between opponents’ player boards
“i must take it if i want to play it” pragmatism is ok, but i can’t love it like i did before when it was an outstanding piece of native app art.
Parallax? i don’t see much of a difference when i switch on/off.
parallaxblindness?
Much like @JammaTal said. The 2-3 taps to get to anything, the text being too small necessitating a tap to enlarge, tapping to look at other player boards (with another tap to enlarge the damn text), taptaptaparoo.
The blurry text, board and icons are a bad joke when it was actually clear before. The parallax effect is nauseating (I’m happy there’s an option to turn it off).
It’s a shoddy PC port now, no longer built for touch.
It’s off my device and likely won’t return, not that it matters much. Playdek already got my money for the game and expansions. It makes me somewhat paranoid for the rest of the Playdek catalogue getting these kinds of “improvements”
Twilight Struggle is an excellent example for “the best in both worlds” though
Playdek can do it.
I agree, but I haven’t played it in a while. I’m trash at the game so it doesn’t get played a whole lot, and the people I play these games with usually are all deployed to the desert so my game time is dwindling dramatically until they get back stateside (mid-2018)
Ingamechat? Wohoo!
I’ll have to actually play a game to know, but at first glance this does look like a huge mistake to iOS users.
You can still zoom, I always played zoomed in anyways
Could you elaborate on this a bit. I’d like to understand the specific issues so we can address it. Not trying to be argumentative here, but we’re getting a huge range of feedback on the new version across all platforms.
“Card text in many screens are too small”
In the previous version, we didn’t show the whole card when it was in a player tray, just the condensed half height version, so there was no text on the card. We’re still doing that on the iPhone version, but iPad shows the entire card. Would the half height be better since the icons are larger but the only text is the card name?
“tap to enlarge this, tap to enlarge that”
You had to double tap every card to see what it did in the previous version. How is the new version different? Is it because you have use buttons to scroll between magnified cards instead of swiping?
“I must even tapswitch between opponents’ player boards”
You had to do this in the previous version. All of your opponents were only shown by name at the top of the screen, and you had to tap through each one of them in order to see the adventurers in their tavern.
The “Map Parallax” settings will tilt the map to track your finger when you touch the device. It’s more noticeable on PC when it is tracking the mouse cursor.
Are you playing with the default map view that appears when you load the game or are you zooming in the so map is flat?
There’s an issue with some of the textures that only seems to occur on iOS, which is causing the fuzziness in some of the icons. We’re looking into it now.
Thanks for your feedback!
I haven’t played a game yet, so can’t comment fully on the new versions, But after poking around for a few minutes, my main concern is the sharpness of the assets on ios. If, as I expect, that is being dealt with I don’t have too many concerns. But on my iphone 6+ I find the available quests a bit too small to clearly read. This never seemed to be an issue in the previous version.
Another thing, which wouldn’t normally be an issue (as I wouldn’t do it in game), is with resizing the board. After resizing the board in a manner that changed the tilt of the screen, the screen is unresponsive to scrolling, even though I can’t see the quests at the top of the board.
Lastly, switching apps resulted in a full reload of Lords of Waterdeep. I believe in the previous version I could switch back into an active game, but I guess I am due for a hardware upgrade…
I started getting email notifications now for turns. Is everyone else seeing this? Any idea how to turn it off?
Login to the online lobby, click on profiles, and find the notifications tab. Mine was selected by default and I turned it off as soon as the update dropped.
Thanks! Never would have thought to look there.