275 The Physi-Digital Board Game

After yesterday’s post about custom game hardware, I thought more about implementing it in a unique way. Lots of games have tried, failed, or had limited/niche appeal. I think in many ways (outside of something as universal as music, as with Rock Band / Guitar Hero), it’s unavoidable that it will be niche. Embracing this might be its best shot at success.

So, eventually my thoughts landed on board gaming. Maybe because I just bought Machi Koro recently, maybe because I’ve been playing Armello a lot, or maybe because I love the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and am secretly always thinking about it.

What if an experience were equally digital and physical. First, take all the best pats of a physical game, the tactile nature, community feel, complex but rewarding rule sets, custom game pieces, and piece management. Then add in some of the best parts of digital games, their ability to crunch numbers for us, manage stats and rules, show scenarios through high-fidelity graphics and sound, response interfaces, things like this. Leave out some of the negatives of each, like the tedious setup time of physical games, the barrier to entry of a console controller, rules management of board games, and so on.

Right now all of these ideas are rolling around in my head. I’ll post soon some ideas of how this could be accomplished through custom game hardware.

[ Today I Was Playing: Persona 4: Dancing All Night and Armello and Teslagrad ]

#board-game, #digital-game, #physical-game