Thursday, March 28, 2024

GenCon Report: Asmodee Digital Lets You Game From Beyond The Tabletop

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The intersection between the digital and the physical has become a theme at GenCon in recent years, and 2018’s was no different. Computer games are becoming board games, video game companies are making board games, and there is even a growing market for VR tabletop. One of the companies leading the charge from dinner table to computer screen is French developer Asmodee Digital. I had a chance to talk with Julie Le Vacon, Head of PR & Social Media at Asmodee, about their newest releases and hottest GenCon announcements.

Coming Soon

Terraforming Mars

Terraforming Mars debuted in 2016 from Fryx Games, and was hailed as one of the best games of the year by publications like Popular Mechanics, ars technica, and Polygon. It was also nominated for a Kennerspiel des Jahres (Connoisseur Game of the Year) at the prestigious Spiel de Jahres board game awards in Germany. This success, and a very dedicated fanbase, has led to a lot of excitement as Asmodee brings the game into the digital realm.

Set in the 2400’s, you take on the role of a corporation competing with other corporations (one of them no doubt led by the preserved brain of Elon Musk) to transform Mars from a lifeless husk into a new home for humanity. At its core, Terraforming Mars is similar to other resource management games like Catan in that you must get enough money and resources to change the climate or build cities. The end goal of the game is to have more victory points than the other players. In the demo I played, I ended up using an ocean that an AI built to benefit my buildings. While certainly not the fast-paced action game that’s going to take EVO by storm, it’s a really well-made strategy game for people who love the genre. With the addition of the Internet, you can play against faraway friends or total strangers. The game is also ripe for expansions, even beyond the two that have already released.

Terraforming Mars is due to release at the end of September of this year and will be coming to Steam and eventually iOS and Android.

Scythe: Digital Edition

Scythe, designed by Jamey Stegmaier and published by Stonemaier Games, is another hit game from 2016 that Asmodee is adapting. The game is set in an alternative 1920’s Europe, where dieselpunk engines of war fight for territory in the wake of the Great War. It won awards from BoardGameGeek.com and Geek and Sundry and was followed by three expansions (the second of which, The Wind Gambit, won awards on its own).

Players take on one of the factions that are vying for control in Europe. The goal of the game is to earn all six stars for your faction. These are obtained through accomplishing goals like playing all four mechs or a secret objective like Crimea’s “King of the Hill.” Players spend the game trading or gathering resources, building their nation and military up, fighting their opponents, or upgrading their ability to act.

The game is a one to one rendition of the physical game board, but with all the dynamism that a digital game can offer. They also kept the absolutely breathtaking oil paint art by Jacob Rozalski, meaning the game retains the unique aesthetic that has made it so popular.

Scythe is currently available on Steam Early Access and is planned to be released in Q3 of this year.

New Games For Console

Ticket To Ride (Ps4)

Ticket To Ride is one of the biggest successes in board gaming this century, and since its release in 2004 has sold over three million copies. While I’ve never quite understood the appeal of the game, it has certainly made its mark on the landscape. It has won myriad awards, gotten seven spin-offs, and 17 expansions (not including fan add-0ns). Asmodee has already released versions of Ticket for iOS, Android, and Steam, but their newest version releases for the PS4.

The game is built around constructing a network of railways connecting different destinations around the map, claiming routes and placing train tiles as they compete to become a railroad tycoon. The winner is the player who has connected the most destinations. The new game will use Sony’s brand new Playlink system, where players will be able to use their phones to look at their digital hands and plan ahead.

Ticket To Ride comes to PS4 at the tail end of 2018

Carcassone (Nintendo Switch)

Ah, Carcassone. The German game with the hard to pronounce name. Released in 2000 by Hans im Glück, Carcassone has been a staple of strategy gaming since its release and received nearly 30 expansions. Asmodee has previously released the game on both Google Play and Steam, but in a first for Asmodee, Carcassone will be releasing soon on the Nintendo Switch.

Players must work to develop their medieval fortress by building roads, cloisters, cities, and fields. The player does this by placing development tiles and adding “meeple” to that tile to gain the points and resources therein. The game’s winner is the player who has the most points after the last tile is placed.

Carcassone on Switch will use the same 3D appearance as the version on Steam, and Asmodee is confident that the game will be the first of many games to come to the Switch.

Carcassone will come to the Switch in the final part of this year.

Asmodee Looking Forward

Gloomhaven

While Asmodee has made a name for themselves adapting board games directly to the screen, their newest games will be brand new games inspired by board games. Their biggest announcement at GenCon was the announcement that Gloomhaven, declared “No. 1 Board Game Of All Time” by BoardGameGeek, will be developed as a video game by Asmodee and Flaming Fowl Studios. In a press release, Asmodee’s Chief Marketing Officer Phillipe Dao said that Gloomhaven “continues our commitment of expanding our catalog with more original video game experiences based on board game IPs and not just direct 1:1 adaptations of existing board games.”

The new game will be a dungeon crawler like the board game, but will actually look, play, and feel like a dungeon crawl video gaming while still using the look and mechanics of the original. It will be an RPG with turn-based tactical combat that allows people to team up in an “infinitely replayable” roguelike. Players will fight through the procedurally generated levels to find loot and level up their abilities.

Gloomhaven is due to release on Steam Early Access in the first part of 2019.

Mansions of Madness: Mother’s Embrace

The first game announced by Asmodee to adapt a board game to an original game, Mansions of Madness is based on Fantasy Flight’s hit Lovecraftian strategy game. The new game will emulate the story and atmosphere of the original in Asmodee’s first adventure game. The player will take place in an eerie mansion in 1926, and must lead a team of investigators through traps, puzzles, and monsters to discover the secret of the mansion. But like any good Lovecraft game, you must beware you do not allow the madness to take you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWcBEy-G3fA

Mansions of Madness: Mother’s Embrace will release for Steam in early 2019.

 Munchkin

Munchkin! You’ve played it! I’ve played it! It has a billion licenses, versions, and adaptations. It’s the game that made Steve Jackson Games. From space to superheroes to ninja turtles, Munchkin has been seemingly everywhere since it released in 2001. Its skewering of nearly every media property has made it popular, but it has especially endeared itself to tabletop gamers for its extremely well-informed parodies of common tropes in games like D&D (even the name, Munchkin, refers to a player archetype who play the game way too aggressively, turning a co-op experience in a competition). The game is fast and frenetic, encouraging players to undermine and backstab their fellow players.

The game, like Mansions and Gloomhaven, will be a full on game rather than a digital card game. It will be a dungeon crawler, with players moving through each room to fight monsters from the Potted Plant to the dreaded Gazebo to the mighty Squidzilla. It will be, in the words of Le Vacon, a “co-opetition” game where the players are all heading towards the same goal, but only one can come out on top. The new game was produced with the personal help of Steve Jackson himself and captures the spirit of Munchkin in a radical new way.

Munchkin will come to Steam in 2019


Images courtesy of Asmodee Digital

Author

  • Dan Arndt

    Fiction writer, board game fanatic, DM. Has an MFA and isn't quite sure what to do now. If you have a dog, I'd very much like to pet it. Operating out of Indianapolis.

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