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Board: New game console recognizes physical pieces, with an open SDK

board.fun

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Re: Board: New game console recognizes physical pieces, with an open SDK

#111

I think this is a neat product but not one I have any interest in. I play board games in part to avoid the digital world. If a board game needs a computer to handle the rules, then it is a needlessly complicated board game.

There's plenty of games where either the setup is tedious, or some of the rules create confusion. Game of the year "Wingspan" confused everyone in my group the first time we played, and only made sense after watching a YouTube explanation. A confident system would have been great.

Setting up a game can be tedious as well; Axis and Allies is notorious for taking longer to set up than to play, but it's a lot of fun once you get going.

Re: Board: New game console recognizes physical pieces, with an open SDK

#112
The concept of combining a digital game with physical game pieces really reminded me of Osmo [1] (although their games are more focused on education and most are single-player). This could definitely enhance that experience significantly.

Good luck with the project! I hope it turns out as good as it looks (or better :D) and that someday I can justify the cost!

[1]: https://www.playosmo.com/

Re: Board: New game console recognizes physical pieces, with an open SDK

#113
post #37
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is nearly bang on correct. The pieces don't contain any electronics or sensors, they have a conductive pattern built into the surface using specialized materials and a manufacturing technique we developed in house. Our custom software stack processes the raw data from the device's touch sensor using embedded ML on the NPU, which detects and tracks the pieces in real time. That said, the device can detect the pie…

> they have a conductive pattern built into the surface using specialized materials and a manufacturing technique we developed in house. Would this be something a home 3D printer could do? I'm not a maker but I could see the value of others being able to quickly build a universe of playing pieces if that was possible.

It would sound more logical to me to buy a stack of pre-made patterns (e.g. coin or cube form-factor) and glue them into a like-shaped slot in a 3d-printed playing piece. Assuming that is possible, and you'd still have to make a conductive path to the person touching the piece, but this would be much easier than printing the pattern yourself.

Re: Board: New game console recognizes physical pieces, with an open SDK

#114
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it does open up some possibility for mechanics that exploit the fact that the play area ("board") is almost infinitely mutable. But honestly concepts like this, mixing of physical and digital, have been tried to very little success in the gaming space for years. Out best success is wii-motion controls and rockband-era .. elaborate controllers. But there have been card games that utilized cameras to read the cards, sk…

Building diy multitouch tables has been possible for a long time now, given time, space and budget for that project. I fully agree that it ultimately boils down to software: Can I implement my favorite board game for my multitouch interface? Yes. Can I bring that game to the table faster by just buying a physical copy? Yes. I happen to have two 42" touch displays set aside for such a project - a unused backup unit de…

mt tables are fine and dandy and exactly what friends have built. There are several solutions for augmenting consumer panels for multitouch. This product is a bit further than multitough though.

The problem is that I see few reasons for playing boardgames, with friends, on them. You loose a lot of 'delight' factor. Physical pieces are very important to most people. I think if you asked two chess players if they would rather sit in a park and play in the sun with a physical set or play with a touchscreen inside, they would probably select the first.

I have played many digital board games, especially during covid. It's harder for me to concentrate on the game, it's less delightful. However for solo experiences and some extremes (gloomhaven) I do prefer digital games. (I also learned root digitally so that I could hurry my understanding of each faction before I played it physically with players who had a few games under their belt, and I play a lot of solo dune imperium because i love that game more than my friends it seems)

Can this product's support for physical pieces crack the 'delight in physicality' problem. Maybe. Like I said, I had some experience with this on the surface table like 15 years ago.

I think, in my experience at least, that they only time I've wanted a digital table is for TTRPG play for very tactical tables it just keeps the game moving faster than drawing a battlemap to put minis on. There is a reason I first started seeing them during D&D 4th edition where the combat was so 'on grid'. I imagine as we try out 'Draw Steel' we may revisit that more heavily as it's combat system is very 4E aligned.

The product is a concept that I want to work more than it, historically, has.

Re: Board: New game console recognizes physical pieces, with an open SDK

#116
At $500 for a large screen and CPU/GPU, my first concern would be power. This is a small company, so it's not realistic to expect iPad performance. I'm curious what the underlying hardware is, and if it's an existing mediaboard.

Mediaboard hardware is notoriously underpowered, especially with 3D. The touch response times are also questionable, usually designed for tap instead of swipe.

Re: Board: New game console recognizes physical pieces, with an open SDK

#117
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible to make your own pieces with a multi-material 3d printer (our early prototypes have been made with Bambu X1C & H2D printers), though it's pretty finicky to do so, and requires some rather expensive filament. Happy to help anyone along though!

i imagine the special filament might only be needed for a layer or two (assuming the board contact surface is the top or the bottom that is)?

It might be easier to 3d print normally, then separately 2d print the capacitative layer, then stick it on the bottom of the 3d printed piece: https://youtu.be/ON-6bdhQHpI

Re: Board: New game console recognizes physical pieces, with an open SDK

#118
post #44

Looks really fun, but only ships to the US… such a disappointment after reading up on it, and being ready to buy.

Apologies! We're a small team, and have to focus our efforts on one market for the time being. We'll be looking to expand as soon as we're able.

@nicoles: Understand. Is this just about shipping? Or don't you own the games on the platform, so they can't be shipped overseas?

Re: Board: New game console recognizes physical pieces, with an open SDK

#119

There is a huge demand for an off the shelf device like this for TTRPGs. There are entire companies making animated maps that are predicated on people laying a TV on its back on a table and building a custom case for it. I imagine they would all love to sell their maps on a dedicated off the shelf product.

Many say they would be useful for RPGs, but how? I know those that play with a large screen (i.e. old tv) on the table to display maps while playing. You do not need to track the pieces for that though? Typically the GM has a phone or laptop with a UI to control what is displayed when, to reveal new areas etc. I can't imagine a game or time when it would make sense that a player moves a miniature/token on a digital b…

I am one of those DMs and I've thought before about trying to build a system like this. The main problem for me with the screen is that it is hard from my position to tell exactly what square any particular mini is in. It would be great for me if my laptop's view of the map showed where minis were and where they were moving to.

I agree that I wouldn't want new area of the map to be automatically revealed, but detecting where they were and giving me a one-click option to reveal X squares around the mini would definitely save me time at the time.

That being said, this screen is a non-starter for me because it is just too small. We use a 40+ inch screen and I'd love to go even bigger than that. Definitely not down to a (maybe) 23x13 square screen.

Re: Board: New game console recognizes physical pieces, with an open SDK

#120
I don't really play board games, but if I did I can imagine being worried about forced updates, general online connectivity, inevitable ads, microtransactions, longevity, etc being a concern.

The current people behind Board might promise to deliver now, but who knows what will happen 5 years down the line.

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