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

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

#141

Post by ryanmeasel »

arjie wrote: post #21

Cool product. Is the SDK open? Any time I play a complex board game like Ark Nova, Spirit Island, etc. game running consumes a lot of time. So this tool is to me better showcased with a complex game that needs game-running that computers handle better. Also I'm curious about the board pieces and how more could be made. Do they have stickers on the bottom I could just transpose onto existing pieces, etc

Yes, the SDK is open. It's built for Unity in C# with Unreal/Godot to follow.

Please reach out if interested to develop: https://board.fun/pages/developers

My colleague has some discussion here about how pieces are made: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45754851

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

#142

Post by ryanmeasel »

whitehexagon wrote: post #134
fwip wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you didn't see it, the FAQ partially addresses your wifi concerns: "Does Board need WiFi or batteries? Board plugs into the wall, no batteries required. WiFi is only needed when you want to download new games. Once it’s powered on, you’re ready to play." Obviously they could add ads later, but it's a little reassuring to know that it's designed from the outset to work without an always-on connection.

Not sure. As a developer I like the concept, but the more I read of the legal, the more concerns I have. It reads more like an online tablet, but without service guarantees. Maybe some of the legal was for the website, it wasn't clear to me. But there was also mention of social media, complete game usage collection, and phone and email direct marketing, defaulted to opt-in.

Other than downloading the games and updates, the device is fully functional offline.

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

#143

Post by ryanmeasel »

incomingpain wrote: post #99

I love the idea, but none of the games quite fit for me. What programming language is the games made in? Can 3d printed pieces be used?

Yes, the SDK is built for Unity in C# with Unreal/Godot to follow.

Please reach out if interested to develop: https://board.fun/pages/developers

My colleague has some discussion here about 3D printing pieces: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45754851

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

#144

Post by _zoltan_ »

october8140 wrote: post #55

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.

would you have a video link to such a map in action? I've never came across this before and sounds very interesting.

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

#145

Post by reactordev »

galagawinkle489 wrote: post #136
reactordev wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sir, I’m in the middle of a 20 year campaign…

[flagged]

Ok, I’ll bite.

We have a lot of pages, books, novels, notes, story from the last 10 years or so that would make it physically impossible to bring with me. Bringing just my iPad and a notepad is way better for me.

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

#146

Post by q2dg »

ryanmeasel wrote: post #139
pjmlp wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the best to them, this remains to be seen, including how the SDK tooling will look like. I consider Microsoft's one great, given its C# and .NET based SDK, instead of yet again C and C++.

The Unity SDK is C# and slots right into the typical Unity patterns for touch input. Two contact types are provided: Finger – Representing a single touch point, e.g, a finger Glyph – Representing a tangible object For each contact, you get ID, Position, and Phase. For Glyphs, you also get orientation and touched status, as in the system knows whether the object is being touched or not. There tunable parameters for th…

Godot SDK should be the goal

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

#147

Post by ramses0 »

ryanmeasel wrote: post #140
moring wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure, a modular system would work as you suggest. It is not a requirement to provide a conductive path to the person though. The patterns (glyphs as we call them) are detected and tracked regardless of whether they are being touched. However, when there is a conductive path to the person, the system detects that which provides another input vector.

This screams for compatibility with 3d printers. eg: design a piece to be "absorbed" by a LEGO brick (2x4, duh!), and design a capacitive pathway for "two buttons" a-la: https://a.co/d/f7wm3GA

3D print your goblin army, snap it to the base, touch the sword arm to attack, the shield arm to defend, etc. light up the base via capacitive to 0/1/2 inputs and you're set!

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

#148

Post by archi42 »

sleepybrett wrote: post #114
archi42 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If you missed physical objects, they did not do ftir with fiducal markers, I guess? There were some nice demos back when that was novel, like over a decade ago.

Some of the tables I saw at trade shows (e.g. E-World in Essen) this year also had them. On one you could place 3d printed power plants and various energy storage systems onto a map. To adjust their output, you could turn them like a knob. The company sold a management system for small grid operators, which then reacted to those demo inputs.

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

Sad but true. But then they don't exactly fit into the usual living room. However, as specialized board game tables are getting more popular every year, we might yet see a market for smart variants emerging long term. Not a huge chance IMHO, but larger than zero.

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

#149

Post by pjmlp »

ryanmeasel wrote: post #139
pjmlp wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the best to them, this remains to be seen, including how the SDK tooling will look like. I consider Microsoft's one great, given its C# and .NET based SDK, instead of yet again C and C++.

The Unity SDK is C# and slots right into the typical Unity patterns for touch input. Two contact types are provided: Finger – Representing a single touch point, e.g, a finger Glyph – Representing a tangible object For each contact, you get ID, Position, and Phase. For Glyphs, you also get orientation and touched status, as in the system knows whether the object is being touched or not. There tunable parameters for th…

Thanks for the overview, and all the best for the project.

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

#150

Post by sirwhinesalot »

galagawinkle489 wrote: post #135
sirwhinesalot wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a horrible experience. I can only suggest you try out TTRPGs that don't need this. I haven't tried it yet but Daggerheart seems to avoid the problem by providing spell cards. You can do the same in DnD and I suggest doing so, but it's not assumed by the game's design. All the old-school OSR inspired stuff doesn't have this problem. You should not need to repeatedly and consistently open the rule-book to play wha…

It isn't a board game. Maybe that's your problem. It is a roleplaying game. The mechanics of spellcasting aren't very important because combat just isn't very important. Most people don't even play with a grid and figurines (at least traditionally). You haven't explained why it is a "horrible experience" to look at a photocopied piece of paper or to open a book to a post-it note bookmark. I do these things every day…

> Most people don't even play with a grid and figurines (at least traditionally).

This is simply not true. If you want to play a pure roleplaying game, play a rules-light one. DnD is not that.

Everyone homebrews little bits so I'm not going to harp too much on that, but there's no point discussing the issues of DnD's design if we're not talking about DnD's design but rather whatever your homebrewed version of DnD is.

Did you know the game is balanced around 8 combat encounters per session? Do you know how many tables actually play that number of combats per session? It's a badly designed game.

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