Care About Your Customers! - Why You Should Support Your Board Game With an App

As you might already know we are standing behind the project ROAR. It is a first sound driven hybrid board game ever and it actually requires a mobile app to play. It has a lot of advantages. Let me name just possibility of reaching your players, learning their playing habits or cross-selling other games. But it has some drawbacks. Unlike regular board or card game in such a project you do have to maintain it.

We are supporting publishers of ROAR for more than a year now. You may imagine how many requests for support we got during the Holiday season when most of the thousands of boxes were opened and apps downloaded. We wanted our players to be handled quickly. Still we managed to reply in the single day and sometimes even minutes. Luckily most of the issued were straight one (e.g. wrong placement of the pawns or disabling app to access to the camera - we need to change the rulebook for this!). Some were interesting - e.g. how can I play the game if I have no camera in my tablet? (sic!) And some were though - e.g. app crash on very specific and rare configuration. In all the cases we tried to respond quickly and personalized. It was a hard month. But there is always a way to be at least slightly better!

Now, when it is way calmer period we have a time to fix what still needs to be fixed. I hope our customer value our work. I know there are some, that we could not support perfectly. (I am sorry but we cannot make the app to be run on some almost ancient or freak strange hardware). Basing on my calculations we support more than 95% of the market, but still some of the owners of ROAR got one of this 5% device. I wish I could sent to each of them a tablet that would work with the game, but can't afford this. Maybe we lost them. But maybe, because we cared, ... not?

Lego Nexo Knights - App Integrated With The Brick Toys

This year visiting LEGO booth at Spielwarrenmesse in Nuremeberg was a kind of surprise. It is hard to deny that LEGO is putting the footprints in the app and toys integration. I know and play in plenty of their apps. I have even destroyed my iPad during one of the Ninjago fights. Their newest project - Lego Nexo Knights seems to be nothing new. But...

The very nice guy - Alex, who was doing the guided tour in the booth, claimed that this is the first time Lego integrates app with the toys. How come? - I replied. He confirmed that this is not the first app they've made. But it is the first time they designed the product from the ground having the app in mind. Once you look at the knight shield and everything is clear. It looks like a kind of Augmented Reality marker we have used in our games years before. 

Lego don't use the shields as a marker. Scanning of the shield is all you need to do in order to activate special powers. It works smoothly and my son enjoy it a lot. Number of combination is substantial even though there are just 5 shields available (more to come in the next half of the year). Eventually, we have a reason to buy a new collection. No matter how bed excuse it is for my wife:)

This brings my main point to the daylight. Why are the board game designers so scared of adding the app to the game? At least for the kids? I have seen number of adults showing me their backs when they learned that our game ROAR requires an app to play. I have seen none of the kids to do the same. It is just opposite. They show high more engagement and excitement to see the tablet or phone in play. Lego already learned that!

3 Ways To Avoid App Rejected For Being Too Simple

If you developed an app for a Board Game or Augmented Reality Game you would he probably stuck into the App Rejected because it's too simple. The problem is that this is the users expect from this kind of apps... a point counter cannot be too complicated!

You cannot blame Apple because they get no direct revenue from your app. Probably your app is free if necessary for the game. Maybe the game requires to buy a physical game and they get no cut on it! Don't worry, I will explain you the problems I have found while uploading apps for our games like ROAR! and we will see how to solve the rejection! :)


Problem number 1:

2.12: Apps that are not very useful, are simply web sites bundled as apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected.

Problem number 2:

11.16: Apps may enable additional approved features or functionality when used in combination with specific approved physical products (such as a toy) as long as the additional features and functionality are either completely dependent on such hardware (for example an App that is used to control a telescope) or also available through the App without the physical products, such as by way of reward for achievement or by use of IAP

The list of reasons why your app may be rejected is HUGE! It's also very subjective, so you may be luckier with another reviewer ;)


Solution number 1:

Include the manual of your game inside the app!

This is a good idea that you should do even if Apple would not force you! It's a fantastic way of having easy correction of the rules and possibility of future localization!


Solution number 2:

Add a link to the Print and Play or Shop where to buy your game!

Again, this is pretty logical! People may find your app on the store and it would be great for them to give your game a try before buying it on the shop if possible! Also reviewers will be able to properly check the game.


Solution number 3:

Make sure don't make blockers inside the app!

This is the trickiest one... it means that if your app cannot work without physical components let the users (and reviewers) experience this necessity directly. For example they can see the camera waiting for scanning of the board. If you block access to this functionality via QR or other kind of codes Apple will require that you give the choice for the players to unlock this via In-App purchases. This doesn't make sense for Board or Augmented Reality Games and will just make things confusing!


Remember! It's all about treating your app more than a tool, but something really useful and enjoyable for your players! :)

Top new technologies to use in Hybrid Games

Hybrid games represent a new world of opportunities for board game designers. With the possibilities that new technologies like mobile or wearable devices - the sky is the limit. In this post we will go though the best examples or these new technologies in board games.

Some of the technologies mentioned below are already being used in board games, others aren't. The one thing we know for sure is that they are going to change the way we play forever.

No. 5: Smart mobile devices

Mobile devices have multitude of uses in enhancing board games. Most of the time they are simply a convenient way to store data or they become a game master, keeper of secrets or multimedia device that boosts immersion.

An example is XCOM: The board game. A game that uses a mobile device that plays against a cooperative team.

No. 4: Controller gadgets

Other devices and controllers have appeared after the boom of mobile phones and tablets. They are usually extensions of the functionality of mobile devices and cannot really do much without them.

Dice+ falls in this category. An electronic dice that connects to the phone and sends information about the rolls.

No. 3: iBeacons

iBeacons are another kind of device that can be used in games. In opposition to controllers like Dice+, iBeacons are passive and they  connect to mobile devices and send information about their localization. The gameplay opportunities that iBeacons offer are very distant from board games but they are still a kind of hybrid game.

There are plenty of companies building iBeacons at the moment like Estimote or Kontakt.

No. 2: Electronic Pawns

This is something completely new in the board game world. Pawns that move themselves and are able to keep track of rules of the game. They also do other fancy stuff depending of the model.

You can check out the ePawn for example. They are trying to kickstart themselves this very moment :)

No.1 1: Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is by far the most convenient way of empowering a board game. It feels nice and powerful. If you think about it, the possibilities of adding 3D objects and procedurally generated content to board games is AMAZING! As we said before, the future for Augmented Reality could not be better now that Hololens are on the way. It can be combined with all the previously mentioned technologies too.

Publish or Perish is a hybrid board game in development that uses Augmented Reality (Developed with Vuforia) to display super fun sub-atomic collider experiments. :)

Do you know any other technology that could be used to build hybrid games? Do you disagree with the order of this list? Do you have any suggestions for future posts? See you soon! :)