Vectorform - Catan on the Microsoft Surface

[bogdanbp84]

Spending a butt load of money just to be in trends with technology, when the classical, more reasonable version is around, especially when talking about a game, seems extremely idiotic. Just saying...

[hautelfe]

Personnellement, je préfère jeter de vrai dé, poser des colonies en bois et avoir des cartes en main, mais l'idée est sympa, cela permet de gagner du temps pour la préparation du jeu et le rangement, on ne perd pas les petites pièces dans l'aspirateur et c'est bien classe. :)

[dtstrain]

They need to combine this public table with handheld screens for the private aspects of a game. Then you could have space empire games that show the galaxy in the general area, but where players can conduct their empire's actions on their private screens, and so on.

[thebrainsquid]

While I think that the Microsoft surface could be used for some really great things, I would never want to play Catan like this and the project seems a little like a waste of time.

[brandaopj]

Muito Bom :)

[nikdudnik]

What a lame music!

[GregJoshuaW]

@nikdudnik agreed.

[kurona]

Okay, now i want Twilight Imperium on this.

[michaelmflood]

The resource generation certainly looked like it would save some time, especially on larger boards. Does this support custom boards or just the default? I wonder if you could place one of those privacy filter screens designed for laptops on airplanes over your cards to prevent others from other angles seeing them?

[TrocaderoTrollet]

Cool demo, but that looks nearly unplayable. Having to hide your hand in that way seems _much_ more annoying than holding a stack of cards. They should have done Carcassonne instead, that would probably work much better since there is no hidden information.

[dewfreakii]

@TrocaderoTrollet Re: Carcassonne, I agree. I've played those card games like poker and even gin where you have to click to see your cards. It really is a pain in the butt. If they made it for the iPad where you don't have to hide your cards, that would be better. Sadly, I don't think it would work on a device smaller than the iPad (ex. the iPhone).

[calorblind]

it looks a bit cramped though

[fathermocker88]

wow, amazing!!! I would love to play board games on the Microsoft Surface ^^

[VeronW]

This is cool, but I wonder why to recreate a perfect board game in a digital table version, so my question to everyone is: what are the advantages/disadvantages of having Settlers on the Surface over setting up the boardgame on the normal table?

+ You dont need to sort out your items

+ You don't need to set up your pieces / board

- You cannot play with your pieces

- You cannot sort your cards or lay them apart when you got enough resources

Please add up! I am curious about your thoughts!

[dewfreakii]

This would seem easier if it were on the iPad or a device like that. That way it would be portable. But I don't see it being feasible to purchase the Microsoft Surface just for the game (unless it costs under $30). And if you did purchase it for something other than Catan, you probably shouldn't be playing Catan on it!

[GregJoshuaW]

@VeronW I just want it to organize the board. Then, I want to put the real pieces on top of the "Surface. " That way, I don't have to worry about the board pieces not fitting. This would be especially awesome for Seafarer's edition where the boards take up to 10 minutes to assemble correctly.

[GMarsack]

Very cool!