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Alberto Barbati
Italy
Milano
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Hi Everybody,
I'm pleased to announce that my new app for iPhone and iPod Touch named Boardgame Companion is now available for download on the App Store.
Boardgame Companion currently supports the following games:
- Alhambra
- Agricola
- Puerto Rico
More games will be available in future releases (suggestions are most welcome!)
Boardgame Companion is not only a slick and easy-to-use score calculator, but also provides:
- player aids which reminds you about those hard-to-remember rules: no more need to check the manuale to setup Puerto Rico!
- a geo-tagged archive of all games you play
- an archive of all your fellow players (with photos)
- possibility to share the result of your games with you friends (currently only via email, other methods will be available in future releases)
Boardgame Companion is downloadable for free and includes support for Alhambra. Support for Agricola and Puerto Rico can be purchased from inside the app, at a mere $1 each.
Happy gaming!
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Ben Friedberg
United States
Winona Lake
Indiana
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Great app! Very pretty. I really like the 'shake for first player' mechanism and the overall flow feels better than 'Score' (at least for Agricola, which really emphasizes end-game scoring)
Couple of questions / suggestions:
Would it be possible to include the Agricola card explanations and errata? I find that the thing I need to look up most of the time is whether or not card X has further explanations available or whether or not it works with card Y...
Adding the ability to add photos with associated players to capture a game session would be a huge win. For instance, it would be cool to see a record of all of the farms for each game I had played...
Any plan on synchronizing plays/images with BGG accounts?
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Alberto Barbati
Italy
Milano
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benfriedberg1981 wrote: Great app! Very pretty. I really like the 'shake for first player' mechanism and the overall flow feels better than 'Score' (at least for Agricola, which really emphasizes end-game scoring)
Thanks! Actually, one of motivations that lead me to make Companion was precisely that I found that Score doesn't help during the game. Even for end-game scoring, computing the score player after player can be frustrating for who has to wait. On the other hand, scoring by category as done in Companion keeps everyone involved until the very end, when the totals are revealed. It easily becomes a sort of ritual...
Quote: Would it be possible to include the Agricola card explanations and errata? I find that the thing I need to look up most of the time is whether or not card X has further explanations available or whether or not it works with card Y...
That would be good, although it's a hell of a work, due to the large number of cards and the fact that app is going to be localized. You also have to be careful about not infringing copyrights when including text from other sources. I'll think about it, it's a good suggestion.
Quote: Adding the ability to add photos with associated players to capture a game session would be a huge win. For instance, it would be cool to see a record of all of the farms for each game I had played...
That is certainly feasible and a good idea.
Quote: Any plan on synchronizing plays/images with BGG accounts?
Yes, I have plans for that, although it might be limited to posting game results, not a full synchronization. Sharing game results through social networks is also being considered.
Thanks again and stay tuned.
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Barak Tutterrow
United States
Clackamas
Oregon
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I love the look, flow and features of this app. Considering that Score doesn't seem to be getting much support these days, I look forward to seeing your app grow.
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Yves Tourigny
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
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I've purchased your app and the two 'expansions' modules.
Would it be possible to simply add a "blank" game with customizable name so that scores could be recorded for games for which you don't plan to create modules.
Here is a list of game modules I'd like to see added in the future (list also sent through the app):
Thebes
Imperial
Java
Mexica
Tikal
Union Pacific (if the four different scoring phases could be calculated from company value and numbers of shares owned, that would be SO useful)
Race for the Galaxy
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Mark Gerrits
Belgium
Leuven
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I also think a "blank" game would be great.
Games which I think are very suited to the app and I'd love to see modules for but which probably aren't popular enough:
Aton
Nefertiti
Richelieu
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Josiah Miller
United States
Arlington
Texas
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I would also like to see a generic score "game" to use with games like Long Shot where you can +1, +5, +10, +20. It'd be nice for games that don't have intricate scoring systems like Carcassonne.
Also, a way to "save" the score so you can exit the program would be very nice. I didn't realise that exiting the program would clear the current game. It caused a little frustration during a game of Alhambra.
*EDIT* Exiting doesn't clear the score. It must've been operator error.
Those are my suggestions. I LOVE THE APP! Best app going for Agricola, hands down. Thanks for making it!
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Scott Hinze
United States
Arlington
Texas
Fanboy Radio - the voice of comics and gaming - fanboyradio.com
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Yves Tourigny wrote: Race for the Galaxy
2nded.
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Mark McEvoy
Canada
Ottawa-ish
Ontario
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In addition to the 'blank' game suggestion, can it be shown/showable in a 'ledger' format? So many games you want to track scoring in each round and a sum of all scores for that player to date. Possibly also include a field for other miscellaneous info of note for that round's play (bidding info in card games, the actual word(s) formed in word games...). All the score apps I've seen so far seem to only show you your current score, and not a history of how many points that player earned in each individual scoring instance / turn.
Basically, integrating a simple spreadsheet into the app, with one 'aggregate score' column that is formulaically defined as 'the previous aggregate score plus this round's score.
I'd love something that tracked like this, creating a new line with each score submission submit (plus all your turn ordering and such jazz...)
Something that would display and save like:
Wizard
Round# Trump Abe Bea Cal
Bid RdScr TotScr Bid RdScr TotScr Bid RdScr TotScr
-------
1 Hearts 0 -10 -10 1 -10 -10 0 20 20
2 NoTrump 2 20 10 1 -10 -20 0 20 40
3 Clubs 1 10 20 1 10 -10 0 -10 30
or
Scrabble
Word# Word(s) Abe Bea
RdScr TotScr RdScr TotScr
-------
1 VENUS 24 24 0 0
2 OILY, SO 0 24 9 9
3 EYE 6 30 0 9
4 END 0 30 4 13
5 (pass) 0 30 0 13
6 VISTA 0 30 8 21
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Josiah Miller
United States
Arlington
Texas
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I noticed a possible bug last night when using the Alhambra scorer. It seems that in the final scoring phase there is a limit to the total amount of wall segments that are apparently shared amongst the players.
For instance, if I give Player 1 a 9, Player 2 a 9, and player 3 a 12, the app acts as if there are no more points that can be given for walls to players 4 and 5.
Or, perhaps easier to understand, there seems to be a limit of 30 points available for wall segments shared among the players. This is a number that is far too low for a 5 player game.
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Alberto Barbati
Italy
Milano
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brotherjo wrote: Or, perhaps easier to understand, there seems to be a limit of 30 points available for wall segments shared among the players. This is a number that is far too low for a 5 player game.
Thanks for the report. You are indeed right. It will be fixed in the next release.
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Josiah Miller
United States
Arlington
Texas
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I do what I can. Serious thanks for the app. It works great, otherwise, and looks fantastic.
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Ken Grazier
United States
South Euclid
Ohio
Check out my boardgame demoing website! www.geek-craft.com
Near northeast Ohio? Come to one of my game nights! www.geek-craft.com
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I love the idea of this, and can't wait to see what other games you can implement this with.
I like being able to use the pictures, and the scoring history is also a nice touch. However, I think I've found 2 issues:
1) When in Alhambra with 3 players, I can't seem to pick a random starting player by shaking the phone.
2) At the end of the game, even with location services turned off, I can't save the game without providing a location.
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Alberto Barbati
Italy
Milano
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Kengi wrote: I love the idea of this, and can't wait to see what other games you can implement this with.
Thanks! I am currently working on an update, which I will submit hopefully in a couple of weeks. The update should then be available on the App Store in about two weeks from the submission. The next release will add support for Farmers of the Moor (which will be free for who already bought Agricola), Ticket to Ride (all versions) and a "Generic Game" module.
Kengi wrote: 1) When in Alhambra with 3 players, I can't seem to pick a random starting player by shaking the phone.
That is by design. In Alhambra the first player is mandatorily the one who has received less cards (or less money in case of a tie), as reminded in the player aid screen. Therefore, random choice has been disabled when playing Alhambra to avoid confusion.
Kengi wrote: 2) At the end of the game, even with location services turned off, I can't save the game without providing a location.
That is also by design. Even if GPS coordinates are not collected, you still get the chance to tag your games with a location name, if you wish.
Thanks for your feedback,
Ganesh
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Ken Grazier
United States
South Euclid
Ohio
Check out my boardgame demoing website! www.geek-craft.com
Near northeast Ohio? Come to one of my game nights! www.geek-craft.com
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Thanks for the quick response.
It's been a while since I played Alhambra, and you're right about the reminder. Guess running through and just seeing how the app works results in issues, at least for me.
And I didn't realize you meant GPS coordinates versus a name of an area. While I wouldn't be one to use it, I could see having "FLGS" as a location, and "Game Room" as another. Should it auto-recognize which location you're at?
e: I can almost spell...
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Everyone wants to be Chad Thriftington III
United States
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma
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Descent Road to legend. That would be absolutely awesome!
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Alberto Barbati
Italy
Milano
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Kengi wrote: And I didn't realize you meant GPS coordinates versus a name of an area. While I wouldn't be one to use it, I could see having "FLGS" as a location, and "Game Room" as another. Should it auto-recognize which location you're at?
In fact, the coordinates are used only to select the "Recommended location" and sort the rest of the locations by increasing distance. I had initially implemented the auto-selection of the nearest location, but during tests I realized that the GPS coordinates can be very inaccurate inside buildings (even several kilometers wrong!). This can be a problem if you have friends living near you and you want to tag differently which games you played at your house and which at theirs.
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Brandon Emerson
United States
Texas
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Great app! I've been using it for our Puerto Rico game sessions.
I tried it with Agricola and noticed that there doesn't seem to be support for the beggar cards? Or did I look in the wrong place?
Unfortunately we did have someone end up with beggar cards but didn't notice any input for them...
Great work though!
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Alberto Barbati
Italy
Milano
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T0mServ0 wrote: Great app! I've been using it for our Puerto Rico game sessions.
I tried it with Agricola and noticed that there doesn't seem to be support for the beggar cards? Or did I look in the wrong place?
Unfortunately we did have someone end up with beggar cards but didn't notice any input for them...
Great work though!
Beggar cards points are just like other cards points, only negative. Unfortunately it's true that if you don't have enough positive points to compensate, Companion does not allow to input a negative value. I apologize for that. This is a bug that will be fixed in the next release.
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Barak Tutterrow
United States
Clackamas
Oregon
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Thank you for supporting TtR in your next release! I just bought Agricola and purchased the module for that, and I will gladly buy the one for TtR.
You may wish to eventually design your app so that you can add/update new purchasable games with having to update the entire app, kind of like how the comic book apps do it.
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Alberto Barbati
Italy
Milano
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Btutterrow wrote: You may wish to eventually design your app so that you can add/update new purchasable games with having to update the entire app, kind of like how the comic book apps do it.
Unfortunately, that is not possible. Programming the rules for each added game usually requires a change in the app executable. Apple policies (rightfully, IMHO) forbids downloading executable code from the internet, i.e.: all changes in the executable must come from a proper update.
I am considering adding limited support for certain games: only score, but no rules and no specific user interface. Such support might be data-driven and therefore downloadable. However I have no schedule set for this.
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Barak Tutterrow
United States
Clackamas
Oregon
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Makes sense. I wouldn't want the app to work less fluidly by limiting your options to adjust the executable, but I do foresee you meeting with frustration waiting for an update to be approved
iaanus wrote: Btutterrow wrote: You may wish to eventually design your app so that you can add/update new purchasable games with having to update the entire app, kind of like how the comic book apps do it. Unfortunately, that is not possible. Programming the rules for each added game usually requires a change in the app executable. Apple policies (rightfully, IMHO) forbids downloading executable code from the internet, i.e.: all changes in the executable must come from a proper update. I am considering adding limited support for certain games: only score, but no rules and no specific user interface. Such support might be data-driven and therefore downloadable. However I have no schedule set for this.
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Barak Tutterrow
United States
Clackamas
Oregon
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I would gladly pay another $.99 to have a Dominion (and all the extensions) scoring calculator. I know it isn't usually that difficult to add up each person's scores but it would be handy, and it would allow me to keep track of my various scoring across games.
I would pay another dollar if it would:
Allow you to shake at the beginning and randomize the cards (with choices for each set) like this site does: http://www.hiwiller.com/dominion/
Track which cards you had out for each game in your history (even with just text, graphics are not neccessary).
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Alberto Barbati
Italy
Milano
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Btutterrow wrote: I would gladly pay another $.99 to have a Dominion (and all the extensions) scoring calculator. I know it isn't usually that difficult to add up each person's scores but it would be handy, and it would allow me to keep track of my various scoring across games. I would pay another dollar if it would: Allow you to shake at the beginning and randomize the cards (with choices for each set) like this site does: http://www.hiwiller.com/dominion/Track which cards you had out for each game in your history (even with just text, graphics are not neccessary).
That is very precious feedback, thanks. As for the scoring and tracking part, it will be possible right from the next release through the "Generic Game" module, which will be free. In subsequent releases, the Generic Game module may support some kind of customization, in order to better fit the scoring of games like Dominion.
As for the rest, I put everything in the wish list, unfortunately I can't commit to a schedule.
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Everyone wants to be Chad Thriftington III
United States
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma
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We recently used this app for Alhambra and ran into a few problems.
* When counting walls in the final round, we were unable to add additional values for the 3rd & 4th player.
* We were also scoring manually and found that all of the scores did not match. I will be playing again, keeping closer track of where the differences fell. We did have several ties in tile count and they may have been the problem.
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