Alchemists is a recent release that has earned a lot of buzz, a lot of which stems from the use of a "mandatory" app. The app isn't actually mandatory, but without it you would need a moderator with a rather boring job for a very long game.
XCOM: The Board Game is a cooperative game that has a mandatory app which manages the alien invaders.
Most interesting to me (and what prompts this topic) is a a game that is currently on Kickstarter:
World of Yo-Ho. This looks to be a far heavier integration than either Alchemists or XCOM (though I don't know much about the XCOM game, other than the fact that it needs an app). It's a pirate game where the ships are represented by players' phones. There is also a pass-and-play version if there aren't enough phones to go around. You use one phone to manage all the app bits and use tokens to track individual ship locations.
It looks like the app is necessary for the following:
- random events (e.g. weather conditions, undersea monsters, wreckage, messages in bottles)
- randomly generated missions which can change depending on the player's actions
It also provides some other benefits:
- easier setup and less space needed
- save games for future sessions
- higher immersion (via sound and animation)
It all looks very slick. Even so, I won't be backing the campaign because I want to see how well it pans out. The lowest reward tier still offers a fully playable game at $35.
Any thoughts about this game, or the incorporation of digital components in general?
