Apps We Love - Carcassonne
As the lead iOS developer at Abextra (and as a general tech-obsessed software-obsessed UI/UX-obsessed Apple junkie fanboy), I'm constantly (and I do mean constantly) scouring the iOS App Store for the latest and greatest apps. We here at Abextra are always looking to connect with and support our fellow mobile (and web) startups, so I thought I'd start a reoccurring segment on our blog in which I (and hopefully others from the Abextra team) feature some of our favorite iOS apps (and maybe even a website or two, if they're really impressive). I play my fair share of games, I am in no way too cool for social networks, and I'm always looking for new ways to put my iDevices to good productive use, so you can expect a wide variety of products and services to be featured here.
First up? The app that I probably open most frequently on my iPhone (and my iPad, for that matter) - Carcassonne, by those fine German folks at TheCodingMonkeys. First off, if you don't know what Carcassonne is, you're missing out on (in my opinion) one of the best board games out there. It's easy to learn, quick to play, deeply strategic, and honestly rather beautiful! Go find yourself a friend who has played, or just buy yourself a copy, or better (and more cheaply) yet buy the app!
I don't just love Carcassonne for iOS because I love the game though. The app is pretty much a perfect implementation, and an all-around fantastic mobile gaming experience. The visual design is beautiful, and the gameplay is quick, intuitive, and seamless. You can play online with your friends (receiving notifications whenever it is your turn), or pick up a quick game with a (usually) well-matched random opponent (thanks to a solid player rating system). At the end of a game, you can see a great visual summary of the scoring throughout the course of play (and figure out why Dan Bretl keeps beating you every time). Add in the fact that it is a universal app (and feels / looks even better on iPad), a creative take on a single player "Solitaire" mode, and the promise of (hopefully in the near future) releasing some of the many Carcassonne expansions, and you have one stellar iOS product.
I will, however, offer a few pieces of constructive criticism... (The rest of this post is more for TheCodingMonkeys than anybody else.) First, the app needs a bit of refinement in the area of game invitations. When you start a game with friends, an invitation gets sent to each of those friends. You can't actually start the game until everyone accepts. This makes sense, but once you're a regular iOS Carcassonne player, you hardly ever find yourself back on the screen where you would actually see (and thus accept) those invitations, so games often sit around pending for days. The reason you don't find yourself back on this screen is because the app has a great way to quickly jump from one game to the next (in which it is your turn), but that notification / jump system does not include pending game invites. This seems like it would be an easy thing to fix.
My second major suggestion stems from the visual beauty inherent to the game of Carcassonne. One of the things I love most about the game is that playing it is a creative act, in that you are working with (against) your friends (hated opponents) to quilt together castles and roads in an expanding French countryside. The app has a fun feature where you can share the results of a game, but what it shares is merely a screenshot of the scoring summary - without a final screenshot of the game board! This is a missed opportunity. I'm not sure if there is a technical reason why they left this out, but I hope they work to include it in the future. I would love to have a Facebook album full of all of my past Carcassonne boards and their final scores. (It has probably become grossly apparent through this post how much of a board game nerd I truly am...)
Learn the game. Play it often. Buy the app. Support the fantastic efforts of TheCodingMonkeys. Our hats go off to them. As an iOS developer who loves good design, I wish I could have worked with them on this product. (And not just because they have been wildly successful in the App Store...)
discoholicmusic
pixelskylines
blakekathryn
baratheonpilled
areudirty
gummygunk
2087