Settlers of Catan in development for Microsoft Surface, still can't help you trade sheep for wood (video)

It's a pretty well-known fact that The Settlers of Catan / Die Siedler von Catan is fantastic fun, and though the original board game has seen a few digital incarnations, all the cutthroat hexagonal colonization sim ever really needed was a giant screen with multitouch. MayFair Games let Vectorform build this version for Microsoft Surface, which is on display at the Origin Games Fair this week; CNET reports the final version will be available this August. Good luck finding enough resources to trade for the table to play it on. Video after the break, more details at our source links.

[BookishOwl Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:09AM]

a w e s o m e

[MrDiSante Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:15AM]

@BookishOwl
It is great, but it could be better. They could (for instance) provide dice with identifiers that the Surface can read and then you could physically throw the dice or something.

[Gregorian Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:29AM]

@MrDiSante

Nice idea.
Surface should be able to see ordinary dice. Find the white square with dots on it. I agree. Use the abilities built in the system.

[brokensticks Posted Jun 23rd 2010 4:34AM]

@BookishOwl OMG WANT!

[Sneakyness Posted Jun 23rd 2010 9:06AM]

@MrDiSante I work at Vectorform as a Junior Game Developer, I'm not sure that we've actually tried using real dice, but it's something I'm going to try, out of pure curiosity. Thanks for the suggestion!

[MikeJF Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:02PM]

@MrDiSante Agreed. Part of the charm of Catan has always been the physicality of building things. I always imagined it on a surface as keeping that laying down items and cards and rolling dice, but with the surface recognizing it and doing the heavy lifting - generating the board, showing who gets what, animating tiny little harvesters carrying wheat into the city...

[The Mad Mule Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:10AM]

Nice!

[LoganJ Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:10AM]

Want.

[untrueparadox Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:11AM]

great, so when can we see one of these for ourselves without having to buy a $1m yacht?

[AlienSix Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:14AM]

Settlers of Catan is instant win

[Prevacator Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:21AM]

Get back to me when I can do this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ohNzHWL7FI

[shitcan Posted Jun 23rd 2010 3:08AM]

@Prevacator

sweeeeeeet.

[HoldenMccrotch Posted Jun 24th 2010 9:37AM]

@Prevacator
thank you thank you thank you!!
i saw this trailer about a year ago, and forgot the name of the game so havent been able to catch up with its progress!! thank you!! :D

[BigD145 Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:27AM]

Ugh. There are far better games than this and M$ Surface certainly won't speed up playtime. I'd suggest using a $500 iPad for everyone's personal secret hand, but that would be an unholy union. Kind of like this one between no tech and high tech.

[Prevacator Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:30AM]

@BigD145
Really, people still type out "M$" these days?

[jon Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:46AM]

@Prevacator

I'd hardly call them people.

[Marklitt Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:50AM]

@Prevacator

Yep. Even though apple is worth more than Microsoft.

[DeanXeL Posted Jun 23rd 2010 5:51AM]

@BigD145 M$ and App£€?

[ceegee66 Posted Jun 23rd 2010 9:56AM]

@Prevacator

These days, people should replace Apple with $$$$$

[weatherman Posted Jun 23rd 2010 2:01AM]

I believe the line you were going for at the end of the headline is "still won't help with your wood for sheep problem"

[ZachAJ Posted Jun 23rd 2010 2:25AM]

@weatherman True...in traditional settlers, wood is so much more valuable

[Decoy Posted Jun 23rd 2010 2:39AM]

@ZachAJ
Woosh.

[michaspi Posted Jun 23rd 2010 3:05AM]

@ZachAJ:
Try playing Traders & Barbarians: The Caravans and watch sheep and wood become the top two resources.

[harpy Posted Jun 23rd 2010 3:43PM]

@Decoy

Woosh indeed... it looks like Settlers really doesn't help...

"I've got wood for your sheep"

[Elaith Posted Jun 23rd 2010 2:08AM]

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/Pages/HowToBuy/HowToBuy.aspx

[Elaith Posted Jun 23rd 2010 2:11AM]

@Elaith If only it were affordable...

[tonyprince Posted Jun 23rd 2010 2:10AM]

when are they going to release surface for consumers ? IM ready to trade in my desktop.

[pinktacoyummm Posted Jun 23rd 2010 2:27AM]

I want that as my dinner table.

[theaussiepunk Posted Jun 23rd 2010 2:45AM]

I love this game! Very likely to cause arguments heh. Have you guys seen the 3D version with all the pieces made of resin, with the resource pieces being all raised etc? Pretty awesome looking. http://www.catan.com/catan-games/boardgame/3d-edition.html

[shitcan Posted Jun 23rd 2010 3:16AM]

me so, me so howny!

[mykalson Posted Jun 25th 2010 3:23PM]

Ok, so they can get this on surface, but can't manage to put out a Seafarers or Cities & Knights expanson for XBLA?

::sigh::