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Daily iPad App: Agricola is Playdek's great adaptation of the board game
Agricola is one of the most popular board games around these days -- it's sort of a farming simulation game, where you can take two turns every round, and then periodically get rewards paid off in a harvest. Playdek is an up-and-coming iOS developer that's mostly done card games so far -- they're behind the Penny Arcade card game, as well as the excellent Ascension and a more complicated one I really like called Nightfall. Now, Playdek has teamed up with the creators of Agricola and Lookout Games to produce this iOS adaptation, available right now on the App Store for US$6.99. The way the game works is that every round, you send out a family member to perform some task for you, including growing crops, bringing in resources or building fences for animals. During the game, you can add more members to your family, which means you'll have more chances to bring in resources, but you'll also have more people to feed when the harvest comes around. The game is complex, but the core idea (of building up your farm bit by bit) is strong, so after playing through the tutorial and seeing the process for a while, it's easy to start building your own strategies and plans. Just as with the rest of their titles, Playdek has done a great job here in the presentation -- the game's stark but beautiful music goes well with the theme of fighting just to have enough, and all of the title's various processes and features are clearly displayed with charming and iconic touches. The game uses a top-down 2D drawn style, which might not have been quite as impressive as a full 3D farm environment, but works very well in getting all of the information you need across clearly. Plus, in addition to four gameplay modes, there's online or offline multiplayer, including a pass-and-play mode which is always a nice. Playdek knows well how to translate card games over to iOS, and this title proves they've been able to bring that expertise to board games as well. Agricola might be a bit pricey for those unfamiliar (or uninterested) in the original, but if you're looking for a full-featured, well-made adaptation of the popular board game, this is definitely it.
TUAW's Daily iPad App: Cargo Runners
Trouble Brothers is a company run by developers Jeff McCord and Steve Shippert, and when I saw them back at Macworld earlier this year, they showed me a game they were working on called Cargo Runners, destined to be released on the iPad, along with an actual real-life board game version. It doesn't seem like the board game version has arrived yet, but the iPad version is out now and available for $4.99 on the App Store. You can play the game a few different ways, including just pass-and-play local, online synchronous or asynchronous multiplayer, and there's a version with solo play against an AI coming soon. The basic idea, as I saw in February, is that each player runs a ship around the world, collecting and delivering cargo while contending with all sorts of issues, from weather to political scheming. The game's fun, bright, and extremely well-designed, perfect for board game fans, or just anyone who likes a solid game in this style. The missing AI can be a problem (Game Center users are reporting that the matchmaking is lonely sometimes), but if you've got a group of people to play with, the experience is excellent. Board gamers, pick this one up right away, and everybody else bookmark it away for when that solo AI shows up.
