Catan
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Catan creator Klaus Teuber has passed away at 70
Klaus Teuber, who created the board game sensation Settlers of Catan, has passed away at the age of 70. Teuber died on April 1 after a “brief and severe illness.” He is survived by his wife Claudia and their two sons, Guido and Benny, all of which are involved with publisher Catan Studios.
Niantic's AR Catan game is shutting down on November 18th
Niantic is discontinuing development on Catan: World Explorers.
Niantic and Punchdrunk will bring immersive theater experiences to AR
Niantic is teaming up with the theater company behind New York City's popular 'Sleep No More' theater experience.
'Catan' AR game could ride on Niantic's tech
If you're Niantic and you're planning a follow-up to augmented reality hits like Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, what famous property do you work with next? Apparently, the answer is a hardcore board game. A product page, source code sleuths and TechCrunch tipsters suggest that Niantic is partnering on Catan: World Explorers, an AR title based on the classic colony-building game Settlers of Catan. While the game's mechanics aren't completely clear, it looks like it really is an attempt to squeeze Niantic's basic formula into Catan's world of hexagonal grids, road building and resource trading.
Classic board game 'Catan' comes to the Switch on June 20th
Settlers of Catan is one of the best-selling and most beloved board games in existence. As promised during a Nintendo Direct event last September, publisher Asmodee Digital is helping the classic title in ditching its physical form to make the jump to the Nintendo Switch. The board game will be available as Catan on Nintendo's portable console on June 20th.
Catan VR gets closer to the real thing than any app
The first time I played Settlers of Catan was probably 2006. I didn't really know much about board games, aside from old classics like Monopoly, so when a friend brought it out at a party I was intrigued. To my surprise, I liked it. And, it turns out, many others did as well -- as of 2015, more than 22 million copies of the game (created in 1995) have sold worldwide. I too bought a copy for myself, and when the app version came out, I played it non-stop. It got to a point where, frankly, I played it so much that I got sick of it, and ended up deleting the app and giving the game away.
Classic board game ‘Catan’ is coming to VR, of all places
If you've ever thrilled to a hot game of Catan on your table before, you'll love that you'll be able to experience the classic territory-building board game in virtual reality. Created by VR developer Experiment 7, with the collaboration of the Catan company and publisher Asmodee Digital, Catan VR is set to release on Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear this holiday season.
Complete, unreleased Rise of Nations game found among 38 Studios' goods
When 38 Studios' intellectual properties are auctioned off by the state of Rhode Island on December 11, one more game will be included in the mix, Rise of Nations: Tactics. The Mac game was completed, albeit unreleased and seemingly unheard of until now. The auction was first slated to begin this week and includes the Kingdoms of Amalur IP, 38 Studios' in-development MMO Project Copernicus and Big Huge Games' properties Catan, Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends. "Additionally, through the examination of the data contained on the 38 Studios servers, we have discovered a completed, but unreleased game for Mac users titled 'Rise of Nations: Tactics,'" Nick Jimenez, executive vice president of the auction host Heritage Global Partners said in a press release. "We only became aware of this game this past week through our own due diligence efforts." The intellectual property auction follows 38 Studios' closure in May 2012, and according to the court-appointed lawyer for the now-defunct studio Richard Land, potential bidders' interest in the auction has been "greater than expected."
38 Studios lawyer to request delay for IP auction
Richard Land, the court-appointed lawyer for 38 Studios, said he plans to ask a Rhode Island Superior Court judge to delay the now-defunct studio's intellectual property auction. The auction was originally slated to take place on November 14 and include the Project Copernicus MMO that was in development at 38 Studios prior to its May 2012 closure as well as sequel and merchandise rights and revenue for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Land told The Providence Journal that interest in the auction has been "greater than expected" from prospective bidders, leading to the request to delay the auction for "a couple weeks." The auction was also slated to include Big Huge Games properties Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends and XBLA game Catan.
Review: Settlers of Catan for Mac
Catan (US$16.99) is the Mac app incarnation of the well-known board game Settlers of Catan. If you haven't played Settlers (as my family refers to it) before, you're in for a real treat. And a whole lot of stress too. Oh, and did I mention the strife? Settlers is, in a way, similar to Monopoly, but more complex. It requires more forethought and strategy, and usually a lot more time too. Add the Cities & Knights or Seafarer expansion packs, and things get even more exciting. It can take many played games just to understand all the rules, and many more before you claim the coveted Lord of Catan title. That is unless you're one of the very annoying, and very lucky, first time winners! TUAW's covered Settlers of Catan and Catan for iOS in some detail before, so I'll jump straight into how Catan performs on the Mac. The Mac version of Settlers, also titled Catan, remains true to the original board game. You're able to play the original Settlers of Catan rule-set or add the Cities & Knights or Seafarers expansions. Catan can be played in one of two ways: solo campaign with the expansions, or scenario, where you choose from a variety of pre-set maps, including playing the original rule-set. Scenario mode also lets you play with others in a hot-seat style, multiplayer mode, similar to the iOS version. I guess you'll have to trust your friends not to look at your resources when it's your turn! Unfortunately there's no cross-platform multiplayer mode, let alone a simple online multiplayer mode for the Mac version of the game. Catan would be the perfect game to start playing online on your Mac, pause and then continue on your iPad or iPhone, but it's not so. However, there is Game Center support in the form of achievements and local game statistics. Campaign mode offers you ten challenging competitors to overcome in order to win the game. There are three difficulty settings to make sure you're always challenged. Pre-game banter between the characters preludes the start of each game. It's fun, but I mostly skipped through it all to get on with the game. %Gallery-195250% Visually, the game is represented in two ways. Either the tradition board game style view or a 3D representation of the game with moving graphics and animations to illustrate gameplay. For me, the 3D version was a no brainer. Either way, it's easy to zoom in and out of the board, but the game naturally focuses in on parts of the board as gameplay dictates, so most of the time you'll not have to worry about navigating around the board. While the graphics are fun, and basically lifted from the iOS versions of Catan, I was a little disappointed with the graphical performance of the game on my Retina display MacBook Pro. Anti-aliasing can be turned up, which made a big improvement, but I guess I was expecting more detail, less pixels. Visually, the game is really easy to follow and simple to navigate, provided you understand how to play the game. I loved the audio in Catan. The sound effects add character and life, and the soundtrack is wonderful too. It really encapsulates the emotional heart of the games, pulling you deep into the world of Catan. Of course, both effects and sound track volumes can be adjusted or altogether turned off. One of the biggest challenges with playing Catan is understanding how the game works. Thankfully, Catan for Mac comes with the Catan Almanac, covering every aspect of the game, including the rules, for quick reference. However, this itself doesn't really explain how to play the game, including navigating and understanding the game in its Mac format. Fortunately, there's a tutorial mode where Prof. Easy talks you through the game rules and components, though there's no tutorial demo environment to practice in. Unfortunately you can only access the almanac in game-play, not the tutorials. You need to save and exit your game to get to those. It would be nice to have a help mode during game-play, where you could hover the cursor over something in the game, which would then give a description of what an item does or how you can use it. Regardless, there's plenty to help you get your head around playing Catan in the almanac and tutorials. Finally, there's an editor to create your own Catan maps and scenarios. These can then played or even published to other players through the Catan online network. However, I didn't get round to trialing this myself. Overall, I really enjoyed playing Catan for Mac. I think that's because there's no denying that Settlers of Catan is a great game. But also because the port of Settlers to the Mac has been done, for the most part, really well. There are quite a few reviews on the Mac App Store saying that Catan crashes a lot. However, I'm pleased to report that in many hours of game-play, Catan didn't crash or hang on me once. Regrettably, the game suffers in multi-player mode, but that's primarily due to the fact that your limited to a single screen to play on. Furthermore, there's no online game-play, which would be a great way to enhance the multiplayer aspect of Catan. Having said that, I hooked my Mac up to my living room TV and played the game with a few friends and we had a great time. It would be great to see Catan evolve, taking advantage of OS X and iOS features like Game Center and AirPlay, so that Catan on the Mac can truly become the multiplayer game it's supposed to be. But for now, it's a great way to play Settlers of Catan on your own or with a friend.
Xbox Live features Planets Under Attack, big board, card, and puzzle game sale this week
Yes, the majority of you will probably be playing Halo 4 or Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on Xbox Live this week. This we know. But just in case you're looking for something else, Major Nelson has a whole list of new content on Xbox Live this week. Perhaps, for example, the new version of Atari's Warlords, available for 800 Microsoft Points. Or one of three new Kinect Sports games, for 240 points each, or an XBLA version of Targem Games' Planets Under Attack, for a full 1200 points.There's a sale on, too: Carcassone, Catan, Magic: The Gathering, Magic 2012, Super Puzzle Fighter HD, and the two Puzzle Quest titles are all half off, for just 400 Microsoft Points each, and Ubisoft's I Am Alive is 33% off, down to 800 Microsoft Points. A downloadable course pack for Tiger 13 is as 50% off, and that's not all. Later on this week, Major Nelson says Microsoft will be hosting an "Xbox Live is 10" sale, which will include discounts on some content, as well as giveaways to some Xbox Live members "who have been with us the longest."We mean, sure, it'll mostly be Halo 4 and Black Ops 2. But just in case, there's some good deals there, too.
ITSP DLC sneaks onto XBLA next week, Shadow Complex also on sale
The Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet DLC "Shadow Hunters" was originally set to be released in September, but that didn't happen. It's just shown up on Major Nelson's latest "coming soon" list of XBLA content, scheduled for release on October 12. The schedule also includes some nice sales both this week and next. From today through October 10, you can get Catan, Magic the Gathering 2012, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, and Battleship for 50% off in the "Never Be Board Again" sale. Also half off is Bethesda "Games, Add-ons, and Avatars." Next week, the "Saints and Shadows" sale will knock 600 points off the price of Shadow Complex, with Perfect Dark available for half-off as well. Saints Row 2 will be 25% off, with its DLC available at half price. Combined with that ITSP content, that's rather a lot of shadow.
Catan app adds Seafarers expansion with in-app purchase
The great Catan iOS game has added in its first expansion, available via an in-app purchase, and it's based on the Seafarers of Catan expansion from the original German board game. The expansion introduces ships and shipping routes to the kingdom-building simulation, and it includes 10 different scenarios to build ships in, as well as pirates, a Gold River tile and some extra victory cards with different bonuses. The expansion content is US$3.99 inside the app, but even if you don't want to shell out the extra four bucks, one of the scenarios is included, so you can at least see how it changes the game. The Catan app itself has been critically acclaimed, and I really like this model of releasing content -- it seems like a nice solid way of both making sure that content updates are significant improvements to an app, as well as allowing developers to get their own reward for releasing that content. Hopefully we'll see some more apps, outside of the board game model, take this approach in the future. [via TouchArcade]
European PSN releases for May 12
Your choices for downloadable games in this week's European PSN update are fairly limited -- however, the two choices you've got are rather appealing. If you're looking for a hex-based diplomacy simulator, Catan is now available for the PS3. If you want some jetpack-infused action, Rocket Knight is probably a safer choice. Or, if you want to pimp out your copy of Skate 3, DJ Hero, Nier or LittleBigPlanet with new DLC, there are a few avenues for you to explore as well. Everyone's a winner! Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)
Big, huge interview: Big Huge Games head Tim Train
When 38 Studios isn't busy hiring former Nintendo execs, Curt Schilling's Massachusetts-based MMO developer is buying up close-to-death development studios -- take, for instance, Big Huge Games. Tim Train, the studio's president, illuminated the near-death experience that Big Huge had in a talk at PAX East earlier this year (slides from said speech can be found below). He explained how, with just a handful of days left and termination letters ready to send out, 38 Studios swept in and saved Big Huge and the vast majority of its staff. We found his story so interesting, we thought we'd follow up with Train and have him explain it once more, as well as speak about other topics. Will Big Huge ever produce another digital board game? Unfortunately, it looks like you could be waiting on that for quite some time. Hit the break for the whole thing. %Gallery-92043%
Catan PS3 headed to US, says ESRB
A PS3 adaptation of "The Settlers of Catan" board game may be coming to America. The ESRB has added a brand new listing for the game, donning the title an E rating. Most likely, this version of Catan is the one released in Japan in 2008, developed by longtime Sony partner Game Republic. No other details can be garnered from the brief ratings listing. The original Japanese version released exclusively on PlayStation Network for 1200 yen (about $13). It seems safe to assume the US release will be similar.
38 Studios estimates it will take 50 to 100 million to finish Copernicus, Schilling looking for investors
Curt Schilling is out on the field again -- the investing field, that is. The former baseball star turned game developer is looking for more investors to back 38 Studios and their first game, the title codenamed Copernicus. The company's estimates for their game requires 50 to 100 million more in funding for the staff, all with their tentative December 2010 launch in mind.Keep in mind, of course, that 38 Studios has acquired Maryland developer Big Huge Games, the company known for Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends, and Xbox Arcade's version of Catan. That acquisition doubled the company's headcount and has possibly driven operating costs into the 15 to 20 million a year range, according to the Boston Globe.So far Schilling hasn't had any luck with potential investors. However, as he said to the Boston Globe, "I'm not going to complain about the economy. It's like pitching on a rainy day. The other guy has to pitch in it, too."[Via Cuppycake]
Catan settling on iPhone this summer
The official Settlers of Catan website announced that a version of the game is currently building a road to iPhone. The new version will be developed by Exozet, which previously made Catan: The First Island. This will not be a port of XBLA's Catan by Big Huge Games.The iPhone version currently has a release date of "summer" and is being created in collaboration with designer Klaus Teuber. Hopefully Exozet will take its time and update the graphics instead of doing a straight port of the mobile version it previously released.[Via What They Play] [Image]
Big huge layoffs at Big Huge Games
THQ-owned Big Huge Games has reportedly laid off a "huge number" of employees, an unnamed source told Develop this morning. Reports less than two weeks ago had THQ selling Big Huge Games unless it found a buyer quickly. According to THQ spokesperson Julie MacMedan, THQ was looking for a buyer (at the time) to pick up Big Huge in the "near future." Considering the predicted 50 percent chance of survival of THQ, selling the Catan and Rise of Nations developer may be a last ditch endurance effort on the part of THQ that hasn't gone through, thus resulting in the job cuts.We asked THQ for a statement regarding the alleged layoffs and Ms. MacMedan responded this evening, saying, "We continue to pursue a sale of Big Huge Games. Yesterday, some of the staff were notified that they were not going to be part of the future direction of the studio. We are not providing exact headcounts at this time." Little else is known at this time, though we've put in word to Big Huge Games for further comment and we'll update as news comes in.
Catan coming to PS3, courtesy of Game Republic
The classic board game, Catan, is set to arrive on the PlayStation Network soon. This will be an original version of the game (not a port of the XBLA title), and is helmed by Game Republic, developers of Genji and Folklore. The download is scheduled to hit Japan on December 18th for 1200 yen. The game will expand to other territories, although a release date has not been set.Although only one player will be supported offline, the online multiplayer mode will allow for four players to go against each other. Surprisingly, the board game will feature both 1080p graphics and 5.1 surround sound.[Thanks, Geb B.!]
