It’s been a few months since my first “beta” version of Hexteria was released. And by “released” I mean “printed so I have a copy of my own game”. Since then, I’ve played it many more times with various groups, and even printed larger versions of the hex tiles (which are way better, albeit way more expensive). Now that I’ve kind of exhausted my local group of gaming friends, I need a way to play remotely with others.
Enter Tabletop Simulator, an online gaming engine that basically allows you to upload board game “assets” and sit at a virtual table with other people to play a game. As long as you have the assets for a game– the board, pieces, counters, whatever– you can slide them around on the table as if you were really sitting with someone. I’ve never actually played anything on Tabletop Simulator, but it’s a popular platform and many people recommend it as a way to playtest new games. So I spent this afternoon creating and uploading all the pieces for Hexteria, until I finally had everything sitting on the “table”.
As far as I can tell, it should be possible to jump online with some friends, explain the rules, and move all the pieces around as if we’re playing. I’m excited to see how it goes!