Just got an iPad 2 for my mom and dad, and have been looking for good games that they might want to play. They saw me playing board games on my iPad during the holidays and they seemed interested in getting some good board games for theirs. Tikal has been on my wishlist, and since the price dropped I decided to try it out. So in trying out this game, I was looking at it from the perspective of my parents, who are new to iPads (they had an iPod touch before so they aren't completely new to iOS). The first thing I noticed was that the initial step in starting a game was a little too big. Yeah, there is sort of a tutorial that guides you once you get the game going, but there is no explanatory text on the screen where you pick your character and pick characters for the AI. This is potentially confusing for a first time player of this game - heck even I was pretty confused since I have never played the original board game before. It's also a little abstract for a newcomer to know that they have to tap on the little human heads to turn the other players into AI players. For someone like myself, this was not confusing at all - but like I said I was looking at this from the perspective of my parents. I think there should be a dedicated tutorial - something completely separate from playing a normal game where it picks characters for you. Anyway, without playing the game first, you have no idea what the different characters mean. I will try this game out on my own later (when I'm more in a hardcore board game mode). But as far as initial impressions go, I would say the interface is too confusing for a new user.
Um, piracy destroyed my computer game design career and that's after winning the first 1st prize ever handed out by Atari for game developers. Talk about resentment. Oh well. I've done okay since. No point in complaining.
Not sure but the rules are probably online since it's a Ravenburger game. Biggest problem in any event is lack of an UNDO button for MP, although Codito says that will be covered in a future update.
It is of my opinion that rules should not be required to be read for a video game rendition of a board game. A decent tutorial should always exist (like I said, the built in tutorial is OK - not perfect - but the UI is a little confusing before even getting to the tutorial).
Actually it is not easy to convert from some board games to a video game. And so the rules would probably be extra or different slightly and of course as you say built in tutorial could be there
I posted this in the thread in the iPad section, but am not sure if that's going to seen. So sorry in advance for the duplicate. Tikal is a great game, but this app needs improvement. Here's a short list of things I'd like to see: - Undo. Big one that. - Clearer indication of when a worker/leader is selected. I've moved workers/leader by accident many times because I didn't realize one was selected. Undo helps this, but the real problem is that it needs to be clearer that the worker/leader is selected. Bright circle around it? Something. - Clearer way of presenting the tile you are placing. Instead of just popping on the board at some semi-random location, how about using a method like Carcassonne uses - the piece appears on a tray for you to drag off. That makes for a consistent place to look for the tile and makes it dead clear all around. - Clearer indication that a volcano tile has been drawn. I know there's one of those incredibly obnoxious dialogues to tell you, but those are so irritating that they get turned off quickly. Without that dialog the only indication is the sound, and the sound might be off, and that you aren't given a tile to place, but those tiles pop onto the screen at a random location so there's a moment that's confusing and it seems so needless. The previous suggestion - having the next tile appear in a tray at a consistent location - would also solve this issue. - Ignore double-taps when rotating a tile!!! This drives me bonkers! I try to rapidly rotate a tile to position it how I want and the damned game zooms in, then out, then in, then out! So I have to SLOWLY tap to turn the tile. Aggravating! - Make it so that the scoring things on the right can be slid mostly out of the way. That would make the game a lot more playable on an iPhone. It's a good game, but I hope improvements like these can be made.
There actually is an undo, but it's not terribly intuitive. If you perform an action you want to undo, click on the "menu" tab on the left of the screen. There you'll find an undo button.
Not in multiplayer mode. Given an async platform, there is every reason to have the same UNDO function available as vs. the AI.
I've never noticed it and I've certainly looked at the menu many times. I'll check next time. EDIT: I see that amn624 says I'm not blind. This reminds me of another irritating thing, and maybe it's hidden somewhere that I'm missing as well - you can't switch to the next game you have a turn in without exiting all the way out to the main menu and then tapping Play again and then Online again. It's not a huge deal, but it's certainly another annoyance and example of bad design in this game. I'm really a bit worried about how a complex game like Puerto Rico is going to turn out....
The undo is only there for solo play. Not worried about PR. IOS gaming is still pretty much in its infancy and these things will just get better and better,
<DELETED>. I was railing, and I'm not sure it was productive. Suffice it to say that I think Tikal has issues and I've outlined some of them in my earlier message. I hope that Sage Games will at least consider some of it.
Ticket to Ride is currently #23 overall in the US iPad App Store. So I wouldn't go that far to say that. Monopoly is also #17 (obviously more people are going to buy monopoly than a euro game, but still).
In spite of my complaints, I do like this game. I'll deal with the annoyances/shortcomings and hope it improves in updates. And the game itself has proven to be a hit with my kids and they don't notice the issues with the app, and that's a win. In fact I'm going to ask for the real game for Fathers Day now.
The online does not work in this game either. I have not had a single game online work. The design is TERRIBLE overall. I'm done with Sage Games and will not buy Puerto Rico. You need to stop, back way up,and put love and care into the design instead of just trying to get the app out the door. Make what you already have out there much better and then I'll consider any future games. The high ratings this app is getting on iTunes are undeserved, and the game Tikal certainly deserves better.
I've had only one or two aborted or broken games of about 6-8. I play on only one platform, leave all messages except hints intact and typically shut the app between moves (although not always). I also shut the iPad down each night. However, there is definitely a pattern here between Ra and Tikal and if Puerto Rico is the same, a lot of folks will desert Codito. Carcassone and Samurai do it 100% perfectly. So should Ra, Tikal & Puerto Rico. In fact, on Carcassone and Samurai, the chat mode is great. I don't even want to use Open Feint. It's awful.
I've brought this up at some other sites, most notably BGG, and have generally been shouted down by the "Asynch rulez all!!1!one!" crowd. I think it's pretty obvious that there's a group of players out there who want a feature to work so much that they'll basically forgive just about anything. Including the fact that it flat-out doesn't work.
