Twilight Imperium fourth edition, tabletop simulator

''Tabletop Simulator'' is an

independent video game An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...

that allows players to play and create

tabletop game Tabletop games or tabletops are games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniature wargames, or tile-based games. Classification according to equipment used Tabletop ga ...

s in a multiplayer physics sandbox. Developed by Berserk Games as their first title after a successful crowdfunding campaign in February 2014, the game was released in June of the following year.

Gameplay

''Tabletop Simulator'' is a player-driven physics sandbox, without set victory or failure conditions. After selecting a table to play on, players interact with the game by spawning and moving virtual pieces, which are subject to a physics simulation. Online multiplayer is supported with a maximum of ten players. Aside from spawning and moving pieces, the game includes mechanics to assist with common styles of board game play, such as automatic dice rolling and hiding players' pieces from one another; other mechanics aid in administrating a game, for example saving the state of the board or undoing moves. Several games are included, including chess, checkers and poker. Tables and pieces can be mixed and customized to create new games, which can then be saved to share and play with others. The game allows images and models to be imported to create entirely new pieces and tables, allowing for the recreation of most real-world board games. Over three-thousand games and custom assets are shared on the game's

Steam Workshop Steam is a video game digital distribution service and storefront by Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 as a way for Valve to provide automatic updates for their games, and expanded to distributing and offering third ...

; while there is original content, a notable number of these shared items are adaptations of existing games, including unlicensed derivatives of copyrighted works. Berserk Games has also worked with a number of game publishers to offer officially-licensed ''Tabletop Simulator'' versions of their games as

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...

, such as ''

Cosmic Encounter ''Cosmic Encounter'' is a science fiction–themed strategy board game designed by "Future Pastimes" (collectively, Peter Olotka, Jack Kittredge and Bill Eberle, with Bill Norton) and originally published by Eon Games in 1977. In it, each player ...

''.

Development

''Tabletop Simulator'' was developed by Berserk Games, a studio consisting of Jason Henry and Kimiko. Before forming Berserk Games, Henry attended college focusing on engineering, while working on game mods in his spare time, including the popular ''Mana Warfare'' mod for '' Chivalry: Medieval Warfare''. Kimiko had been a community moderator for ''Chivalry'' and later a member of

Torn Banner Studios Torn Banner Studios Inc. is a Canadian video game developer based in Toronto. History Torn Banner Studios was founded in 2010 by Steve Piggott of Team Chivalry, the development team of '' Age of Chivalry'', a 2007 mod for ''Half-Life 2''. Th ...

. In an interview with

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'', known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021, is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Gam ...

, the pair described the game ''Desperate Gods'' as being an inspiration, though they wanted to expand the "free-form shared board game" concept to cover ''all'' tabletop games. In a crowdfunding campaign that began in February 2014, ''Tabletop Simulator'' earned US$ on Kickstarter with the backing of individuals. On March 15, Berserk Games announced that they had successfully passed through Steam Greenlight, allowing them to distribute the game on Steam.Kimiko
"We did it! We're getting on Steam!"
''SteamGreenlight'', March 15th, 2014. Retrieved on 31 March 2014.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://berserk-games.com/tabletop-simulator/ 2015 video games Crowdfunded video games Kickstarter-funded video games Linux games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiple-game video board games MacOS games Video games with Steam Workshop support Video games developed in the United States Windows games