Gen Con 2017 Live Blog: Day One!
Dized: Teaching You Your Board Games With Ease
Aug 18 2017 @ 00:30
38 Comments
Dized are a fantastic company that are coming out with an App which will teach you your games as you play.
Lots of groups either have one person that learns the games, which can lead to some mistakes, or they just can't digest rulebooks.
This app sounds like a great idea and they already have all manner of games lined up.
This! This is such a great idea. It usually falls to myself or one of the other guys in our gaming group to sort out the rules and sometimes layouts, ambiguous wording or just our eagerness to get the game on the table can lead to slowing down the game or needing to stop and re-read sections to sort it out. Being able to grab an app and search for step by step examples should help with that :).
Saw this at Salute, it is very cool.
Fantastic idea.
That is a good idea. Its all about what games they have available to learn and if it gets updated for new games in a timely manner. Very interesting.
Brilliantttttttttttttttt
I wonder if this will catch on, or if individual companies will take over this space with their own apps. several games have assistant and play apps already.
Great idea for an app.
That is an awesome idea!
Very interesting to see how this will develop
It’s a great idea, I may have said the same during the Salute live blog, but the challenge for getting popular will be how this the subscription is priced. It looks like a premium product, so won’t be cheap for them to make for each game.
looks good
Nifty but not big on apps.
It’s a good idea. Prize will make or break it I think..
a really good idea – learning a new board game is often what has the games just sitting on shelves..
It is a great idea. It will be well worth it to see how they go forward from here. I hope they can truly execute this app to it’s potential.
Looks cool
Ah finally – after seeing ads everywhere for Dized I now know what it does! And it sounds very cool. Could be a big tool for solo games, either as the AI player or bespoke solo variants programmed in. Lots of possibilities!!
Sounds like a pocket Rodney Smith…I’m all for this.
Great initiative, but seems lot of work to cover such ammount of games available nowadays, but great thinking yes!
Nice idea, will big companies back this up or just small gaming companies?
Such a great idea, I’m wondering how it will be priced.
This has to be a no-brainer for any games company, imagine getting real time feed back from a huge number of play testers while developing a game.
I think this is a great idea. In our board gaming group there is literally one person who learns all the rules for the rest of us. Making their job easier would be worth it.
I saw their stand at the Berlin Games Convention in July. Now I know what this is all about.
Great concept. Will innovate the way games are learned.
This sounds like a great idea. I am the person that has to explain games and I frequently miss rules.
I really love the idea behind products like this as I hate learning the rules for my group. I’m scared I’ll get people to the tabel and then spend the whole day looking at the rulebook. I do have concerns though that when you come to ask it questions you won’t know enough to ask the right questions or the right keywords. I’m also concerned about this adding extra pacing issues. When it comes out they do need to let you learn a few games from it for free as I would hate to hand over my money before I find out it really doesn’t work for me.
I bought Scythe on KS and havent taken it out of the packet yet as I’m intimidated by learning it. Something like this that actually works well would be a godsend.
@lawnor
Hey there, I’m actually one of the people behind the app and can answer these concerns!
First of all we’re board gamers ourselves and we’re designing an app that we want to use, whether to learn Carcassonne or Rebellion. I want to extend that excitement what I get when I buy a new board game from the store to the table with my friends and get playing immediately. So far it’s been nearly impossible and that’s what we want to fix.
For the asking questions part, how we’re building the rule lookup tool is that it works with keywords but also filters results in a way the most frequently asked questions will pop on top. You can ask with voice or type a question and the app will suggest “is this what you meant”. If your question isn’t answered there, you can refer it back to the publisher/designer. Of course in the future, we can also implement image recognition and use the camera to help with this.
For the pacing issues, it’s been a tough nut to crack. We’ve been designing these for a long time now, getting feedback and reworking on how to teach games. We’re keeping the player input to a minimum, teaching only what you need to know when you need to know it and adding later on voice commands and utilizing camera as well, to make the experience as smooth as possible. In the end it’s not really any different than having your friend over, who now and then explains the rules and lets you do your own decisions.
We’re releasing the demo soon where you can already try out some games how they work. The tutorials and rule lookup tool will always be free, but the extra features will be behind subscription (community features, downloadable content etc). We’re seeking funding in Indiegogo to be able to scale this up for tons of games out there.
And I feel your pain about Scythe, I really do. I’m waiting for the same tutorial myself 🙂
Hopefully these answered your concerns!
I need this in my life. I am so bad at learning games.
that looks very usefull
Great idea!
Very neat app. I would get it.
Excellent idea hope it works!!
This is such a good idea. Perhaps the real killer app to link mobile and boardgames.
I hope this app is successful, it looks so useful.
That looks amazing! As one of those explanation peoples I’m in. 🙂
nope
Don’t let Az see