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A Gaming Life
8 Minute Empire released on Mobile/Steam
Did you want to build an empire in less time than it takes to walk down to the store and back?
Now you can, digitally!
8-Minute Empire the boardgame is designed by Ryan Laukat for Red Raven Games, and the digital app is developed by Acram Digital (the developers of the really well-done Steam app) and it just hit the App Store yesterday!
I had played the game once on the table before and it was pretty decent. It plays quickly and is very abstract, but considering how short the game is it certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome.
You start with your opponents in a region and with 14 coins. Players bid to see who decides who goes first (yes, you’re bidding on the decision, not on actually going first, unless you want to go first of course)
Once that’s determined, players alternate for 13 rounds, taking one of the cards that are spread at the bottom of the screen there. The player gets the resource at the top of the card and then takes the action on it (or chooses which action if there is more than one).
These actions can be either recruiting troops, moving troops (possibly by sea to one of the other continents), or building a city. Recruited troops must be placed in a region where you have a city.
At the end of 13 rounds, you get points for regions that you control, continental control if you have it, and then resources based on how much of each resource you have at the end of the game (you can see the victory point totals above the row for each resource you have.
I’ve only played three games against the Easy AI, so I can’t really review the game as a whole. But my first impression is that this is a neat little game that I’m really looking forward to exploring more.
Best of all, in addition to three levels of AI, the game has asynchronous multiplayer! We all know how important that is, and for this game there certainly wouldn’t be any reason not to have it.
The title of the game does not lie! I finished my second game against Edward in eight minutes or less (I got an achievement for that), which is really cool.
The app is $4.99 on iOS or Android and currently on sale on Steam for $8.88 CDN (I don’t know what the US price is and Steam only gives me the Canadian price).
My understanding is that all of these are release sale prices, so you may want to jump on them if you’re interested!
The only IAP are individual maps which were initially priced at $3.99 each. I’ve heard rumours that these have gone down since yesterday, but I can’t confirm that.
For me, the original two maps are more than enough for now.
Dude! Take Your Turn! 
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