Dire Wolf Digital Going App Crazy With Announcements

(Edit: 10/5/23) – Finally, the last design diary! I think.

Nope, there are 1-2 more coming.

Paul Dennen reveals how Contracts work and it looks like a major boost to the beginning of the game, at least in trying to get money.

You can take a Contract and then fulfill it, often just by going to the designated space.

Not all give you money, though. Some give you cards, or troops or what have you. And some aren’t just going to a space. It might be “Harvest 3 Spice in one move”

Contracts are a modular addition to the game, though they don’t seem like they add much complexity. Maybe in the decision space?

Either way, there are of course some cards that use Contracts as well. If you’re not using this module, you can take them out.

The diary also confirms there will be 9 leaders in the game, including the Emperor himself!

This looks seriously cool and I am debating whether or not to get it even though I have the original game and both expansions and haven’t played them much (the expansions not at all).

We’ll see!

(Edit: 9/13/23) – It’s been a while, but another designer diary! This one details spies and how that system works.

You can send a Spy to a space and then later send an Agent (recalling the Spy) to the space even if it’s occupied by another player’s agent. You can also send a Spy and then if you play an Agent there later and recall the Spy, you get to draw a card.

To place a Spy, you’ll go to this new space. Or there will be cards that let you do it.

There’s a bunch more at the diary, so check it out!

(Edit: 8/25/23) – Another designer diary was published today for Dune Imperium: Uprising. It’s all about the worms!

Yes, designer Paul Dennen talks about bringing the famous sandworms directly into the game.

Check out the rest of the diary for more cool pictures and a description of how these worms will work in the game.

(Edit: 8/17/23) – With all of the controversy on BGG regarding the Dune Imperium: Uprising release, Dire Wolf has now published a designer diary addressing the genesis of this “standalone expansion”. You can read it here.

Original post is below

A lot of news came out of the recently-completed GenCon last weekend. Too much for me to be able to keep up with, especially because this isn’t technically a “news” site.

The “news” I post about is stuff that I’m excited about, and boy did Dire Wolf Digital deliver on that in spades.

Yesterday, they summarized it all in a post on their web site, so this post can seem like it’s only one day late instead of massively late.

Dire Wolf Digital announced a slew of games that they are going to be making digital versions of, and many of them just made me want to jump up and down.

They’ve previously announced the Clank digital game, but they re-announced it on their page.

(Yes, there are some board game announcements on this page too, but those didn’t excite me nearly as much).

But there’s a bunch more stuff, which I’ll get to after the break.

They also announced that they’re doing a digital My Lil’ Everdell adaptation, which makes sense since they also did Everdell itself.

Isle of Cats is also coming from them. This is a polyomino game that I didn’t mind too much.

I even own it, though I haven’t gotten my copy out to the table.

Polyomino games and I don’t really get along too much, but this one’s pretty good.

I also really enjoyed Cascadia, and that’s also coming from Dire Wolf at some point.

Finally, in the “announcements that I like but aren’t making me jump off the walls” category, they will be adding some content to their Munchkin app.

That’s a game I’ve never really been interested in, but I’m open to somebody demonstrating why I should be.

Let’s get to the good stuff, though.

How about one of my favourite games, Ark Nova?

Yeah, that’s coming from Dire Wolf in digital form.

I love the Boardgame Arena implementation of it, but having an app for it would be quite wonderful.

This has been a running joke on the Pixelated Cardboard Discord channel, with some people thinking Digidiced would be doing it.

Finally, they announced that they are actually doing a digital adaptation of their one board game, Dune Imperium!

That is one I can definitely get behind.

I have the game (and both current expansions) but I’ve only played it a couple of times (I’m hoping to get it played at least once at the upcoming Dragonflight convention).

To have it digitally, playing it online with some of my cronies, that would be awesome!

They also announced a new “standalone expansion” for the actual boardgame, called Dune Imperium: Uprising.

There is a ton of speculation about that, with some really aggravated owners of the regular game.

These people are ranting about it while there really isn’t a lot of information about it.

Designer Paul Dennen and Dire Wolf have both stated that while this is a standalone game, much of it will be compatible with the original game and cards can be mixed into it.

I think it may be like the Wingspan: Asia standalone expansion for Wingspan, though that game doesn’t have a board so there is a bit more crossover potential.

It does have a new board and also the same pieces (spice, water, money) but it will play more than 4 players (the original is strictly limited to 4). It will also have new leaders (obviously, if it’s standalone) but some of these leaders will be compatible with the base game.

I’ll have to wait for more information before I make a determination on buying it.

But I am intrigued!

Keep in mind that Dire Wolf has announced digital games before and then they’ve never showed up, and this is a lot for one announcement, but I’m definitely going to be keeping an eye on it.

No timeline has been announced, other than Clank should be in 2024 (with an open beta for Kickstarter backers of one of their Clank expansions earlier this year). Somebody on BGG mentioned that Dune Imperium would be this year, but I don’t see that on the post anywhere.

What do you think of all this?

Any games you’ll play with me online when they come out?

Let me know in the comments.