BGA Limitation

[BoardNoremac]

Hello all,

I am genuinely curious about the limitations of BGA and web based board games in general. I just recently joined and played about 7 different games and find them quite fun and impressed overall. I am not a programmer so I don't know about the limitations.

I am guessing a lot of reasons games aren't being made are licensing issues but not sure.

Is it possible for a game to be "too big" or "too complex" to be possible on BGA? Would it be possible to have games like Spirit Island / Too Many Bones / Star Wars Rebellion/Large Risk Type Games? Or would these games just be too hard to make without having an "app".

Would it be possible for someone to make a card game like Ashes / Summoner Wars / Crystal Clans on BGA?
-Would players be able to select a premade deck before a game?
-Would it be possible to implement deckbuilding in BGA?

I love LCG 1v1 card duelers but oddly they are never made for Steam. I actually can't think of a single one on Steam at the moment. On the other hand there are tons of CCGs on Steam which are of course fun but enjoy a more "even" playing field and some LCGs have super cool mechanics.

Is it possible to have legacy games on BGA? I am guessing no but just curious.

Also are games with simultaneous turns possible on BGA?

Overall I am quite impressed with the games on BGA but just curious if these sorts of things could be possible in the future.

[MoiMagnus]

(I'm not a dev, I'm just going through what I know is possible because I've seen games doing it)

BGA has its share of complex game (Terra Mystica, Through the Ages, etc), so I don't think there is a tight limit here.
However, the games have to be mobile-compatible, and making a complex game playable on a small mobile screen is quite a feat.

As for campaigns/legacy, The Crew shows that it is indeed possible to chain games while retaining some information from the previous games [in the crew, this is the number of successful and failed missions]. If the game sequence is stopped at the point, it can even be continued with the "rematch" option. So legacy seems totally doable.

As for deck building, Race for the Galaxy almost has this. In normal game of RftG everyone draw from the same common deck of card, but you can enable drafting which allows for players to draft their own deck beforehand, and then you can chain multiple games with those drafted decks.
So deckbuilding out of a reasonably small set of cards seems possible, the player would just need to build their deck by selecting one by one all the cards before the first gaming session. (Which would be very inconvenient for large decks, especially if you want to play the same deck against different peoples as you would have to rebuild it). As far as I know, you cannot store information in your player profile (like a list of personal deck). And I've not seen any game that allows you to copy-paste a decklist for BGA to parse and convert into and actual deck.

Simulatenous turns are definitely possible, and even games with interruption from other players, though usually have some quirks (like a lack of "undo your action"). Race for the Galaxy is an example (everyone play simultaneously and reveal what they do once everyone has played), Coup is another (each action can be countered by any other player around the table), and many more.

[BoardNoremac]

Thanks for the info, I am glad that there are complex games are available and possible. I haven't played the ones you mentioned and don't know their rules.

Pretty much everything you mentioned sounds like good news! I was a little worried the games would be limited because of the way BGA uses a web browser. Maybe one day they can implement a deck importer / unit importer for those types of games. I would love to play some LCGs one day .

"However, the games have to be mobile-compatible, and making a complex game playable on a small mobile screen is quite a feat."

I did want to add I haven't tried many games on my phone but feel like maybe some games could just have a tag "not recommended for small screens". I do understand mobile is important though. So far I have just played Dice Forge on the phone and even there the small screen was kind of a hinderance when trying to read cards. Mainly because I didn't know all the cards.

Definitely looking forward to playing some more games. Right now Tash-Kalar, 7 Wonders Duel and Race for the Galaxy are on my "to-play list".