Chess and Backgammon - multiplayer games from Real Dice
In our latest article on PDA games, which discussed Real Dices’s Multiplayer Championship Texas Holdem, I promised to come back with a few words on Real Dice’s other games. Here I am.
You might remember the guys over there have a preference for classic table games, the kind best enjoyed surrounded by others, such as Chess, Backgammon, Poker, etc. That’s also the main incentive for the gamers to join Real Dice World, an always online community of paying subscribers. Much like Yahoo Games, only with the extra twist given by the mobile gaming that turns any waiting line or lunch break into a perfect opportunity for a quick game..
Backgammon has always been my childhood favorite. A game for grown-ups, mostly, that involves luck - so even the newbie has a chance of winning once in a while, and most importantly strategic thinking. My father taught explained it to me in very appealing words: you have to help your army of wooden disks cross the battlefield back home, capturing enemy soldiers into your prison and trying not to be captured by them enemy ones you encounter down the path.
Sounds pretty exciting, for a wood game played with dices that dates back 5000 years ago. Well… I guess I can describe even Chess in similar looking terms: two armies of diversified arsenal and firepower, battling each other in the world’s most exciting and popular strategy game, dating as far back as the 2nd century.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that both Chess and Backgammon have zillions of fans, so any gaming company aiming towards plenty of players should keep them in mind. Both those fans can be quite picky, so the implementation should rock. After all, these beautiful games have been featured in literature, film, poetry, paintings and many others; any implementation should be beautifully made, trying to recreate the magic atmosphere around the real wooden board.
Real Dice’s products succeed in this challenge: as you can see in the screenshots the games are beautiful, with wooden antique feeling all around, but remaining in the same time simplified and stylized, not to overwhelm the player and keeping the mind on the game. The multiplayer features have been nicely integrated, so you can duel with your friends whenever you get tired of battling the single player artificial intelligence.
All in all, those two are examples of casual mobile games that scream multiplayer in loud voice, and here’s where the Real Dice World community comes handy. IMHO I find them a bit expensive compared to most mobile phone games, though not quite expensive when compared to PDA ones. Given that the community subscription also adds some monthly costs, my advice to you is that you should profit from the offer Real Dice offered our visitors: by clicking on the banner at the right and entering when required the coupon code MOBICRI you get a free 3 months trial subscription to the multiplayer community.
Update March 07
The guys from Real Dice sent an email pointing to some errors in my article:
A small clarification regarding our game prices, they are right in line with each platform, i.e. Symbian price is much lower, Windows Mobile higher etc…
Regarding the subscription, it is not an additional cost, it replaces the game cost. In addition to that we offer people that bought one game and want to get the subscription to reimburse him the game price.
[tags]Chess, Backgammon, mobile, game, multiplayer, Symbian, Nokia, Windows Mobile, PDA, Pocket PC, Blackberry, Real Dice[/tags]
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[...] Original post by Alex [...]