As we get closer to our July 25th release date, we'd like to give an update on what's in the game, what's not in the game and what we plan to include post launch. First, a bit of background.
We developed this game in cooperation with Darwin's Toys with a single goal in mind; a desire to be able to play with friends online because getting physical time to play the board game version was difficult. We're betting that we are not the only players that struggle to find 4-5 hours of board game time in our busy schedules and demanding family lives. This singular goal has driven almost all of the direction of the initial game.
At launch, we will have cross platform play using dedicated Zombie Possum Games accounts and Steam accounts. Our initial map is the current map known as "Eurorails" though we have rebranded the game to be consistent with the Empire Builder: Europe Kickstarter that Darwin's Toys, Mr. B Games and Mayfair Games has executed to bring the physical board game back to the market. You'll recognize the map, the demands, load tokens and the events from Eurorails. Now that the Kickstarter is funded and nearing its own production release, we hope to quickly add the new map with new map, tokens, demand cards and events as DLC in the coming months after release.
The launch release includes multiplayer play via matchmaking or private lobby invites using the Empire Builder: Europe rule set strongly influenced by the official tournament rules that you encounter at the various gaming conventions. We've been working with Jeff and Trella at Darwin's games to clarify all of the quirky edge cases that you see when playing the physical game to make sure that the digital version is as faithful to the board game as possible.
At launch, we will not have support for a single player experience. This is by design. Too many board games have trivially defeated AI players. We don't want that. Instead, we're going to capture real game play over the first few months and use it to feed/train AI that we hope will give you a better single player experience once implemented. That's the goal and so we need real world play patterns to emerge before we implement a single player version. In today's day and age of smart AI, we believe this is the correct strategy and that delivering a sub-par single player version of the game just to check a box on Steam's catalog page is not in the game's best interest. We hope you agree.
Post launch, we have a roadmap that includes a release to iOS for the iPad. We're of the opinion that this game will not work well on a phone. The mileposts on the map and the amount of data that needs to be on a screen at one time is pretty large. As such small screen devices are not on our roadmap at this time. The iPad and eventually, Android tablets are fair game.
Roadmap Post Launch:
- Release an iOS version for the iPad
- Release an Xbox Game Pass version for the PC.
- DLC for the new Empire Builder: Europe game.
- Irish Rails to keep pace with the planned production of the physical board game.
- Single player experience.
- All of the remaining maps as DLC.
Mixed in all of this, we plan on releasing various cosmetics for your player profile, Steam/Xbox achievements, player stats, and controller support. Once we have full controller support, releasing to Xbox and PlayStation consoles is on the table but that is getting way ahead of ourselves. It's easy to get caught up in all the things we could do once the game is released but we're excited to be able to play this game with friends and with everyone online.