Ark Nova

This game offers a unique experience for every gameplay with many different ways to approach strategy and variable components to monitor throughout. There is definitely a learning curve, but it is worth the time investment for a game that doesn’t start to feel like it’s on repeat after a few plays. I have both the physical and app version. The app version makes learning much easier because it blocks unqualified moves (such as not enough money or action power for a particular move) and highlights what you can do (such as the additional cost for playing an animal from the display). These details are more challenging to monitor on the physical board game. The game is highly customizable with many offline solo options and either async or real-time online options. There are a few points for improvement as development continues. 1- First and foremost… PLEASE ADD THE MARINE EXPANSION PACK TO THE IOS APP!!! 2- Also, the chat function is very handy, but you cannot see what you are typing beyond the initial line which can make it challenging to use, especially because the typing field is so tiny to begin with. It would be very nice if this could pop out into a separate maneuverable window or at least expand to show your full message in the typing field like a text message bubble would on any smart phone. 3- There is also a culture of players that like to go at warp speed, which is fun sometimes, other times a bit frustrating. It would be nice if the time per turn was an additional customizable component. This would likely mitigate some tensions for those who think a little longer and those who want to whip through turns at the speed of light. 4- Finally, the app does crash sometimes, has somewhat long loading times, and drains my phone/tablet battery pretty quickly. I imagine that operating such a detailed game does require significant power but the freezing during online games can be disruptive and sometimes kick you out of the game if you can’t reload quickly enough. For asynchronous games, if I open a different app on my phone with this game still up in the background, when I return to it I have to close it out and reopen it for it to register my opponents moves and allow me to take my turn. So it does not really run in the background which makes turn taking pretty inefficient. Overall, these issues don’t impede gameplay so significantly that it curbs my desire to play, it is still very enjoyable, but solutions would be nice if possible! Creative suggestion… it would be really cool to have animal facts on the cards like we see in some other animal/nature games. Even cooler if they can somehow correlate with the animal’s power in the game. I have a degree in Wildlife Biology so I see a lot of opportunities for this in the card deck. Might even be nice to see an icon or animation of what animal is in which enclosure for easier scanning and engaging UI. Super cool game, highly recommend!!

Great app implementation of the board game. Top notch.