One of the most exciting things I saw at PAX was a demo of The Settlers of Catan on the Microsoft Surface. If you're not familiar with
Catan, it's the uber-popular German board game that is as essential to geeks as golf is for doctors. Surface, of course, is Microsoft's touch-enabled coffee table that never quite broke out into the mainstream after its debut in 2007--mostly due to its prohibitive cost and limited application library. But board games on the Surface make sense in the overcomplicated-yet-infinitely-cool kind of way that we techies can't help but drool over.
So what's it like playing a $40 board game on a $10,000 machine? You'd be surprised, actually. (Updated with some video)
The advantages over the physical board game are immediate and clear: no shuffling cards, automated board building, a computer-controlled banker, etc. All the physical components of the game are virtualized. To roll the dice, I just put two fingers on the virtual die on the table and flung them across the screen, where they bounced off the edges in dramatic fashion. Each player's hand of cards and various menus are placed on virtual mats that I could move around or even tuck away into the side of the table to avoid cluttering the game board. To avoid letter players see your hand, you could toggle the cards to a face down position when you didn't need to look at them or place a physical shield on top of the Surface to hide your hand.
I was impressed by how responsive the game was and how well it utilized the touchscreen without resorting to complicated gestures. To trade cards, I just dragged one out of my hand and placed it on the board, retrieving exchanged cards placed by other players. Animations were fluid and gameplay would feel immediately intuitive and natural to anyone who has played Catan before. Compared with the near-perfect Xbox Live Arcade version of Catan, the Surface version is a much better social experience--you're playing in the same room as real people.
But while the Surface game captured the gestalt of the Catan experience, minor software hiccups tripped up the overall experience. For one, players kept accidentally hitting the Surface task-switcher buttons on the corner of the table, halting the game. It feels awkward to have to constantly remind yourself not
to let your elbows or fingers accidentally graze the table on a device which runs solely on touch interactions. And though the card shielding technique generally worked (we had to use hands in my game since the plastic shields were unavailable), I was easily able to see other player's hands unintentionally throughout the game. For hardcore competitive players, the tangibility and control over physical cards and board can't be replaced.
And then, about three-fourths the way through my game, Catan crashed. While I was in the lead.
