Going Digital with Sigil
These days, crowdfunded board games need a digital implementation. For Nut Hunt we chose Tabletop Simulator (and soon to be available on Tabletopia).
While Nut Hunt digital is a lot of fun, it loses a little bit of the magic when playing digitally. A big draw of the game is the smooth turn flow and high energy - which gets diluted when you’re playing from behind a screen.
That isn’t the case for Sigil.
Our next game, Sigil, is an abstract strategy dueling game (Go meets Magic: the Gathering). Its genre translates extremely well to a digital implementation, and games like Chess and Mtg have healthy digital communities.
Digital play will be central to our marketing strategy for SIGIL.
Are you a front-end dev?
Before we get into our current plans for Sigil Digital, I want to give a high level of where we are, why our goals are possible for a publisher of our size, and also put a bit of a job posting out into the world – so we can hopefully find a partner, who is not only an expert in what we need but is also passionate about board games.
SIGIL’s designer, Andreas Voellmer, is one of the smartest people I know. He has a PHD in the intersection of math and philosophy (his thesis was on different sizes of infinity), is thoughtful, kind, and happens to be a developer at Google.
As a passion project, Andy built a full-stack browser-based engine for Sigil Digital. We have in the works a tutorial, AI punching bag, private matches, and a ladder complete with ELO rankings. All on our own servers.
We’re looking for a front-end developer well versed in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and experience with mobile-friendly web design. Right now we have a front-end that looks good on desktop browsers, and we want to make it look good on mobile browsers as well. This might involve “media queries” or something similar. Proficiency in Python would also be a benefit but is not required.
If you, or someone you know, fits the bill – please reach out to: jasper@pineislandgames.com.
Do you want to be an alpha tester?
We’re probably 6-10 weeks out from launching SIGIL Digital, but before we share the site around, we’ll need to stress-test both the pipes, and UX of the site. If you love two player dueling games and want a front row seat to watch SIGIL take over the world, please let us know.
Community and Streaming
As most readers know, we’re about 1/3 of the way through our Nut Hunt Kickstarter, and things are going well. We’re 200% funded, have a fierce community, overwhelmingly positive reviews, and are getting great engagement from retail.
But, there’s also a lot of lessons learned, some of which were expensive.
My biggest takeaway so far, is that I over-estimated the buy in from our paid advertising pipeline, and didn’t rely enough on all of the amazing fans who have come to us through organic channels – forums, conventions, and TikTok.
Because SIGIL translates so well to digital play, and because there are healthy communities of gamers who play their chosen analogue games digitally, it opens up an entirely new avenue for us to engage with potential fans of the game.
A big focus as we roll out SIGIL will be to engage with the Chess, Magic: The Gathering, and Go streaming communities. Especially the Mtg community as Andy and I are both well entrenched there (Andy even played on the pro tour).
So, this Fall, be on the lookout for your favorite streamers battling their way up the SIGIL Ladder. And, be sure to drop your e-mail below if you want to be part of our growing community of SIGIL acolytes and arcanists.
What are your favorite board games to play digitally?
