
How to play board games online with your friends - joemasilotti
https://masilotti.com/play-board-games-online/
======
ollerac
A few friends and I invented a board game several years ago and we all thought
this pandemic time would be a great opportunity to get back into it.

I set up a real time board game maker online, called DoomGrid[0]. It's very
basic and just uses Firebase to sync a bunch of game objects across everyone's
game board.

We also published the rules for our invented game recently[1] (warning, only
70% complete). We've now spent over 10+ hours developing those rules and the
story behind them.

If you haven't tried inventing a game yet, I'd highly recommend it. It's
really fun! I personally enjoy it just as much as actually playing the
finished game. And it's very rewarding the play something you crafted from
scratch.

[0] [https://doomgrid.com/](https://doomgrid.com/)

[1]
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GBGlrMk4By5IZ28yCqq3vHAo...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GBGlrMk4By5IZ28yCqq3vHAouzLk9FitqYkSmoC4SkI/edit?usp=sharing)

~~~
polishdude20
A friend and I made a game a few weeks ago and it's also just simply
synchronizes the board using a server to store the game state.

It's a Codenames clone you can find here
[http://those.codes](http://those.codes)

~~~
ollerac
This looks great. Do you think your friend might add a short paragraph to the
home page explaining what this does? Might engender a little more trust.

I'm totally gonna use this to play Codenames with my parents-in-law.

------
blakeburch
Austin has a local board game Meetup group that's shifted entirely to Tabletop
Simulator during this time. It's great and definitely maintains the best
feeling of playing a physical board game.

I'm surprised that the author didn't mention the hundreds of games that you
can download for free in the Steam Workshop as mods. Not all of them work
flawlessly, so you have to test things out beforehand. However, the almost
unlimited array of options is what makes TTS stand out.

We've found that games without hand management tend to work best. Over the
past 4 weeks, we've run games like Arkham Horror, Great Western Trail, Terra
Mystica, Blood Rage, Caverna, Puerto Rico, Hansa Teutonica, Concordia, Lords
of Waterdeep, and Quacks of Quedlinburg.

~~~
mariusz331
This is awesome and gave me a lot of ideas! I'd love it if you checked out
this app we're building to play social/board games over video chat. There
aren't as many options as Tabletop Simulator but it may still be a good fit
for your meetups: [https://www.cyberspaces.app](https://www.cyberspaces.app)

~~~
fragmede
One feature in tabletop simulator is that it is literally a simulator of a
tabletop - which means that the simulated tabletop can be flipped over. At
least, I think that’s supposed to be feature!

------
pbhjpbhj
I was hoping this was going to be how to modify boardgames to play with
friends via webcam. We played Monopoly, and had good success - one board,
setup a ghost player for the remote people. Remote people used parts of a set
to keep track of their money and properties. Later several hours.

>In my experience, Zoom is the most consistent service and works on almost any
device. One person in your group will need a paid subscription if you want to
host an event longer than 40 minutes. //

We used meet.jit.si, it was free, good sound/video quality and long call time
was no problem.

~~~
iso1631
"We played Monopoly, and had good success"

Unlikely. What a tedious game

~~~
joemasilotti
Apparently almost everyone is playing with the same "house rules" that make
the game awful. Free parking is not a rule and just makes the game go longer.
Not automatically putting up unpurchased properties for auction is also a big
rule to miss.

~~~
dmoy
I've played monopoly strictly by the rules and it ends up being equally
terrible as any house rules imo.

Perhaps even worse, once you get someone who drops in with the hyper optimized
bleed-everyone-to-death-with-no-hotels strategy. (Or worse, 2+ people with
this strategy, because they it becomes a neverending game of trying to block
all monopolies)

I'll agree though, playing without the auction rule is super slow and boring.

Maybe stock rules with infinite houses, I haven't tried that before.

------
mcv
The site in the leading image is not mentioned elsewhere in the article, but
it's Dominion, which can be played at
[https://dominion.games/](https://dominion.games/)

(Disclaimer: the online version is developed by a friend of mine. Not the
original physical game of course, which is the best-selling game by Donald X.
Vaccarino.)

~~~
_pastel
Is your friend doing okay? The site seems pretty slammed. Looks like they
finally got the ratings updater back online after it went down a few weeks
ago.

~~~
mcv
He's doing fine, if a bit lonely, because he can't yet afford to hire anyone
to work on it together. Though he has an active online community helping him
out.

The site had some stability issues when user numbers spiked a couple of weeks
ago, but he says he can scale more easily now and isn't afraid if everybody on
HN comes to check it out.

~~~
gok
Does he have a Patreon or something? I would love to support it.

~~~
mcv
I don't think he has a Patreon, but you can always get a paid Dominion
account.

------
mariusz331
We're working on an app for social/board games with built in video chat:
[https://www.cyberspaces.app](https://www.cyberspaces.app)

Current we offer:

Boggle (just released yesterday, feedback is especially appreciated)
[https://www.cyberspaces.app/boggle](https://www.cyberspaces.app/boggle)

Codenames (we call it Cyberterms)
[https://www.cyberspaces.app/cyberterms](https://www.cyberspaces.app/cyberterms)

Liar's Dice
[https://www.cyberspaces.app/liarsdice](https://www.cyberspaces.app/liarsdice)

Kings [https://www.cyberspaces.app/kings](https://www.cyberspaces.app/kings)

~~~
JohnKacz
Looks good. I'd love to know what stack you're building with and what you're
learning.

After seeing the readastorytome.com Show HN [0] was using Phoenix LiveView I
was considering building a similar app to play spades or 42 as an excuse to
learn some things I've been wanting to learn for awhile.

[0] -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22836940](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22836940)

~~~
mariusz331
Awesome! Building these sort of games is a lot of fun and I recommend it! We
think there's a good opportunity right now for games over video chat: folks
that are self-isolating need a way to connect with each other and if you
provide a fun service for that I think it will be used.

We started off using what we knew best: Rails, React and the Twilio Video SDK.
We'll introduce other technologies as they are needed to increase our velocity
or enable us to build more rich game experiences.

Happy to chat more offline: mariusz at cyberspaces dot app

------
kashyapc
A few weeks ago I tried Tabletop Simulator with two other friends to play
Gloomhaven[+]. I admire the developers that took on such a (positively)
complex and rich game as Gloomhaven.

But it was a _far_ cry from in-person playing (I realize). It's very much
understandable—you just can't replicate that high-definition feeling you get
from in-person game, especially from such a rich game. I was 'dejected'
(again, that's not the right word) enough that I didn't try Tabletop Simulator
anymore. Maybe I should try other games.

Man ... do I now wish that I hadn't turned down (with lazy excuses) all those
in-person Gloomhaven sessions I was invited to.

Live and learn.

[+]
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/174430/gloomhaven](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/174430/gloomhaven)

~~~
joemasilotti
I feel your pain. As fun as online sessions are nothing beats physically
picking up a figurine or meeple. I also found Gloomhaven particularly hard to
use on TTS. Wingspan, on the other hand, was a joy to play.

~~~
kashyapc
Thanks, will check out Wingspan. Haven't heard of it before.

------
iso1631
After watching an attempt to make Scrabble work [
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaXo_i3ktwM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaXo_i3ktwM)
], I was thinking what games could work via a webcam if all players have the
game.

Thinking of games I've played recently, Dominion would work. Ticket to Ride
wouldn't. On the Underground would, 1960 Making of a President wouldn't.

Normal Settlers wouldn't, but the junior version of Settlers would

The key thing is not drawing secret information from a shared pool. Dominion
works as it's secret information from a non-secrete deck, which can be known
by all players -- you just have to ensure to remove the right cards from play.
If player A takes a Duchy, player B removes one Duchy from his set from play.

With Ticket To Ride there's no way to ensure that you don't get the same
tickets on each side - secret information from a common limited source.

Normal Settlers would struggle with the soldier cards -- you can draw a
soldier, but it could be roadbuilding or year of plenty. Junior settler has
the same with coco cards, but those are played immediately so that works.

Obvioulsy open games, like Chess, Go, Backgammon, work. Games like Battleships
and Guess Who, where there is secret information but no shared ppol would work
too (ok you could both be guessing the same character in guess who, but that
would be OK)

~~~
taejo
Dominion would indeed work with webcam, because everyone only shuffles their
own cards, but you can only play with the cards that everyone has (if one
player has an expansion and the others don't, you can't use it).

If all of your players already know how to play, I strongly recommend the
official Dominion Online [0]! The base game is free, and the expansions are
very affordable too ($1.95 for a month with half the expansions [the older
ones], or $3.90 for all, no recurring charges, and only one player at the
table needs to have bought them). Unfortunately it's not very intuitive as an
introduction to the game because you don't get a good feel of where cards are
coming from and going to, but once you know the game it's arguably better
(because of the instant setup and shuffling, and automatic tracking of
effects).

[0] [https://dominion.games/](https://dominion.games/)

------
itronitron
+1 for Tabletop Simulator, one of my children taught themselves Blender in the
process of creating and uploading a game for TTS.

~~~
jjice
My friends and I have been loving TTS. $20 is a pretty good deal for a sandbox
where all the heavy lifting has been done already so you can just have a good
time.

------
eugenekolo
Another addition that I've found really fun is Lords of Waterdeep. The board
game version of it is a chore to play due to setup and how massive the board
is. The digital version is way more fun as the board game is set up already
for you, and not as daunting.

Lords of Waterdeep is available on Steam + iOS + Android - it's the exact same
game on it them all. Cross platform gameplay works which is really amazing. AI
also exists and isn't half bad.

Your non-computer using friends/partners can play on their tablets/phones
along side friends who have gaming PCs.

------
Jsharm
I'm surprised there is no mention of jackbox. It's setup to be played by a
whole load of friends around the same tv, using their phones as handheld
answer devices. We made it work over discord video chat with one person
sharing their screen and was a hoot. Quiplash is a lot like cards against
humanity and drawful is neat play on pictionary.

~~~
astura
Jackbox has been, by far, the least successful for our social distancing game
group.

------
lewich
[https://tabletopia.com/](https://tabletopia.com/) is not included in blog
article, but is worth to try. Their library is huge and games there are very
fun to play. Recommended.

~~~
zeeZ
The biggest flaw with this one is the lack of an undo button.

Interacting with stacks of cards is sometimes weird, and the physics get
wonky, especially with hex tiles that snap to the board, but still don't align
properly.

It works better the less objects are involved.

Playing "Wingspan", putting a card below another with eggs on top is
dangerous.

Don't even try to play "Dominant Species".

------
avimoondra2
Here's a great (and growing) list of free or freemium board games online that
a friend shared with me!

Document version:
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/10iOD7Wy_YU4NmkPU7ZH7YTrq...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10iOD7Wy_YU4NmkPU7ZH7YTrq11qJAANjZZ0PAotKhR8/preview?pru=AAABcdDzhlo*0uQs11KuxXOQu3Sowcll0Q)

Spreadsheet version:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FnsE0E3p_qVugf2Tu6dj...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FnsE0E3p_qVugf2Tu6djTV_bHw3oL74P8tWZITsBL4A/edit#gid=0)

------
nkzednan
I've been playing some games on
[https://www.yucata.de/en](https://www.yucata.de/en) with friends - San Juan,
Imhotep, Castles of Burgundy, Russian Railroads, Thurn and Taxis. Beware with
Yucata that if you start a game with more than 2 people, you cannot resign and
if you start a different game, it makes you take your turn in other games
first. We also use Tabletopia
[https://tabletopia.com/games](https://tabletopia.com/games) \- Terra Mystica
- one person needs to buy Tabletopia.

For more places to play boardgames online see
[https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/wiki/play_online](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/wiki/play_online)
as well as
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/2/d/1nwZkqIoIkkUakCvj...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/2/d/1nwZkqIoIkkUakCvjiiLul6QFObxBM0DIP
--
Diq1KtQU/htmlview?fbclid=IwAR2W75p0dE0iiXSO0GLzZJJLZUJXTfFphUZRl7z0C8C2Z6VeOXh__iHfBXg)

------
bluetidepro
> In my experience, Zoom is the most consistent service and works on almost
> any device. One person in your group will need a paid subscription if you
> want to host an event longer than 40 minutes.

Have to disagree on this, Discord has been a FAR better solution for my group
of friends and I with our online game nights. We tried Zoom, Discord, Google
Meet/Hangouts, and Discord has, by far, been the best UI/UX/clarity/quality.

~~~
joemasilotti
Does everyone need a Discord account to join the call?

The big benefit (for me) of Zoom is that I can send a link to anyone and they
don't need an account. Asking someone to sign up for a Board Game Arena
account AND Discord would be too much.

~~~
vehementi
Vast majority of people IME already use Discord for many things anyway

~~~
0az
"Gamer" community bias, IME, as well as other internet-age communities.

It's not the most general platform, but it's one of the best at what it does:
voice and text. Video is just icing on top.

If Discord had a version suitably branded for Business, I'd say it'd be better
than Zoom and Slack combined.

It just works.

------
pidg
I wish there was a way to do this but with popular/classic board and card
games instead.

My friends are, for the most part, not board game nerds. They want to play
commercially successful games like Trivial Pursuit, Balderdash, Uno, etc.
We've had a real struggle to find a sensible way of playing them.

Eventually we just had one household point a webcam at a physical copy of
Trivial Pursuit and everyone else play via Zoom, which was less than ideal.

~~~
astura
Tabletop Simulator (mentioned in TFA) is ideal for that, it can play most if
not all of those. We've played Monopoly, Sorry, The Game of Life, Uno, Clue,
and Catan as well as your standard card games (hearts, rummy, etc.). We've got
a couple "classics" queued up for this weekend too. The first game was getting
used to the controls but it was very smooth sailing after that.

It's basically a "sandbox" gave that can support, in theory, any board game.

~~~
amiga_500
Can you give me a brief description of how to play Catan on this?

I have a harder problem than just playing against friends. My wife and I, and
another couple, all want to play Catan together. I don't want to sit in a
different room to my wife.

I was considering just using a webcam here and at my friends, having two
boards setup and both doing the same moves, so we can all "see" what is going
on, and one side looking after the deck, the other the dice.

~~~
groggo
I made an online version of Catan, want to try? I don't want to publicize it
since it's running on a free Heroku dyno (and copyright infringement,
probably), but I think it'd be fun to share with a few internet strangers.

It's more of a tabletop style where you do everything yourself (collect
resources, place settlements) and the pieces are synced between players.

Email me! cebraverde, at gmail.com

~~~
amiga_500
Sadly I only have one laptop.

What was wrong with colonist.io ?

------
hunterloftis
I'm building a Dungeons&Dragons/Pathfinder/etc remote tabletop system for my
D&D party:

[https://twitter.com/HunterLoftis/status/1248742209110884353](https://twitter.com/HunterLoftis/status/1248742209110884353)

"Share a link and start playing" has been the most important quality for my
group of variously-technically-experienced friends.

~~~
bovermyer
This has my attention, especially if it has D&D Beyond integration.

------
tln
"a tad clunky"? Every single person I've shown boardgamearena.com has
commented on the subpar UX.

But then we play a few games of Coup and all is good :)

[https://acquire.tlstyer.com/](https://acquire.tlstyer.com/) is a good
implementation of Acquire

~~~
distances
On the other hand, we found boardgamearena.com very, _very_ polished after
trying out yucata.de and brettspielwelt.de.

------
ilikepi
Tabletopia is another online service for this. They seem to have quite an
extensive library.

~~~
joemasilotti
Good call. I initially left it out because it felt too close to TTS. How does
it compare?

~~~
tialaramex
We've played a couple of games in both TTS and Tabletopia. Neither became a
favourite.

Superficially they are indeed very similar, you're getting a 3D simulated
world with the board game in it, and then a clumsy way to interact with that
world.

We did not find (not sure if any exist) rules enforcement implementations for
Tabeltopia. Every game we tried we had to understand and enforce any rules,
and the physics engine is arguably an obstacle rather than assistance as it
neatly allows you to drop cards where they can't go, flip cards you shouldn't
see, resize counters or accidentally stack them when that's not useful....

Big upside to Tabletopia: It runs in browser. If a person in your group has a
company laptop that's locked down to do Office and so on, chances are it can't
run Steam (and so TTS isn't possible) but it can run Chrome and thus
Tabletopia works.

Definitely the biggest contrast is to BGA. BGA is the place to go if you want
rules enforcement and aren't happy to stick with one game you all enjoy. But
you won't get any of the mechanical joy if that's important to you. If you
actually _enjoy_ making change with monopoly money, BGA discards that because
their rules enforcement just turns the amount of money (cows, glory, mana,
whatever) into a number instead. Little wooden cubes become small red squares
on the screen that appear exactly where the designer put them, you can't
balance them or line them up how you want, because that isn't part of the game
rules.

Personally I am now spending several hours every single week on a variety of
games at BGA and maybe one session of TTS Gloomhaven if we can face it.

To me _video_ conferencing isn't essential. We usually run a Hangout for live
games, but in practice you care mostly about the voices. It's satisfying to
hear another player say "Aw, I wanted that" when you take away an option you
suspected they wanted, and it's easy to say "Sorry, Jenny is screaming, back
in five" and put the headset down compared to having to type all that with a
child screaming.

------
afro88
My dad is in his late 70s, not good with technology and likes to play
scrabble. We used to play a game every week on the weekend. So I thought now
would be a good time to download an app to each of our ipads and play online
during lockdown.

So as it turns out, there is no good easy clean online scrabble game. They're
all horrifyingly gamified, "social" with lots of bots and fake accounts (one
with bonus forced facebook login) and full of ads to trick you into
downloading other things. All features that my poor non-techy dad would get
confused and put off by. I was amazed.

So does anyone know of a good simple clean way to play scrabble remotely?

~~~
joemasilotti
It's kind of sad, to be honest. The official Scrabble app does exactly what
you want, but only for pass-and-play. (At least it did a few years ago when I
played.)

I wonder if you could set up the game at your house, physically, with a camera
pointed bird's eye view. He wouldn't be able to move his pieces, but he might
be able to communicate via a video chat?

------
not_math
There's this Codenames clone [1] that's great, you can play in multiples
languages and you don't need to share a screen to play. It's for 4-8 players
and it's easy to play.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codenames_(board_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codenames_\(board_game\))

[1] [https://www.horsepaste.com/](https://www.horsepaste.com/)

~~~
joemasilotti
Awesome, thanks for the link! I'm working on an addendum to the article for
game-specific sites. This is perfect.

~~~
akrolsmir
Ah, if you're aggregating links, I've seen some pretty comprehensive Google
sheets listing the different online board games to play in quarantine. Here's
one:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nwZkqIoIkkUakCvjiiLu...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nwZkqIoIkkUakCvjiiLul6QFObxBM0DIP
--Diq1KtQU)

Also, plug for my own site [https://oneword.games](https://oneword.games).
It's an implementation of Just One, the 2019 Spiel des Jahres winner. I built
it a month ago just to play with my friends; now I'm getting hundreds of daily
players and I can't figure out where they're even coming from =P

------
seandavidfisher
Thanks for sharing! I'll have to try some of those.

I've been working on an online Codenames clone as a side project for virtual
get-togethers. It is live and playable[0] and requires 4+ players. I'm
planning on open-sourcing it as soon as I find the time. It's been a good
excuse to practice some Vue.js and Websocket communication and a lot of fun!

[0] [http://codenames.seafish.io](http://codenames.seafish.io)

~~~
seandavidfisher
I've since open-sourced this, contributions welcome.

[https://github.com/seanfisher/codenames](https://github.com/seanfisher/codenames)

------
paulgb
Between this article and the comments, I'm bookmarking this page as a good
list of these games. I'd be remiss if I didn't add my own humble attempt, a
Boggle-like game to be played over screen share:
[https://wordgame.paulbutler.org/](https://wordgame.paulbutler.org/)

------
imetatroll
I've been working on a vtt for DND5E for the past couple of years. You can
text/video chat, create characters, maps and all of the essentials! Please
take a look!

[https://imetatroll.com](https://imetatroll.com)

If you really like what I am doing, I have a twitter account and a patreon
account. Thanks!

~~~
ollerac
This looks great. I love the font! A 2 minute screencast overview video
showing the interface would go a long way to making me want to sign up.

~~~
imetatroll
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCCzEAhkVqsU1CFTGDKzR8A](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCCzEAhkVqsU1CFTGDKzR8A)

I do have two older videos if you are interested!

~~~
ollerac
Yeah, I love these! Definitely made me want to give it a try! Maybe embed them
both the home page somewhere?

------
jaflo
I worked on a multiplayer version of the puzzle card game Set recently with a
friend. It uses socket.io to communicate and Svelte for the front end. It’s a
lot of fun to play with friends or alone:
[https://isaset.com/](https://isaset.com/)

~~~
seandavidfisher
This is really well done! Love the subtle animations and the ability to pick
cards with the keyboard.

~~~
jaflo
Thank you!

------
avimoondra2
Recently released[0] a free, online version of a favorite social/party game...
it goes by the name of Fishbowl, Salad Bowl, Monikers, or Celebrities.

[http://fishbowl-game.com/](http://fishbowl-game.com/)

The first version was created and tested in ~3 weeks. So far it's been fun and
hilarious for groups of friends, family, or coworkers (4 to 10+ players, ages
5+).

Also open source[1]. Built with Typescript, React, Material UI, Apollo
GraphQL, Hasura, Express, and Postgres; deployed on Render.

[0] Show HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22902950](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22902950)

[1]
[https://github.com/avimoondra/fishbowl](https://github.com/avimoondra/fishbowl)

------
zentiggr
For those with a more wargaming lean, VASSAL is an amazing toolkit.

Full Java app, and modules for hundreds of games all the way back to the
original version of Tactics from AH.

I've personally done a bit of improvements on Fifth Frontier War, from ye olde
Traveller universe.

~~~
joemasilotti
Yeah, VASSAL is a good alternative to TTS! I left it out because I'm
personally not into war games which feels like it's strength. But I would
definitely be open to learning it and adding it to the article.

------
Tomte
Brettspielwelt is huge:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrettspielWelt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrettspielWelt)

I can recommend it, although it's been years s8nce I've played there.

~~~
distances
We tried this, but it just .. didn't work. Massive problems getting a game to
launchable mode, and then it just doesn't launch. Games disappearing from the
invite list, and joins not registering.

I can easily imagine that all could now be caused by overwhelming traffic, but
the outcome was no game anyway.

------
tomcooks
I use an online shared spreadsheet (like EtherCalc[0], or Google Sheets) to
play my turn-based combat boardgame[1] with friends during the covid19
quarantine lockdown.

I think it's a lot faster and easier than using roll20 or other online
boardgaming platforms, requires no signup nor learning any new shortcut.

[0] [https://ethercalc.net/](https://ethercalc.net/) [1]
[https://www.tomcooks.com/projects/snipr/](https://www.tomcooks.com/projects/snipr/)

------
netjiro
[https://github.com/netjiro/hactac](https://github.com/netjiro/hactac)

Fun, tricky, tactical hacknslash tabletop/rpg. Played since 2008. A bunch of
adventures and campaigns available. Uploading when I have time. Hundreds of
hours of adventures in the repo already.

Let me know if you want to try it out. Happy to host a game (UTC+2 CEST). We
usually play over maptool and mumble these days.

1) README

2) Adventures in Kingsland

3) basic rules and design ideas

4) Dungeon of Testing

5) Return of Uchly Namen

etc

------
ISL
We've been mounting a Logitech webcam to an inexpensive tripod with an
inverted-column. We connect that webcam to a computer and log it in to a
videoconference.

We use another computer to bring our family into a videoconference with
friends. Works great with most games.

Took us about half an hour to get the lighting right, and now we can spin it
up in about five minutes to play any game in the house.

About half the time, we don't even play the game. Conversation matters more
than everything else these days.

------
intenscia
If you are after a Board Game Sandbox, I recommend you take a look at Tabletop
Playground as they are running a free beta on Steam right now ahead of the
games launch next month:
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1282050/Tabletop_Playgrou...](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1282050/Tabletop_Playground_Beta/)

Full Disclosure: I am helping to publish the game, so feel free to AMA

------
theaeolist
Any similar suggestions for card games, especially Poker?

~~~
joemasilotti
I haven't found anything yet, but if I do I'll add it to the article.

~~~
gotrythis
[http://kosmi.io/](http://kosmi.io/)

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jaflo
Are there any online versions of the card games Mao, Golf, or Lucky
Bastard/Karma? I’ve been considering making some sort of card game simulator
that supports those because I haven’t found a good 1) website that 2) works
across screen sizes and 3) enforces play order.
[http://playingcards.io/](http://playingcards.io/) is the closest I have seen.

------
Splendor
Has anyone found an easy solution for video chats with virtual games? I've
tried Hangouts, Meet, Discord, and Zoom but they all seemed incomplete for my
requirements.

My requirements:

\- Host can share their screen and video camera at the same time without
having to join the meeting from two different devices

\- Desktop audio and host's audio can be heard by everyone on the call

\- Gallery view in video chat so everyone can be seen while playing the game

~~~
phlamb
I found Skype to be the easiest to use with these requirements. I hosted a
Jackbox game and was able to share my screen (and game audio), my webcam
(albeit in a smaller view than normal), and could see everyone in a gallery
view.

~~~
Splendor
I tried Skype and it fell short as well. While sharing my screen I can only
see a small floating window that shows 1 participant at a time. I can't see
everyone while sharing the game. It was very easy to share my desktop audio
while sharing the screen though.

------
RustyRussell
We played Pandemic with great success: the other couple had the game too, put
all their cards face up so they could find them fast. We drew for everyone,
they mirrored.

That avoids complexities of camera resolution, and lets you examine other
players at a glance: important for a co-op game.

(Yeah, I deliberately bought Pandemic just as we entered isolation since I've
always wanted it and obvious reasons).

~~~
iso947
Had deliberately avoided playing it this year, too depressing.

------
keiferski
Reminds me of this cool DIY project to record chess piece moves (on a physical
board) to a computer.

[https://tech.bakkenbaeck.com/post/chessvision](https://tech.bakkenbaeck.com/post/chessvision)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21613982](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21613982)

------
Pietbull
I'm currently working on a real-time games platform for more social-type games
over video calls.

[https://ziago.co](https://ziago.co)

It has a few popular drinking games also. Working on adding more intellectual
games soon.

Would be happy for some feedback/suggestions.

It's running on Firebase and Vue.

------
monksy
I wrote about this as well on the 11 April:
[https://theexceptioncatcher.com/blog/2020/04/games-that-
you-...](https://theexceptioncatcher.com/blog/2020/04/games-that-you-can-play-
over-zoom-remotely/)

There are more games there that you can play.

------
seeken
Currently building a Splendor clone in Phoenix LiveView to teach myself
Elixir... I had a rare moment of geek glee last night when I got the reserve-
card functionality working, watching the cards disappear from the other
screens. Afterwards I think I will do Azul in Blazor as a way of comparing the
two frameworks.

------
Longwelwind
I've been working on a free and open-source online implementation of the board
game "A Game of Thrones (Second edition)":
[https://swordsandravens.net/](https://swordsandravens.net/)

The game can be daunting and long (~4 hours), but the gameplay is very cool!

~~~
staz
is it finished and playable?

~~~
Longwelwind
Yes, it is!

------
twaldecker
Finding good games to play online with friends and family is a difficult task,
because you find very much crap. So I appreciate the post.

I implemented the games Halma, Mühle and Dame. Don't know the English names.

Ui for now is only in German:

[https://wunderwald.games](https://wunderwald.games)

~~~
jaflo
I tried Halma briefly and it didn’t seem to enforce rules or play order. Is
that by design?

~~~
twaldecker
Yes, it's by design. It was easier at first but you can "help" new players
easier.

------
qwerty456127
I wish there was something Flash-like, even easier probably, what would let
you make multiplayer board games easily. A board game essentially is just a
simple set of pictures you move around + a chat + a dice perhaps. This sounds
fairly easy to implement.

~~~
zentiggr
Look at VASSAL - it's primarily been used for wargaming but modules can be
made with lots of different mechanics, and the more recent abilities to build
automated rule behavior get better and better.

------
kzrdude
Colonist.io has been playable and nice (for Settlers of Catan). They too
struggle under load.

~~~
mcv
I know from the creator of Dominion Online[0] that he had to upgrade his
servers since the start of the Corona crisis. Lots of new users, leading to
all sorts of problems. He seems to have things under control now, though.

[0] [https://dominion.games/](https://dominion.games/)

------
neftaly
I've been working on a WebGL toy for building board games. You can share your
hash URL and play with someone else.

[https://beta.probability.nz/](https://beta.probability.nz/)

------
netjiro
For most I think it's just finding friends to play with, then finding
time/priority/scheduling to actually get playing.

------
bitexploder
Haven’t seen anyone mention tabletop simulator (available on Steam). It won’t
be for everyone. I play Magic the Gathering and board games with friends. Many
other games are also available with no work. You can play almost any board
game with a little elbow grease.

~~~
bluetidepro
> Haven’t seen anyone mention tabletop simulator (available on Steam)

It's literally mentioned in the article?

------
guptaneil
This is a nice list for playing with people already familiar with euro games.
If you’re looking for more social games that can be picked up by casual
gamers, I’ve been keeping a running list of sites I’ve used at the bottom of
[https://blog.metamorphium.com/2020/03/19/play-from-
home/](https://blog.metamorphium.com/2020/03/19/play-from-home/)

The list is focused primarily on games that are good for remote team building,
but work well for any casual group.

So far, games include Secret Hitler, Codenames, Love Letter, Spyfall, Jackbox,
Avalon, One Night Werewolf, and some others.

Let me know if you have more links in this category of games!

------
chadlavi
I've used boardgames arena, it's ok but has a very classic German web design
feel -- horrible UX that acts like the user is a dummy for needing good UX.

------
shawndrost
Huge recommendation for [http://netgames.io](http://netgames.io), they have
Secret Hitler and Codenames and the UI makes sense.

~~~
cozuya
There's my crap [https://secrethitler.io](https://secrethitler.io). (because
of some poor design decisions its capped for new players at around 250-300,
there's also
[https://private.secrethitler.io](https://private.secrethitler.io) and
[https://beta.secrethitler.io](https://beta.secrethitler.io) as well)

------
mmhsieh
it is going to make it harder to cheat at monopoly.

