
Kickstarter project Turf Geography Club launches its “Foursquare + Monopoly” app - stevefink
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/08/02/kickstarter-project-turf-geography-club-launches-its-foursquare-monopoly-app/
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adrianhon
So, I backed Turf on Kickstarter when it came out, and it really does look a
cut above its competitors. It reminds me of Nimblebit's style but with plenty
more wit and whimsy. There are some rough edges but for a 1.0 it's great.

However, I wonder about its longevity. I remember back when Gowalla was the
big new thing and I had friends literally walking halfway across London just
to collect all the cool badges. After a few months they got bored and stopped
playing, probably because they realised that walking across cities for badges
just wasn't worth the payoff.

Turf is a little different because you get rewards by going to the same
places. In fact, the more you frequent the same place, the more you can build
it up and defend it and get neat stuff. But in my case - and in the case of
many people I know - I don't actually travel to that many different locations,
usually going to the same few shops and cafes. I check into these on
Foursquare and I'm Mayor of the same few places, and I have been for a couple
of years. It may sound boring, but I suspect that most people are boring.

So I would probably just end up owning the same places I'm Mayor of on
Foursquare, building them up a few levels, increasing their defences,
successfully fending off the occasional attackers, unless they were so
bothered to keep on checking in more than me, which would require some
dedication. If they did that, I don't know if I'd be bothered to check in
enough to defend my bases myself.

So maybe Turf is just not for me, it's for people who enjoy exploring new
places. I imagine they'll play it a hell of a lot, because it really does look
cool. But will they keep on playing it? Maybe. I'm not sure it has the depth.

On a side note, I think that a lot of these check-in style 'true' location-
based apps run into the same problem, in that most people really don't go to
that many different places, and that having to manually check in every time
requires a certain type of obsessive personality; and that automatic check-in
freaks people out.

(I also remember hearing about some next-gen persistent transmedia game that
you'd play as an FPS on a PC or a console, and then if you were injured in the
game, then you could literally _walk_ to a pharmacy to get healed. It sounds
cool but it's idiotic. Most people get impatient waiting a few seconds for
their TV to turn on, and we think they'll walk to the pharmacy? I don't think
so.)

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dfriedmn
Realistically that's the growth curve experienced by even the most popular and
addictive games (grow quickly to large # of users, slowly decline into
mediocrity) -- the trick for Turf will be to figure out how to become more
than just 1 game. There's no reason they can't launch new games within the
game (just off the top of my head, think scavenger hunts or group battles),
and get people engaging in all sorts of gameplay.

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Terry_B
Wish you guys the best of luck! As someone who has worked on and thought about
location based gaming like this for a long time but failed to launch I'm
really hoping you guys pull it off. We even called our prototype "Turf" :)

Location based gaming throws up a lot of challenges and problems that we felt
were less than ideal as a gaming experience and instead of just launching
something, we over analysed and try to solve them all upfront (without
evidence that they are really problems). My only advice is just launch!

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CWIZO
If you like this kind of games check out <http://www.oust.me> ... Here you
checkin via foursquare/fb and counquer areas. You can also join a team and
control parts of citys together. They have some seedcamp money behind them.

Disclosure: I'm friends with one of the guys who made it.

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frankdenbow
Have been beta testing this and enjoy the little battles you can have with
others over locations. In terms of design its one of the slickest out there,
especially considering all the building types and levels

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smalter
I beta tested the app and got addicted pretty quickly. It's fun and gorgeous
-- really a cut above most mobile games when it comes to craft and attention
to detail.

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gravitational
It took us a little over a year. Our team is three people:

Michael Tseng - Designer (Me) Steve Finkelstein - Backend Developer Adam
Bellmore - Front End Developer

We've also had quite a few freelancers help out though to illustrate all of
the locations and other assets was time consuming.

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dannyr
Mike,

How far along is the Android app?

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gravitational
To be honest we haven't gotten to start on it yet. We wanted to prove that
there was demand for the iOS version first. When we make the move to Android
we will have to build a team for it. Keep the hope alive!

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milesokeefe
I just heard of this project today, but being an Android user I would
contribute to a kickstarter just for Android if that's what it takes.

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dberg
Looks like a ton of fun, love the 8 bit graphic concept

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samstave
I love this, though I know I am an old retired gamer when I have no interest
to use this myself

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mdanger
Downloaded the app just now. My friends were already teasing me about using
Foursquare...I can already tell this is going to be even worse.

(My one little bit of criticism is that I find the 8-bit-style text really
hard to read on the iPhone's screen.)

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k0mplex
This game is beautiful. How long did it take you to make?

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thinkbohemian
have you ever heard of mytown or booyah?

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gravitational
Ya we have, the original mytown is more in line with what we created, though
everyone could own their own copy of each place. In Turf there is only one of
each location so you have to fight for ownership.

Mytown 2 is not really like Turf. They went more of a cityville route.

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thinkbohemian
Thanks for the info. Love the graphics.

