Perhaps you’ve heard of Ananda Gupta and Jason Matthews before, the duo of board game designers whom released Twilight Struggle — a deeply strategic card driven board game, depicting events from the Cold War — to a wide slew of accolades back in 2005. Similar in play style to games such as We the People and Hannibal: Rome Vs Carthage, players had to best use their cards and limit resources to gain influence and power across the map. However — ensuring that both sides forever remained on their toes — were the event cards that could cause real life events from the actual Cold War to take place at any given moment, unexpectedly aiding and/or hindering each faction’s domination gambits.
However — despite the game’s many fans and awards — various publishers had refused to fund the creation of a digital edition of Twilight Struggle, believing there was no money to be had in such a venture. They will probably all soon regret their folly, however, for the game has already managed to secure — in under ten days, no less — a whopping 393% of their Kickstarter’s minimum goal. Twilight Struggle will — thanks to the massive overfunding already present — absolutely be arriving on a wide array of digital platforms in the near future, complete with a massive assortment of special preset challenge scenarios.
These preset scenarios will give people something the board game experience never could: special challenges, involving predetermined resources and board conditions, where players must test their skills against an AI opponent. One thing that was always hard for people to do with the board game was to learn the ins and outs of strategy, since — after all — experimenting would often lead to straight defeat if the other player was any good. Furthermore — outside of just special challenge scenarios — the digital edition’s AI mode will be available for the default game rules as well, making it so that players can always find time for Twilight Struggle no matter where they might be at any given moment.
Anyways — for anyone already shouting “Shut up, and take my money!” at their computer monitor — you can currently preorder the game’s iOS edition, which is expected to arrive around March 2015, for a pledge of just $15. This pledge will also net you a printable PDF of the upcoming Twilight Struggle: What If?! board game expansion, that will add rules for a slew of intriguing alternate reality starting conditions. Meanwhile — for those whom pledge even more — deeper rewards on the table include: physical What If?! copies, a deluxe copy of the original board game, access to a backer only tournament, and more!
While the digital edition of Twilight Struggle is now guaranteed, those who want to help the game reach further stretch goals (such as an expanded soundtrack) — or even collect some of the backer only swag — should be sure to chip in their donations by July 3rd.