The day is finally here, and my latest game, Catchup has been released for iOS. The game is a two-player abstract strategy game, with asynchronous multiplayer via Game Center.
Here is the app store description:
Catchup is a simple game of surprising turnarounds.
Can you have the largest group at the end of the game? Connect your hexes to master this beautiful abstract strategy game.
Features:
– an interactive tutorial to teach you how to play
– a challenging AI opponent whose difficulty changes as you play
– online turn-based multiplayer via Game Center
– two-player pass-and-play on the same device
– beautiful and haunting music by Tori Kamal
– minimalist graphics with customizable colors
– GameCenter Leaderboards & Achievements
– simple and easy to learn rules and gamplay
– difficult to master strategy
Here are all the rules:
1. One player plays all the hexes of one color and the other player plays all the hexes of the other color. The first player begins by claiming 1 empty hex for their color.
2. Starting with the second player, each player must claim 1 or 2 hexes on their turn.
3. If the largest group of hexes at the end of a turn is larger than the largest group of hexes at the beginning of that turn (regardless of color), the next player may claim up to 3 hexes on their turn. (This does not apply after the first player claims a single hex in step 1 above.)
4. The game ends when the board is full. The player with the largest group wins. If the players’ largest groups are the same size, compare their second-largest groups, and so on, until you come to a pair which aren’t the same size. Whoever owns the larger of the two wins.
Catchup is an original Board Game designed by Nick Bentley.
For posterity, here’s the “What’s new in this version” text for the last few versions (because I’ve been submitting all these versions to Apple for approval, these are actually visible in the app store if you dig):
What’s new in Version 0.8.1:
– Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and French localization
– Added a link to the game rules from the game menu
– Lots of bugs fixed in prep for launch!
What’s new in Version 0.7:
– Fixed crippling bug starting Game Center async games.
– Localized Rules text.
– A few other minor formatting and bug fixes.
– …more hexagons!