I'm a mobile developer working on a Twilight Imperium companion app. The app will be for iOS (all iPhones & iPads running iOS8).

I'd love to gather some beta testers from the community who can validate my ideas, and also help me spot mistakes ... there's a lot of data I'd like to eventually track.

If you've got any "must have" suggestions for features, or are interested in beta testing, I'm all ears.

https://app.box.com/s/06kttcyn660radj88663

https://app.box.com/s/06kttcyn660radj88663

What sort of functions are you envisioning?

I have broken the project down into a series of Milestones. The amount of features the app eventually contains will be dependent on the amount of interest I see in the project.

Milestone 1, encompasses duplicating the functionality of the only current T.I. app on the store, TI3 Race Sheet. While making improvements to the presentation, and including information currently not presented.

I am currently making good progress at completing Milestone 1.

Milestone 2, will add a searchable knowledge base. Specifically, all special abilities, special hexes, units, flagships and tech. Not meant to be a search of all game knowledge, but meant to help you resolve disputes and plan your next move when you've forgotten the details on one of the many game rules.

Milestone 3, will add the ability for basic house rules. Modify unit stats (# of dice, base attack value, etc).

Milestone 4, will add all regular hexes, leaders, delegates, mercenaries and optional rules to the search

Milestones 5, 6 (the order is not determined) - Tools which will go further to help a player play the game.

- Fleet simulator : drag individual units from a sidebar onto a fleet composition canvas. At a glance numbers will tell you stats like: production cost, production capacity required (to build in a single turn), # of dice which will be rolled, average # of damage expected (based on all attack values of all ships involved).

- Map generator : select # of players, will generate a balanced map. Generator options to be determined.

Finally, I've got some feedback that a real-time game tracker (who's turn it is, etc) and a combat simulator (or a tool that can be used to actually resolve battles, without dice) would be useful. I'm still hoping to gather feedback, because it's also a matter of what can reasonably be developed by one person on the side.

I sincerely hope that you don't plan to charge anything for the app or have it run ads. I don't think FFGs legal department would like that.

You can charge for apps of this nature, it's not about charging for someone else's product - it's about selling a tool. The app won't be using any art assets from the board game.

Appreciate the concern though, I've had success building tools for other games and never ran into any issues.

Be that as it may, I've heard that FFG doesn't like people sharing info that you'd normally need a copy of the game to know (like the specific text on Action Cards and such). If it were me, I'd probably check with an FFG representative to be certain it's ok before spending that much time on making it.

TI3 has had (and still does have) a thriving community for online play. FFG has, in the past, graciously allowed us to use graphics of the game components to enhance those online games, with the only stipulation being that we can't share or replicate the text of any cards. The idea being that this way, each player must actually own the game in order to play.

If this app contains all of the text from all of the cards (art or no art), then it could be used as a substitute for owning the game in PBEM games.

FFG has historically been very open and easy-going with regard to letting fans use their material for this sort of thing, the least we can do as fans is show them the courtesy of asking. Whether you can legally get away with it or not, it's only polite.

Steve-O - also, one difference with many of those other sites for PBEM games is they don't charge for it. I mentioned this on BGG, too, but I vaguely remember some Android app a year or two ago that seemed somewhat similar, but the developer charged for it (not much, maybe .99, but still). It got shut down by FFG pretty quickly.

FFG is very reasonable, but I think it's also reasonable not to expect people to make a profit off their IP, even if it is just a utility. So I do recommend asking - if they say "sure", go for it. If they say "no, unless it's free", and you charge anyway, I don't expect it will last long on the store.

Then there are all the online x-wing squad builders that replicate the text of cards verbatim but don't have any of the art.

Steve-O - also, one difference with many of those other sites for PBEM games is they don't charge for it. I mentioned this on BGG, too, but I vaguely remember some Android app a year or two ago that seemed somewhat similar, but the developer charged for it (not much, maybe .99, but still). It got shut down by FFG pretty quickly.

Yeah, I didn't catch all the details on that Netrunner scandal, but I gathered that the guy was using high-res scans of all the cards. Considering the game is all cards, that would just make it way too easy to pirate copies by taking screenshots and printing them out, so I can understand why FFG would frown on it.

I'm not saying they never take action, but I haven't know them to be unreasonable about letting fans do what they want. In fact, I'd say they're generally more open than I would expect a company their size to be.

I've shot an email there way and will conform to their feedback, if it's got to be free then it just means I can't spend as much time on development.

Hopefully they won't mind me charging for the tools (as an in-app purchase) and keep the stats / quick-reference stuff free. I'm not replicating the card text, and I'm not using any art scans - everything is typed from me (or rephrased from rule errata, online guides, etc).

My personal opinion is that there's zero chance anyone can play the game using the app, but there's a decent chance that making the game much more accessible for new players will increase FFG's sales.

Sounds like a good app.

Shame your making it for apple junk and not android

A great Android app is already available: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skatecanyon.tools.ti3stats