From pocket monsters, to wizarding worlds, and even to the time of the Jurassic, developer Niantic has definitely mastered the art of the massively-multiplayer augmented reality game.
Since they’ve explored fantasy worlds of all sorts, their attention now turns to something a little more cozy: tabletop games. Recently, the dev announced a fourth AR title that will launch soon — Catan: World Explorers.
You heard us right — you’ll soon be able to explore your local area as if it were the iconic board game. Like regular Catan, players in Catan: World Explorers play by collecting various resources in brick, grain, ore, lumber and wool in order to build settlements, roads and cities. Except that all isn’t done on a board; players have to walk around their local neighbourhoods and beyond in order to do so.
Also like regular Catan, players can also trade materials with other players, and, on a team-based level, accumulate Victory Points that will affect local and global leaderboards for potential prizes and the like.
We’re not sure just how the “blocking” mechanic from the base game works, but we imagine Niantic might have come up with a way to make this game as intensely competitive as its tabletop counterpart.
Currently, there is no official release date for Catan: World Explorers, though its official website is now live. Niantic states that the beta for the game will launch “very soon”, with an official launch date coming at another time.
Speaking of playing Catan, you can check out the free online version of it with your friends while waiting for this one to drop.
Marion has a serious RPG addiction. Sometimes it bleeds into real life; he forgets to sleep because he thinks he has a Witcher’s body clock. Forgive him in advance if he suddenly blurts out terms such as “Mind Flayer” and “Magic Missile”, because never once does he stop thinking about his next Dungeons & Dragons game.
Si Jia
