Warhawk
Cadet Freshman
- Joined
- 5 Jul 2020
- Messages
- 10
- Age
- 39
Righto, so there's this thing called Tabletop Simulator. Now I know what some of you are thinking: Usually either A) "Who wants to play something meant to be tangible on a computer?" or B) "What the heck does "tabletop" mean again?" Personally, I blame their lack of marketing; they seem to expect enthusiastic players to do all of that for them by word of mouth... And so here we are.
For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the platform, I gotta clarify just what exactly this thing is and how it can be used, otherwise any discussion about it won't make any sense. Tabletop Simulator would be better described as "Virtual Reality Semi-Computerized Tabletop/Wargame/Cardgame/Boardgame Creator." Though you'll find paid DLC for it focused on specific games, and screenshots of the usual standbys like chess, checkers and poker, what you'll find on the Steam Workshop is a gigantic pile of everything from out of print games from the 1950s to wild homebrew designs that otherwise never would have seen the light of day. All of that stuff on the Workshop is free, and you can make more of it, too. And quite easily, especially for those of you already familiar with 3D modeling and modding.
TTS is different from a competitor called Vassal mainly in that the playing field is a fully-rendered 3D table, with a working physics engine to boot. Though it can be rough around the edges in some places, this means that it isn't just a 2D grid or board. It can be a billiards table. It can be a whole bowling alley. The physics part isn't really its strong suit, but I hope you get my point: It's a VR environment, where rolling dice actually involves cubical objects rolling over a surface using a value for gravity and friction.
But it's also a semi-computerized VR environment. Objects have all sorts of properties that an in-person tabletop game never could. More text can be crammed into pop-up object descriptions than could ever fit on cardstock. Objects can be re-tinted with different coloring at a moment's notice. Objects can be cloned, deleted, re-scaled, locked into place, suspended in mid-air, and (if you're enterprising) even scripted using Java to have working buttons with all kinds of functions. It straddles the boundary between a videogame and a tabletop setting, permitting game designs that are uniquely suited to this environment.
Players of conventional tabletop are understandable in their concern. A lot of the fun comes from building and painting models, for instance. True, there's no replicating that. But you can make and texture a 3D model (complete with bumpmap and collider), import it into the game and rig it with fancy things like rotational pivot points and particle effects. But what about the face-to-face interaction that's lost? Well that's true, also. But nothing stops you from using voice chat, and many features are intended to replicate the experience anyway: Other players' mouse cursors (rendered as "hands") are always visible; Players can be "blindfolded" to represent looking away or moving to separate rooms; Hidden zones and even card hands prevent people from peaking (the ultimate poker face) and so on.
But the best part of all of this is that it is entirely customizable, from the background panorama and lighting to the hundreds of objects you can throw in there. Plenty of generic things exist like playing cards, dice, coins, building blocks and whatnot, but you can "import" pictures, models and Javascripting almost to your heart's content. These assets can be stored in your Steam profile's data cloud so that they are readily available, uploaded to third-party websites if you'd prefer, or even loaded directly from your hard drive (though this last one prevents other players from seeing those objects). When it's all said and done, when you load up a chess board it ain't just chess. You can literally toss the board into the abyss off the side of the table and then build an entirely new game from the ground up, then upload it to the Workshop and play with anyone in the world. Real-time not your style? Heck, just let them use your save instance of the game so they can stew on it for a week and get back to you. Instant Play By Email.
It's an insanely powerful platform for how cheap it is, and barring copyright strikes for Workshop uploads (which never touches anything locally saved or played in small groups anyway), the world is your oyster.
----
With all that out of the way, let the discussion begin!
I've been designing tabletop wargames for almost a decade now. At first it was with clumsily compiled cardboard and printouts, usually without any willing playtesters, but TTS changed all of that overnight for me. But truth be told, my passion was in designing, not fighting to get published in a very, very competitive and expensive tabletop market. Because of this, I ended up leaning towards hybridized games, meant to be played on TTS specifically. But don't let that stop you; I've seen more than one Kickstarter project being demoed on this thing. Maybe yours will be next?
My current project is TRS BSG-related, but in the past I've made games involving TOS BSG, Star Trek TOS, LotGH, Ace Combat and a bunch of other stuff. My weakest point is Javascripting, but every day I learn something new. If anyone here is just starting to get into this program and could use some help, just hit me up and I'd be happy to oblige.
Must warn you up front: There are a lot of assets circulating around on the Workshop. Many are ripped from videogames, but some come from other sources. TTS isn't capable of handling really high-quality models, so that tends to weed out most theft I'd imagine. For my part, I just about always state that I'm not responsible for 3D models, though the 2D assets are often my original work.
Now for the good stuff: Pictures! All of the attached are from projects I've worked on over the years. Some are published and playable. Others got bogged down in design troubles or I otherwise ran out of motivation. Enjoyed every minute of them anyway. Feel free to ask about any of them!
For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the platform, I gotta clarify just what exactly this thing is and how it can be used, otherwise any discussion about it won't make any sense. Tabletop Simulator would be better described as "Virtual Reality Semi-Computerized Tabletop/Wargame/Cardgame/Boardgame Creator." Though you'll find paid DLC for it focused on specific games, and screenshots of the usual standbys like chess, checkers and poker, what you'll find on the Steam Workshop is a gigantic pile of everything from out of print games from the 1950s to wild homebrew designs that otherwise never would have seen the light of day. All of that stuff on the Workshop is free, and you can make more of it, too. And quite easily, especially for those of you already familiar with 3D modeling and modding.
TTS is different from a competitor called Vassal mainly in that the playing field is a fully-rendered 3D table, with a working physics engine to boot. Though it can be rough around the edges in some places, this means that it isn't just a 2D grid or board. It can be a billiards table. It can be a whole bowling alley. The physics part isn't really its strong suit, but I hope you get my point: It's a VR environment, where rolling dice actually involves cubical objects rolling over a surface using a value for gravity and friction.
But it's also a semi-computerized VR environment. Objects have all sorts of properties that an in-person tabletop game never could. More text can be crammed into pop-up object descriptions than could ever fit on cardstock. Objects can be re-tinted with different coloring at a moment's notice. Objects can be cloned, deleted, re-scaled, locked into place, suspended in mid-air, and (if you're enterprising) even scripted using Java to have working buttons with all kinds of functions. It straddles the boundary between a videogame and a tabletop setting, permitting game designs that are uniquely suited to this environment.
Players of conventional tabletop are understandable in their concern. A lot of the fun comes from building and painting models, for instance. True, there's no replicating that. But you can make and texture a 3D model (complete with bumpmap and collider), import it into the game and rig it with fancy things like rotational pivot points and particle effects. But what about the face-to-face interaction that's lost? Well that's true, also. But nothing stops you from using voice chat, and many features are intended to replicate the experience anyway: Other players' mouse cursors (rendered as "hands") are always visible; Players can be "blindfolded" to represent looking away or moving to separate rooms; Hidden zones and even card hands prevent people from peaking (the ultimate poker face) and so on.
But the best part of all of this is that it is entirely customizable, from the background panorama and lighting to the hundreds of objects you can throw in there. Plenty of generic things exist like playing cards, dice, coins, building blocks and whatnot, but you can "import" pictures, models and Javascripting almost to your heart's content. These assets can be stored in your Steam profile's data cloud so that they are readily available, uploaded to third-party websites if you'd prefer, or even loaded directly from your hard drive (though this last one prevents other players from seeing those objects). When it's all said and done, when you load up a chess board it ain't just chess. You can literally toss the board into the abyss off the side of the table and then build an entirely new game from the ground up, then upload it to the Workshop and play with anyone in the world. Real-time not your style? Heck, just let them use your save instance of the game so they can stew on it for a week and get back to you. Instant Play By Email.
It's an insanely powerful platform for how cheap it is, and barring copyright strikes for Workshop uploads (which never touches anything locally saved or played in small groups anyway), the world is your oyster.
----
With all that out of the way, let the discussion begin!
I've been designing tabletop wargames for almost a decade now. At first it was with clumsily compiled cardboard and printouts, usually without any willing playtesters, but TTS changed all of that overnight for me. But truth be told, my passion was in designing, not fighting to get published in a very, very competitive and expensive tabletop market. Because of this, I ended up leaning towards hybridized games, meant to be played on TTS specifically. But don't let that stop you; I've seen more than one Kickstarter project being demoed on this thing. Maybe yours will be next?
My current project is TRS BSG-related, but in the past I've made games involving TOS BSG, Star Trek TOS, LotGH, Ace Combat and a bunch of other stuff. My weakest point is Javascripting, but every day I learn something new. If anyone here is just starting to get into this program and could use some help, just hit me up and I'd be happy to oblige.
Must warn you up front: There are a lot of assets circulating around on the Workshop. Many are ripped from videogames, but some come from other sources. TTS isn't capable of handling really high-quality models, so that tends to weed out most theft I'd imagine. For my part, I just about always state that I'm not responsible for 3D models, though the 2D assets are often my original work.
Now for the good stuff: Pictures! All of the attached are from projects I've worked on over the years. Some are published and playable. Others got bogged down in design troubles or I otherwise ran out of motivation. Enjoyed every minute of them anyway. Feel free to ask about any of them!
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