Board Game Companion¶
A mobile app that enhances physical board games with digital scoring, group participation, and animated winner reveals. Players join a session by proximity, track their own scores during the game, and at the end everyone's phone simultaneously plays an animation announcing the rankings. The goal is to turn scoring from a chore into part of the fun, and the winner reveal from a mental arithmetic exercise into a genuine moment of delight.
Proof of Concept: Sushi Go Party¶
Already validated. Hal vibe-coded a static HTML page for Sushi Go Party that handled score input with the game's styling and branding, then animated the winner announcement. Spun the laptop around to show the family. Key finding: it added to the game, not detracted from it. This is the critical test - any companion tool that makes the physical experience worse has failed.
The HTML page was single-device (laptop as scorekeeper). The idea extends this to multi-device: every player has the app on their phone, enters their own scores, and the reveal happens simultaneously on all screens.
What This Actually Does¶
- Game selection: Pick the board game you're playing from a catalogue of popular games
- Session creation: One player creates a session, others join by proximity (same Multipeer Connectivity model as the card game)
- Score tracking: Each player inputs their own scores round by round, rather than one person being the designated scorekeeper with a notepad
- Winner reveal: At the end, all phones simultaneously play an animation revealing rankings. This is the delight moment - the thing that makes people smile.
Why Separate From the Card Game¶
The card game replaces a physical object (the deck of cards). This companion enhances a physical object (the board game) that you're still playing with. Different value proposition:
- Card game: "You don't need to bring cards"
- Companion: "Your board game night just got better"
The companion never tries to digitise the game itself - the board, the pieces, the physical experience stays. It just handles the tedious bits (scoring) and adds something new (the reveal).
What Needs Thinking¶
Game-specific logic is the scope trap. Each board game has different scoring rules, round structures, and edge cases. Sushi Go Party scores differently from Catan scores differently from Wingspan. A naive approach is building custom scoring logic per game - but that's an enormous surface area. A smarter approach might be:
- Generic mode: Simple score input per round, no game-specific logic. Works for any game.
- Themed modes: Styled UI and tailored scoring flows for popular games. More work per game, but much more delightful.
- Start with generic mode + one themed game (Sushi Go Party, since you've already prototyped it) and see whether people care about the theming or just want the score tracking and reveal.
The "everyone needs the app" barrier. Same problem as the card game (iOS-only via Multipeer Connectivity), but possibly worse here because board game groups are less self-selecting. The laptop-as-hub model from the Sushi Go prototype sidesteps this - one device could run it while everyone calls out scores. But that loses the "everyone enters their own scores" and the simultaneous reveal.
Is this a product or a feature? It could be a standalone app, or it could be a mode within the card game app. If the card game app is "games you play with your phones when you're together," a board game companion fits that umbrella. But it might also dilute the card game's identity. This is worth resolving before building.
Connections¶
- Multiplayer Card Game (Proximity-Based) - shares core infrastructure (Multipeer Connectivity, proximity joining, cross-device animations) and the same design philosophy of phones enhancing in-person social gaming. Could share an app or remain separate products.