Similar to books, the future evolution of board games is unclear. Digital defenders swear that books and board games belong on consoles, tablets and smartphones, while keepers of paper, card and bits of plastic believe that paperbacks don’t need LCD displays and Guess Who? is best played using boards. Whatever you believe though, you’ll be intrigued by les éditions volumiques‘ recent activities.
Les éditions volumiques is a French publishing house that is experimenting with the idea of crossing traditional objects, such as books and board games, with mobile technology. Take (i)Pirates, for example: it’s an adventure board game played on a massive board and you use your iPhone as an ‘interactive pawn’. Markers on the ocean-based board help the iPhone to figure out where it is and pull up relevant information.
In addition to (i)Pirates, les éditions volumiques is also working on something called (i)Pawn. Instead of the iPhone becoming the pawn, it acts as the board and you use iPhone compatible playing pieces to activate actions on the screen. According to les éditions volumiques, both games will be available later this year. To get a better idea of how they work watch the embedded video demos.
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