Talisman: Digital Edition is about to get a bit more … civilized. And crowded.
Nomad Games has released Talisman: The City expansion today on all of the game’s platforms (PC, Mac, iOS, and Android) for $7. This add-on brings six more characters and 82 City cards, along with three new alternative endings. It also expands the number of players from one to four to one to six, making it feel more like a board game experience. In a press release, Nomad said that it has sold more than 1 million copies of Talisman since its October 2013 release, showing how a good brand and good execution can help companies make money in the cutthroat mobile market with a premium paid product.
It’s also getting a user-interface tweak so that it’s easier to see your character’s attributes.
“Basically, this next release is a huge step forward for the game,” Nomad’s Donald Whiteford said. “Even with two to four players, the new UI is a cleaner solution that makes stats comparison easier. Oh, and I forgot to add you can turn the A.I. speed up to 11, Spinal Tap-style, to ensure 6 player solo games fly along. Of course, The City means Talisman with shopping … what’s not to like when you have bags of gold?
The City is the fifth expansion to Talisman’s digital incarnation, adding a third alternative board (along with The Dungeon and The Highlands) for fighting monsters, finding loot, and battling (or hiding from) other players. This move also puts it closer to its cardboard counterpart from Fantasy Flight Games, which has nearly a dozen expansions and add-ons.
It took the team nearly nine months to make the expansion happen.
“There were some challenges with the rules that we have had to address, and so it’s going to be really interesting to see how the fans get on with our solutions,” Whiteford said. “We also added six player capability during production, so we had to ensure that this also worked with every expansion! Six players with expansion boards makes huge sense, because there is more real estate for the players and more players helps keep a balance. It’s cross-platform of course.”
Nomad has supported Talisman not just with expansions and add-ons but DLC characters, too, including one for Special Effect in the U.K. All sales of the Shaman, a character that’s the creation of the game’s community, benefit this charity that helps disabled children and adults get into gaming.
Digital board games are a good market, Whiteford believes, because of the psyche of its players: Folks into board games are used to spending (I think I’ve spent more than $400 to date on X-Wing: Miniatures, another Fantasy Flight product).
“I believe you’ll find similar stories where an adaptation of a physical board game has been made. The reason is that customers may be used to paying $50 or more for a physical game, and they are comfortable paying $5-$10 for a digital version of something they already love,” he said. “There is a big precedent for the way the purchase works there. Pay-to-own is a comfort zone for many players, particularly with a familiar [intellectual property] that falls into more of a niche or specialist interest category.”
As an avid player, I couldn’t resist asking about my favorite add-on — Talisman: Dragons, which has yet to make the digital version.
“Dragons are an essential part of Talisman, and we do plan to work our way through all the expansions — and they keep coming for the physical game,” Whiteford said.