Quote:
Originally Posted by caps
Has anyone ever looked into using Google Slides as the map tool instead of Google Drawings? It would make games playable from mobile (there's a Slides app that works fine on a phone or tablet) and would allow people to potentially play asynchronously from their phones (I don't know if OMs are persisted across browser reloads though...)
|
So, I looked into it. It works!
Here's a Google Slides doc with a map and figures. If you have the Google Slides app on your phone or tablet you should be able to open it up and move figures around (you'll probably have to zoom in to select the actual figures instead of resizing them). You can do multi-selection by doing a long-press until the UI changes, then you can tap on additional figures.
To set up this map, I put just the map (no glyphs or other map toppers) on its own slide along with the map-relevant text (about the placement of the glyphs on water). I centered the map, placed the text, and then downloaded that slide as a .png. Then I created a new slide and set that image as the background for the new slide. This way you can't move the map around by accident (this is also useful for non-mobile players, by the way). With the map in place I put the WOUNDS box and some figures on the board.
My next test was to see if you could use the Heroscape browser app from mobile. The answer is: you can! I recommend using Chrome (Firefox seems to lose your OMs if you have to close the tab/app and come back later). You'll want to save the game name somewhere in case you find yourself needing to log back in. Displaying the map inside the "app" does not work, but you can just run the app in a separate window if you're doing this from a computer instead of your phone (if you're using your phone you'll be using the Slides app for the map).
I'm eager to play an asynchronous game (a few turns a day) with someone to really put it through its paces. I play Hero Realms, Star Realms, Epic, and Shards of Infinity by taking one turn a day and really enjoy it--I'd love to play Heroscape instead (or in addition).
--
If it works well enough it could be fun to run a long-running tournament this way.