Great game, bad app – Kingsburg Serving the Crown Review

Kingsburg is a great game, but this app needs a lot of work, maybe even a rebuild from scratch. For one, it crashes and freezes constantly. Plus, it just feels like a rough draft. This is not a streamlined, polished app like Ticket to Ride or Agricola. There's a lot of bloat and a lot of mess. Aside from the fact that the app doesn't really work, the design is poor overall. If you're not familiar with the board game, the rules may be a little bit difficult to follow. And if you are, you'll be plagued with constant reminders of what everything is. Every turn. Every time. You can turn these off, but then the game tells you nothing at all. So, your two options are to know the rules by heart, or have the game constantly telling you the rules. Additionally, if you turn off these "hints," they just come back the next time you open the app--or the next time it crashes. Things that must be fixed to make the game playable (besides the crashing): *Permanent option to turn off hints, but still have text explaining what phase/round it is (King's favor, etc). *Needs a way to see what advisers are available by number, instead of having to guess and/or memorize what each number gives you. It's hard to plan when you just have to see what number matches what advisor over and over again. *Needs to be something showing me what resources I have on the province and advisor screens. It's cumbersome to have to switch between all the screens constantly. *Needs to be a way to skip the reconnaissance animation. Once you've seen it, there needs to be a way to skip it if I don't want to see it over and over. Wish list: *Network play, both online and local. I love Kingsburg the board game, but honestly, this thing is not worth $5. It's possible to make a magnificent, well-made board game app--lots of other games have proved it--and charge a premium for it. This simply is not it.
Review by The Scott on Kingsburg Serving the Crown.