Boss Monster card game playable via AltspaceVR
Altspace VR is essentially a VR platform where people can gather and talk, play games, and so on in a virtual reality space. Brotherwise Games recently took their popular card game Boss Monster and made it compatible with Altspace VR and I decided to check it out while at this year's GenCon. As a quick synopsis to Boss Monster, each player controls a boss and the goal is to build a dungeon evil enough to defeat any hero that wanders in. Rooms will deal a certain amount of damage to a hero and can also have other effects. Defeating a hero earns you souls while having heroes complete your dungeon without dying results in wounds. The ultimate goal is to collect ten souls before accumulating five wounds.
In terms of the Altspace VR version of the game, it's not too bad. Given that this is a game within an app so to speak, not all of the rules are fully implemented and it's up to the players (up to four) to make sure the rules are enforced. However, the game will keep track of souls and wounds, so that's a start. What's nice is that players can join in from anywhere in the world and during the few minutes I played, we had the host talking to us and one of the other players was from London (the other two were from Kansas and California).
The interface looks pretty good and you can move your avatar around wherever you wish. To interact with cards you just move the cursor to the item you wish to interact with and either an orange box will pop up with your options (such as View and Flip for Room cards) or you can click and drag cards from the various decks to your hand, placed in front of you like scrabble tiles. It's actually pretty interesting and can be an enjoyable way to play the game. I'd guess that further down the line they might find a way to enforce the rules, but beyond that it's pretty much on the honor system. Still, the fact that Boss Monster is now a VR game is pretty awesome. If you have a headset and an Altspace VR account, head on over and check it out.
