Belly of the beast
Artificial intelligence playing board games instead of humans? Whatever next, board games playing themselves? Well, yes, actually.
So, You’ve Been Eaten is the next game from Tiny Epic series designer Scott Almes, and features what appears to be a curious first for board games: its player count spans from zero to two, meaning it can be played by… nobody?
Obviously the game isn’t going to unpack itself on your table and shuffle its pieces around automatically (yet), but it does come with game-controlled options for both sides of its asymmetrical battle between a miner collecting crystals inside a monster and the beast that’s swallowed them and is trying to digest the troublesome snack.
It turns out that being consumed is the only way for the space miner to get at the valuable crystals inside the creature, making So, You’ve Been Eaten’s fantastic title a wry bit of corporate training.
The AI ‘robot’ miner and ‘sleeping’ beast can serve as an opponent for a single player, or can be pitted against each other – you’ll still need a human to move things around on the tabletop, but it’s otherwise fully automated, if you’re into watching games play themselves for half an hour rather than playing them yourself, for some reason.
Whether controlled by human or cardboard, the miner must collect eight different crystals to win, while the beast is trying to build up its immune system and use four types of bacteria to attack the intruder – if the miner gets digested, the beast wins.
The game can also end a third way if the miner makes it all the way through the beast’s digestive tract and, erm, emerges at the other end – in that case, it comes down to whichever player has the most points.
So, You’ve Been Eaten’s miner-versus-monster theme is being brought to life by Dinosaur Island and Cryptid artist Kwanchai Moriya, with publisher LudiCreations publishing the game later this year.