One of the most iconic scenes from the original Star Wars film (Episode IV: A New Hope) was when Chewbacca and R2-D2 are competing in a fierce game of Holochess and Han Solo warns “let the Wookiee win”.
Now Phil Tippett the man responsible for creating the original monsters for the HoloChess sequence (and most recently the visual effects supervisor on the Millennium Falcon chess scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens) is trying to fulfill every kids dream and make HoloChess a reality with his new augmented reality board game HoloGrid: Monster Battle. Played on iOS and Android tablets (w/ other platforms, including VR planned for the future), this brilliant looking hybrid CCG/turn-based tactical strategy game aims to finally give gamers a similar, visually stunning, tactical monster battling experience set on an AR tabletop-like playing board.
Using a combination of existing AR technology, real 3D objects and photogrammetry the monsters come to life before your eyes. This is the exact same process that Tippett used for The Force Awakens. Developing the game with Tippett Studio is HappyGiant which was founded by LucasArts vet Mike Levine and Hasbro vet Bob Driscoll.
Gameplay
Only taking about 10-15 minutes to play, the goal of the game is to use your varied team of monsters and spell based combat to destroy the opposing Player’s Champion.
The full rules are available on the Kickstarter page, but the basics are as follows:
Taking turns, each player receives 5 Mana at the start of their turn. On your turn you can select from a variety of actions, each of which costs you one Mana. These actions consist of: summoning a Minion, moving a Unit, playing a Spell card, attacking an opposing Unit, or trading in a Card from your hand for a new one from your deck (this action is limited to once per turn).
You may use as much or as little of your allotted Mana on your turn and once your turn is over you may draw up to 2 Cards into your hand (with a hand limit of four), assuming you still have cards available in your personal deck.
If you use an action to summon a Minion, they can be summoned into any unoccupied tile that is adjacent to another friendly Unit and the summoned Unit will always face the direction of the opposing Player’s side relative to the beginning of the game.
Moving units orthogonally costs 1 Move Point per tile, while diagonal movement will cost you 2 Move points and units may move onto any unoccupied tile within their movement range.
If you chose an attack action, Units may only attack one enemy (within their attack radius) each Turn. When a Unit is attacked, they will counter attack unless killed by the initial attack. Attacked Units will lose Health equal to the attacking Unit’s ATK stat.
Spell cards are played by targeting a unit or tile as specified on the card. Their effects are determined by the text on the card.
The base 8 unit types provide over 400 team combinations, however if the project hits its Stretch Goal of 30 Creatures this will result in well over 100,000 team combinations as each unit will come with their own unique abilities, movement ranges, and more; allowing for endless amounts of strategy. (more details on the unit types can be found on the Kickstarter page.
Only one copy of the game is required to play against your friends locally. If the project reaches its $350k stretch goal, remote multiple player support will be added and you will each need your own copy of the game for this.
THIS WILL NOT BE A FREE-TO-PLAY MOBILE GAME!
The game is a one-time-fixed price purchase with a currently available $25 Early Bird pledge level which will get you one boxed copy of HoloGrid: Monster Battle (Ages 8+) including two Card Packs (2 Champions, 6 Minions, 5 Spells, and 1 game board card), a mobile/tablet stand, a physical game board, & a rules print out (Full Game). You’ll also get your name in the “Battle Backers” credits on HoloGridMonsterBattle.com, project updates, a digital wallpaper set featuring art from the game & the work of Phil Tippett.
It’s possible that new, purchasable creature card packs may be introduced over time, but they will not be required to play.
If successfully funded the game is scheduled to release to backers in November, with a retail release just in time for the holidays in December.
Should the $350k stretch goal be reached, remote multiplayer would be added in February.
To back this project or for more details, visit the Kickstarter page.
