So
Catan hit Xbox Live Marketplace today, and unless you've played the boardgame before it's pretty intimidating. Developer Big Huge Games has done a great job of making the game accessible for first timers with a brilliant learn-as-you-play tutorial, but to get a good introduction o the game
before you download it you should check out the interview with Catan lead developer Brian Reynolds (he of
Civilization II and
Rise of Nations fame) I just sent to the
Xbox Community Network.
Click here for your local XCN sites, and add them to your favourites list for the latest Xbox news that isn't just cut and pasted from a press release.
To get you started, here's a quick taster of the interview:
"For those of us who haven’t played the Catan board game before, could you give us an introduction to it and why it is so successful?
Brian Reynolds: The island of Catan consists of 19 colorful land tiles, representing mountains, pastures, forests, and other regions. Players colonize the island, founding settlements in places they think will be productive, and each time the dice are rolled some of the settlements produce resources. The most exciting part of the game begins when the players wheel and deal to trade the resources with each other to get the ones they need, and then build new roads and cities to settle the land. The winner is the player most successful at planning, trading, and expanding!
...
Do you have any tips to help people get started with Catan?
Brian Reynolds: Yes! When the two dice are rolled for resource production each turn, numbers in the middle like 6 and 8 will be rolled a lot more often than numbers at the extremes like 2 and 12. So count the “dots” on each land tile, which show how likely that tile is to be rolled. Settlement spots next to the largest number of dots will usually generate the most total income!
Another good thing to remember at the beginning is to try to get at least one of your settlements next to a good “Brick” tile, because everyone needs a lot of brick at the beginning of the game and you’ll be “in demand” as a trading partner!"