Golem Arcana

Golem Arcana is a two to eight-player miniature wargaming game that interfaces with a digital app through the use of a Bluetooth stylus. Players compete against one another in one of several scenario types, including eliminating the opponent's golems or capturing and holding a specific area of the map. The ultimate goal of the game is to collect a set number of "victory points", which are gathered by defeating opposing golems, completing scenario objectives, and as rewards for completing optional missions encountered through the app. Each player controls a number of physical miniatures called golems, which are placed on a game board built with interchangeable map tiles. Each map tile is divided into nine squares arranged 3 by 3, and has terrain features pre-printed on it. Golems come in small, large, and very large sizes. Up to four small, two large, or one large and two small golems can share a square on a map tile. The very large "colossus" golems take up an entire square by themselves. Harebrained Schemes collects aggregate data on the decisions that players make in the game and uses it to alter the game's lore. ==Development==

Golem Arcana was announced in July 2013 in a blog post on developer Harebrained Schemes' website. The blog post indicated that the studio would return to Kickstarter to fund the game, and that most of the studio's staff would continue to work on their other project, Shadowrun Returns, while a few would be split off to work on Golem Arcana. The Kickstarter campaign was launched on 10 September 2013 and ran until 15 October 2013, with a funding goal of $500,000. Backers could get the base game by pledging at the $55 Kickstarter reward tier. The game was released on 13 August 2014, with the digital component available for both iOS and Android. The final expansion, Durani: Champions of the Western Wind, was released on January 27, 2016. A post on the game's official blog indicated that, despite the strong critical reception, sales were not sufficient to justify the millions of dollars spent on development and production. According to a statement sent to ICv2, the studio had ensured that the game's companion app supported as many devices and operating systems as possible at the time, but could not promise compatibility or support in the future. Both studio co-founder Jordan Weisman and executive producer Ray Winninger had experience developing both tabletop games and video games. One of the studio's motivations for developing the game was to combine the two mediums, with Winninger explaining "One of the spaces we're interested in exploring at Harebrained, and Golem is the first effort, is how can we take those tabletop games that we know and love so much and leverage technology to enhance that experience in some way." Weisman and Winninger also stressed the social nature of the game. Winninger, comparing Golem Arcana to Skylanders, another game with both physical and digital components, stressed that Golem Arcana was less focused on components and more focused on the social experience. Weisman pointed to his disappointment that "kids' idea of playing together after school these days usually means just meeting online from their own houses" in stressing that participants playing against each other in Golem Arcana would do so face-to-face. ==Reception==

Golem Arcana received mixed reviews upon release. Reviewers were divided on the game's defining feature – the hybrid of physical miniature and digital app, but praised the game's visuals, lore, and rules. Writing for Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Robert Florence praised the app for calculating variables like movement range and tracking statistics like health and ability cooldowns, but spoke of a disconnect caused by constantly shifting focus between the screen and the board. While ultimately questioning the need for the physical components at all, Florence also saw the game as having potential in the future. Chris Hutton of Tom's Guide took a much more negative view. Hutton found it cumbersome that the starter kit came with only one stylus and that only one device running the app could be synced to a given game at a time, necessitating that the screen and stylus be passed back and forth between players. He also found the stylus itself to be unresponsive, slowing the game down to the point that he lost interest. In an otherwise negative review, Chris Hutton of Tom's Guide praised the storyline and visuals, saying of the latter that "the colorful, interesting terrain created a unique universe". Game Informer praised the game's setting and its "gorgeous visual aesthetic". ==References==