Board: New game console recognizes physical pieces, with an open SDK

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Technology & Piece Detection

  • Pieces are passive: no electronics, batteries, or cameras.
  • Each piece has a unique conductive “glyph” pattern on its footprint, manufactured with custom materials.
  • The board’s capacitive sensor plus embedded ML on the NPU identifies and tracks glyphs, including orientation and whether they’re being touched.
  • Detection works even without a finger on the piece; touch state is exposed as an extra input parameter.
  • Some posters speculate about cheating with non-conductive movement; team doesn’t address this directly.

SDK, Openness & Custom Pieces

  • Current SDK is Unity/C#, with Unreal and Godot planned.
  • SDK will be open-source and free to access; timing is “next week or two.” Registration requirements are undecided.
  • Developer-facing pages are currently sparse, causing confusion about availability.
  • Custom pieces: possible via multi-material 3D printers and conductive filament, but described as finicky and somewhat expensive.
  • Team is open to modular “smart bases” / glyph inserts and to helping makers experiment.

Price, Value & Market Position

  • At $500, many see it as a boutique device comparable in price to an iPad or Meta Quest but far more niche.
  • Several argue most launch games could be implemented on a regular tablet without physical pieces; only a couple are seen as truly leveraging the hardware.
  • Skepticism that enough developers will invest in bespoke titles for a small installed base.
  • Others argue the value is in unique hybrid gameplay and shared, in-person experiences rather than replicating existing board games.

Use Cases & Target Audiences

  • Strong enthusiasm from TTRPG and complex board-game fans for automated bookkeeping, rules enforcement, and dynamic maps.
  • Size (roughly a large tablet) is viewed as a major limitation for games like Gloomhaven, TI4, or large RPG battle maps; some dream of tiled or TV-sized versions.
  • Debate over target market: current marketing skews toward kids/families, while many commenters think serious hobby gamers and DMs are the more natural audience.
  • Questions raised about hidden information mechanics, accessibility for blind players, and latency; answers are partial or absent, so performance and accessibility remain unclear.

Comparisons, Durability & Trust

  • Frequently compared to Microsoft Surface/PixelSense tables, Dynamicland, Osmo/Marbotic, DropMix, and The Last Gameboard—earlier hybrid systems that were fun but often finicky, underpowered, or commercially unsuccessful.
  • Some hope prior Surface experience on the team means better tracking and robustness.
  • Durability: claimed to handle spills reasonably well; still, many would hesitate to let children use a $499 device.
  • A 1‑year warranty is criticized as minimal, especially by EU users used to two years.
  • Offline operation (WiFi only for downloads) is praised, but some worry about future ads, telemetry, and long-term support.