Home » The idea of ​​Teburu: transforming board games into an (almost) digital experience

The idea of ​​Teburu: transforming board games into an (almost) digital experience

by admin
The idea of ​​Teburu: transforming board games into an (almost) digital experience

“The human being is a social animal, and I believe ours evolution, slow for thousands of years, cannot suddenly change pace and upset our nature. We are still monkeys around the monolith, a tribe of cavemen around the fire, and we have always wanted, still today, to be together, look each other in the eye, tell stories and manipulate objects, to learn, entertain and share multisensory experiences “: the words are of Davide Garofalo, founder of Xplored and creator of Teburu e The Bad Karmas.

Since 2008, Xplored develops innovative games, characterized by increased interaction: augmented reality videogames for mobile devices, toy robots and other smart-toys, gamification projects, board games interconnected with apps, using often proprietary and patented hardware and software technologies.

Established in 2016

Smo, the Genoese startup that sells smartphone microscopes to US universities

by Emanuele Capone


The company is formed by a multidisciplinary team of producers and designersmechanical and electronic engineers, programmers and artists, who deal with the production process, from concept to publication, through pre-production, prototyping, engineering and release on the market, to then update and refine the project over the years: “Our offices of Rapallo (in Liguriaed.) currently employ about thirty people, of which about 20 in Italy and about ten around the world – Garofalo told us – We only outsource the industrial production of the physical components of the products, entrusting it above all to European partners, often Italian ” .

Xplored has worked and still works for many brands, Italian and international, in the gaming sector, from Bandai Namco at Ravensburger, from 505 Games to Miniclip, has experiences with Ferrero and North Sails and clients like Mattel, Giochi Preziosi, Clementoni and many others: “In 2014 we were developing a new intellectual property for a very young target and, following the trend of smart-toys such as Skylanders, Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions, we decided to focus on that sector. This is because many in the company had an e skills related to the physical worldin addition to the fact that we liked the vision of evolving hybrid games in a frontier in which the physical component could have an added value, an interactive and engaging dialogue with digital content “.

With that vision he was born Runimalzthe first hybrid game from Xplored, made up of collectible toy creatures, mystical animals with wheels, which act as controllers of the related mobile video game, moving the herd on a sensorized smart board. The project, published by 505 Games and distributed by GameStopgave visibility to the company: “Thanks to that experience, we were contacted by the main operators in the sector, who were looking for a more innovative and interactive technological evolution for their products”.

In constant evolution, in 2017 the idea of Teburu and Xplored throws himself, body and soul, into the board game industry: “One Sunday of spring cleaning I found my original HeroQuest box. I wanted to show this relic to my children and when I thought of the first movement of a miniature on the board… ”there was the revelation, as Garofalo told us.

Teburu is a board game platform consisting of a normal folding cardboard board, with inside a very thin and invisible layer of printed electronics and sensors. Cardboard tiles, maps, tokens and miniatures are placed on the board which, integrated with a technology developed by Xplored, connect to a special game app that allows you to live a completely new experience. According to Garofalo, however, “every physical ritual typical of board games is respected. The players remain focused on the board and the components, social interaction is the protagonist. The dice are also physical and roll on the table as usual. But then the magic happens. With each physical movement of the characters on the map, sounds, events, traps, encounters are triggered. The app tells the story, proposes crossroads and choices that influence the subsequent development of the adventure “.

Davide Garofalo

Gaming

Music, voices, special effects: this is how the Italian dpstudios creates sounds for video games

by Alessandra Contin


Grazie a Teburu the complexity of the rules and the depth of gameplay can be enormous, since they are managed entirely by the software and not by the players, who can thus enjoy the game session, make narrative and tactical choices, without having to first study the manual, because they learn by trying. Finally, a topic that is particularly current today: it is possible to play with friends remotely, via an Internet connection that connects several tables.

Oggi Xplored focuses efforts on The Bad Karmas and the Curse of the Zodiac, a boss-fight game, with RPG and deck-building elements, in which the protagonists face giant enemies, aware and artificially intelligent, managed by the Teburu system: “On a narrative level, the team does not lack the experience of creating Ip and stories for games. But for this project we turned to an award-winning specialist who I have great pleasure to consider a friend since adolescence, namely Christian Cantamessa, author of Red Dead Redemption (we interviewed him here, ed)writer and director of many video games and films known to international audiences “.

The Kickstarter campaign by The Bad Karmas and the Curse of the Zodiac is scheduled for March and will last about 4 weeks, Garofalo explained to us: “The official goal will not be a fictitious minimal budget, as is often seen in other campaigns that indicate a goal of 10-20 thousand dollars just to be able to declare it. reached in 24 hours. We will ask the community to help us achieve a real economic goal to complete the development of an important project “.

Project for which, in addition to having made significant investments in the development of technology and on The Bad Karmas such as intellectual property, game and app, Xplored has created a European network of partners for industrial production, purchased in advance and put all the necessary electronic components in stock, to avoid delays and price increases, given the current market scenarios, thus guaranteeing reliable delivery times at a certain price. In short: “Now we just need the support of all possible backers and we are aiming for a Kickstarter campaign that makes our vision a concrete reality”.

See also  WTT Singapore Grand Slam Women's Singles Wang Manyu and Sun Yingsha join hands to advance to the top 4_Polkanova_Finals_China

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More

Privacy & Cookies Policy