Ark Nova 4+

Excellent Adaptation

I was familiar with the board game but needed a refresher so I played the 3 tutorials pretty quick. If you are not familiar with the game, you might need to go through the tutorials a couple times as there is a lot going on to make sense of. I think people who have played the game in real life will enjoy it here. People totally new to it might find it challenging to learn, even with the tutorials, but if they stick with it, it is a very rewarding experience and satisfying game to master.

So close to great, hopeful for future

I’ve played this game quite a bit both in person and on Board Game Arena. Seeing this game on mobile as a dedicated app was such an awesome surprise! So far it’s been a welcome experience to play the game with a modern design, but I have a few issues.

1. The board state is really difficult to read. This is a game that requires constant attention to different trackers/aspects of the game. On mobile I can not see my zoo ma as default… I have to manually bring up the conservation board, zoo cards/reputation/conservation tracker, and my own cards. I cannot view that information simultaneously - which makes it pain to track interactions and break points. I need a larger view for default game state - it is just too much clicking around to have to view basic info I need all the time.

At the same time I sympathize for the UX designer tasked with the above ask - it’s a lot of info to cram into a mobile view, but frankly it’s not a great experience.

2. When creating games with friends, it seems ridiculous we all need to be on the app at the exact same time…

That said, have high hopes for this app because I love ark nova and the overall design is clean, modern and enjoyable.

Developer Response ,

Hello, we appreciate your feedback, and we've passed all of your suggestions to the team. You're correct that it's a lot of information to fit on screen! Yesterday, we released a patch with various improvements to the UI, and we will continue to monitor player feedback in the interest of making additional improvements.

Bad UI on iPhone

The game is great but the UI is real bad on an iPhone. There really isn't enough real estate on the phone to have all the info in front of you. You just hear a lot of noises and it's your turn. Then the screens cover each other so you can't see screens that pop up. I had a rewards screen blocked by the cards and nothing made it go away. PC version looks amazing. Would have bought it there. Maybe iPad will be better.

Building placement is about aggravating enough to close the app. That needs an instant fix. Maybe double tapto lock the pivot point or something but it's horrible.
I know they will fix it but buyer beware. This needed some more time in the oven.

Developer Response ,

Hello! We have just released a patch update addressing some of the issues users have been reporting about the UI. It should be easier to place and rotate and place buildings now! We'll pass your additional feedback to the team.