Steam will host the Digital Tabletop Fest from October 21st to the 26th. You can find this and other online conventions at the Geek Native events calendar.
The goal of the Steam Digital Tabletop Fest is to explore those game which can straddle both online and offline.
Speakers include Steve Jackson (GURPS), Sandy Petersen (Call of Cthulhu) and Games Workshop co-founder and all-round legend Ian Livingstone.
James Vaughan, of Plague Inc: Evolved, will run a session discussing the differences between the game’s on and offline modes. Sessions for Othercide and the smash-hit Gloomhaven are in the schedule as well.
Steam hasn’t missed out on the tabletop boom. Fantasy Grounds ran a Kickstarter to move over to Unity and is available on the platform. Tabletop Siumulator continues to be a big hit for gamers looking to play board and other tabletop games with friends online.
Computer game powerhouse Twitch recently invested in the actual play Into the Mother Lands stream which will also create and sell the campaign setting for offline play, using Fandom’s Cortex Prime system. The desire for online marketplaces to be close to the virtual tabletop systems, and rule engines that suit them, is founded in business logic.
Steam isn’t late to the party, though, last year they ran the The Steam Game Festival, which didn’t have such a focus on hybrid games, but certainly acknowledged them.
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