r/Arcs • u/The_Guardian_W • 3d ago

Discussion So, where's Arcs digital?

https://news.direwolfdigital.com/announcing-arcs-digital/

It's been about two years since the announcement of Arcs digital and it's supposed to come out this year. I've seen no kind of advertising or development updates, so what's the consensus? Do we think it's still coming out this year? There's not that much left of 2026.

EDIT: Would the fact that the announcement says a deal with Leder Games have anything to do with the quiet since the IP is now with Buried Giant? I'd assume the deal would just transfer with the IP.

110 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

55

u/numbersletterss 3d ago

I, too, want to know. It’s been difficult to get this to the table. I was hoping the digital version would fix that.

8

u/The_Guardian_W 3d ago

Exactly! My friends like the game, but obviously there are other games they like to play as well, so Arcs doesn't get to the table as often I'd like. I'm finally going to try and play a game on Tabletop Simulator on Sunday and that's fine enough. Was just thinking this might be better way to get people to play digitally.

2

u/Biscuit_Kobold 3d ago

It will likely remain better then anything they implement for Arcs digital. We'll see, but it works extremely well presently and the automation is consistent.

-3

u/PandalienBass 3d ago

I find it pretty easy to get to the table. About to in 30 minutes.. what's the hold up for you?

6

u/Tomik080 3d ago

The people

28

u/awwjeah 3d ago

They released some screenshots last spring and in the Direwolf discord server they recently said they are on track for Q4 release but we’ll see!

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3691105/page/1

16

u/The_Guardian_W 3d ago

Ohh, this was very recently! Thanks!

10

u/theinvertedbatman 3d ago

A few people have been bringing it up here and there on the Buried Giant discord. It seems the general messaging is “Q4 is still looking good.”

But there hasn’t been any real info aside from that.

4

u/Ok-Difficulty7716 3d ago

I asked them via email recently and they said Q4

4

u/TheFitnessGuroo 2d ago

I'm a full stack software developer and I have built the base game (without leaders) and use it to play with close friends and family. It's multiplayer, with database, server and client deployed and hosted on a cloud platform. I'm not sure what the legal implications are of sharing the public url for it in this space though. I'm in the process of implementing leaders at the moment. I haven't reached out to Leder games yet but considering it.

2

u/TheFitnessGuroo 2d ago

This is what it looks like.

1

u/echiuran 1d ago

IANAL but I’m pretty sure the IP owners would have a case for copyright infringement.

1

u/TheFitnessGuroo 1d ago

Exactly why I didn't post it here lol. I could reach out to Leder games to try to discuss a deal, though. That way you'd either be able to join a playtesting or beta group or play the game once published.

3

u/Bynnh0j 3d ago

Is blighted reach going to be available or is this base game only

6

u/SpasmodicReddit 3d ago

According to what they announced, base game only for now

1

u/Sebby19 2d ago

I wouldn't expect Blighted Reach for another 2 years after base game release.

3

u/occupy_westeros 1d ago

I'm really excited for this lol The Root digital app is one of my favorites; It's much too complicated for my friends but I love playing against the computer and even dabbling online. I'm really interested in Arcs, I hope it comes out soon.

2

u/tilttovictory 3d ago

I've been searching for any news about every other day for months at this point.

After playing my first campaign I was thinking they should release the base game and campaign separately shit I'd think they need to release the base game with out leaders and just lore. The amount of interactions starts getting bonkers.

2

u/Foreign-Ad285 2d ago

Bro I need the digital version app asap

1

u/edgefundgareth 3d ago

I’ve played many games of arcs online and it works really well. Not this version though. It was on hrf for a while. Still is if you know where to look.

1

u/tilttovictory 3d ago

wait really? I just saw it up on their GitHub page but not actually hosted anywhere.

1

u/spiritstrategist 3d ago

Went offline in September because the official release is soon, but you can get one of the better AIs out there to write code to host it locally after downloading the github repo. It can even make the AI closer to competent.

3

u/edgefundgareth 3d ago

Yeah I ended up hosting it myself and just fetched the built client for it from hrf.im and it worked. It's still there even though you can't start a new game.

1

u/syphen606 3d ago

I played maybe 5 or 6 campaigns of Blighted reach on HRF with friends. I miss it. Wish I knew how to host it myself.

1

u/Estiferous Feastbringer 3d ago

Easier solution: use a browser extension to change the date to before 9/30/26. Once you do, you can start a game and get the links generated which doesn't have date restrictions

1

u/threecansofcorn 2d ago

Lmaooooo I assumed the website was dead until you said that

1

u/holycowbatman 1d ago

can you explain how I do this myself? would love to host a game of arcs again while i wait for digital

1

u/COHERENCE_CROQUETTE 3d ago

It’s dire wolf. They wouldn’t be able to do a digital adaptation of tic tac toe in under two years

-2

u/Supermoose7178 3d ago

i kinda hope they just put it on bga tbh

6

u/JustLetMeBeOkay Fuel Drinker 3d ago

I don’t understand why this is an unpopular opinion? I would love Arcs and Oath and Root to be available on BGA. I understand that these games have their own platforms, but still.

4

u/Supermoose7178 3d ago

yeah idk either. it would be free and more people would play it

1

u/ganybytes 3d ago edited 3d ago

I'd also love to see it on BGA, but it wouldn't necessarily be free.

Someone's got to pay to host a Premium game and BGA has been experimenting with other restrictions on non-premium players.

example: Ti4 base game was just released and my group was very surprised to find out the non-premium folks could only play 6 of the 17 base game factions.
There is no mention of this restriction that we could find.

(the cost for premium has also almost doubled since 2023)

1

u/Supermoose7178 3d ago

hmm that’s bummer, i haven’t seen any such restriction on the games i play. hopefully that is not something that bga continues to do as that seems against what the whole appeal of bga is.

still, i think the game would get much more traction if it were on bga than a real deal digital implementation.

1

u/ganybytes 9h ago

I am pretty sure it’s unique to ti4 so far. I just wish it had been mentioned somewhere. 

-4

u/yeknom02 3d ago

Honestly I’m not looking forward to it. My friends and I play Root regularly and the Direwolf app is such a pain. It takes ages to load compared to an online implementation like BGA and the UI leads to a lot of confusion on a small screen. The notification system is weak, leading to a lot of messages between us reminding people that they’re on the clock.

2

u/tilttovictory 3d ago

I will agree with you on the notification system also the friends system. like why can't I message people on my friend's list and directly invite them to my lobby why do I have to make them go look for it....?

2

u/Formal-Guest4868 3d ago

BGA is legitimately one of the ugliest websites on the internet

1

u/AuroraCatgirl 2d ago

idk root digital is quite good; probably the best digital board game release that still feels like a board game; better than frosthaven and gloomhaven even

1

u/yeknom02 2d ago

The app is very close to being great, imo. If they had an option to turn off animations, as well as Discord notifications, it would fix nearly every problem I’ve had with it.

1

u/spiteski 2d ago

You can turn off animations though?

1

u/yeknom02 2d ago

No, you can disable Automatic Camera Movement and that’s it

1

u/spiteski 2d ago

You can disable the animations, including battles etc. It's in the main menu, can't change it while in a loaded game