Tabletop Simulator Preview

The simulation genre has gotten a bit out of control. From its origins with flight and racing sims, it soon brought an influx of games recreating such seemingly menial jobs as bus driving, towtruck driving and farming. Recently, we’ve seen ridiculous games that aim to parody the genre such as Surgeon Simulator and Goat Simulator become more popular than the games they set out to imitate. Now Berserk Games has taken it upon themselves to produce the latest entry to the genre, this time simulating a tabletop, of all things. Despite the strange-sounding concept, though, the game is no joke.

So, why would you want you simulate a tabletop? Well, Tabletop Simulator, which is currently available on Steam Early Access, aims to provide a physics-based sandbox that allows you to recreate all of your favourite tabletop games. This means that you can play anything from card games, chess, dominoes, backgammon and checkers, to full-on tabletop RPGs. All of that without moving from your comfy desk chair or, god forbid, getting together with your smelly friends.

A brief tutorial introduces you to the game's controls which allow you to interact with the objects on the table. Using your mouse and keyboard you are able to grab, rotate, throw, flip, stack, roll, shake, shuffle and generally manipulate the pieces as you see fit. It took me a little while to learn all the shortcuts, but once I had done so I was able to deal a game of poker like nobody’s business.

It takes more than just a skilled dealer to have a fun game of Tabletop Simulator, though; it also takes a group of like-minded players. The game’s online multiplayer component supports up to eight players. Ideally the players you group up with will be a sensible bunch, because the sandbox nature of the game means there’s plenty of potential for sore losers to sabotage and ruin games for everyone else.

One of the most impressive things about the game at this early stage is that everything collides and interacts just as you’d expect it to. Naturally, placing pieces accurately on the table isn’t quite as easy with a mouse as it is with your own hands, but the physics simulation at work here does a great job of recreating a real-life tabletop game. Small things such as having to manually drag dominoes or poker chips on to the table somehow makes the whole experience feel much more authentic.

It looks great too. All of the pieces that can be used have been made with great detail and hold up even under close examination. The RPG models even have different animations depending on the action that is performed on them. The panoramic backgrounds leave a lot to be desired, however. Tabletop Simulator currently only has four backgrounds - forest, field, tunnel and museum - none of which are locations I would think of playing card games in. I’m sure the devs will add more appropriate backgrounds in time, though.

As well as all of the pre-made games mentioned earlier, users can also create their own game types. This is where Tabletop Simulator gets exciting. I've already seen the potential for custom card decks by jumping into an online match of Cards Against Humanity, but I can only imagine the possibilities once the final game is out. With the promise of more mod support and Steam Workshop integration in the future, Tabletop Simulator is shaping up to be a neat little package.