![giant catan board giant catan board](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/07/c4/3c/07c43c99b737d685fb1f9873069d365e.jpg)
Similar to other Niantic games, Catan – World Explorers is a multiplayer augmented reality title for mobile platforms, which “transforms the entire Earth into one giant game of CATAN”. Now, the studio looks to expand its offerings with a new game based on the popular strategic board game. Niantic is one of the biggest players in the mobile AR market, with a variety of successful titles like Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
![giant catan board giant catan board](https://hexagamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Custom-Catan-Board-17e.jpg)
The company is also partnering with immersive theater studio Punchdrunk to create several other new projects. I don't want to give too many details about the project upfront, simply because I don't want this thread to turn into a "here's how I think you should do it" discussion, but if anyone, understandably, has any questions about what they would be investing in, let me know.ĬhipIn is still there, and still works, they just don't have any customer support anymore since the company has moved onto a new project.Niantic announced that it is working on a new mobile AR game called Catan – World Explorers, based on the popular board game Catan. I figure that if I get some help: super, if not: no harm done, right? "What can it hurt?", seemed to be the consensus.
![giant catan board giant catan board](https://live.staticflickr.com/153/413423123_0b0d994639_b.jpg)
I spoke with several friends and Icrontians about how they think it will be perceived, and whether they think anyone will care, and everyone I spoke with encouraged me to go ahead and put the project on ChipIn. Honestly, I think it's one of my raddest projects to date, combining my love of practical, mixed media craft-art with my love of boardgaming, but it (probably not coincidentally) is also the most ambitious and expensive project to date.
![giant catan board giant catan board](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/18/a6/e0/18a6e0abfbc34b1e5cf41a88e8c2e9ea.jpg)
(I like to think I'm a better craftsman than that, but as I've never done this type of project before, there is no way to know where the potential for screwing it up might lay, and I can't help but imagine scenarios in which the set all blows away on a windy day, or gets a bit of rain on it, and completely falls apart, but that's because I'm a bit of a pessimist). There is also no guarantee that each person who helps pay for it will get to play the set at some point, and as that goes, there isn't even a guarantee that, when I'm done, the whole set wont be unusably crappy. I had to put a lot of thought into how I feel about it, how it will effect the project, and whether or not it's tacky. I want you to know that deciding to ask for help with the cost was difficult for me. I could shave a couple hundred dollars off of that by using lower quality materials, but if friends are willing to help out a bit, I don't have to worry about that. A cost which suprized me (as final costs for projects often seem to do :/. Thusly, I've added up the costs of the various materials I'll need, and it comes out to about $750. I figure, since there may be some interest among my friends to be able to play this set at various events, I'd see if anyone would like to help with the cost. I've begun work already, but I'm starting to realize that if I try to handle the cost on my own, little by little as I make each piece, it's going to take a very long time to complete the set. I've tasked myself with the creation of a large Settlers of Catan set.