Dominant Species for iPad

From all of us here at GMT Games, welcome to our first iPad app, a digital conversion of our popular strategy boardgame, Dominant Species.

For you players who already play the Dominant Species boardgame, this app will allow you to have fun and practice your skills anytime, against a mix of human and computer AI opponents.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the boardgame, we have included a tutorial and complete context-sensitive rules to help you learn the game and get started quickly. You can also get help from us directly, via our Facebook page, at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dominant-Species-for-iPad/320893411343198.

Here's a feature list. Note that we do intend to provide regular updates to enhance gameplay and add new AI and multi-player features.

Features:

- Play against a mix of up to 5 human and/or AI opponents via Solo Play, Pass 'N Play, or on a Local Network players on a local network.

- The game currently offers two levels of AI - one Easy level for your learning games, and another Intermediate level for competitive play. Both levels provide very quick responses from the AI players. We are working on a 3rd (Hard) level, and plan to release that in a future update.

- Autosave (play a few turns, continue your game later on)
- Pinch to zoom on map and action pane
- Online and context-sensitive help
- Interactive tutorial
- Automatic real-time dominance updates
- The User Interface features simple one-touch interactions (no complex drag-n-drop, double/triple touches, etc.)
- Advanced options to configure the game:
- pick your animal or get one at random
- pick your color, get one at random or use the default animal color
- standard initial Earth setup or random setup
- use 2 or 3 players alternate rules
- shorten the game by removing 1 action pawn from each player or by removing up to 10 Dominance Cards

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90,000 B.C - A great Ice Age is fast approaching. Another titanic struggle for global supremacy has unwittingly commenced between the varying animal species.

Dominant Species is a game for 2 to 6 players that abstractly recreates a tiny portion of ancient history: the ponderous encroachment of an Ice Age and what that entails for the living creatures trying to adapt to the slowly-changing Earth.

Each player will assume the role of one of six major Animal groups-Mammal, Reptile, Bird, Amphibian, Arachnid or Insect. Each begins the game in a state of natural balance with regards to one another. But that won’t last: It is indeed “survival of the fittest.”

Through wily Action Pawn placement, players will strive to become Dominant on as many different Terrain tiles as possible in order to draw beneficial Dominance Cards. Players will also want to propagate their individual Species in order to earn Victory Points for his particular Animal. Players will be aided in these endeavors via Growth, Migration and Domination actions, among others.

All of this eventually leads to the end game - the final ascent of the Ice Age - where the player with the most Victory Points will have his Animal crowned the Dominant Species.

But somebody better become dominant quickly, because it’s getting mighty cold!