Creator Response Thoughts on an online version?

[Grassy311]

Hello! So I recently got the game and had a blast with friends. We had so much fun that I decided to make a pseudo-online version (dubbed "Oops! All Crows!" through both Discord and Google Slides so we could play despite going to different schools.
How... ethical... is it to recreate the entire board game online? Right now it's just me and 4 other friends in a discord server but I want to know other people's opinion. I realize that there's the implication that having a free online version available to literally everyone would definitely affect sales of the board game and make it so the intended in-person effect isn't fully realized, but at the same time I don't know the scope at which to share this: with just the 4 initial friends, expand farther beyond that, or something else?

I would share screenshots but again, I don't know the scope of sharing, so thoughts and opinions?
(If a moderator or someone would like the link to the slides file then just let me know!)

 

[FilthyGorilla]

This is all speculation and would like to say this all without the perspective of a dev or game designer making this game and actually implementing and maintaining features, updates and parity as well as other things.
Yeah, it sounds mixed on "paper" but I think this is one of those things where you cannot really judge until later on in the testing phase of the design process.
Making a board game which was in turn already made with a large purpose that you can play a favorite farming game with friends irl might take away from the entire point of it and by then you basically have an entire seperate sub-game which takes away from the community of the first that the board game only complimented at first.
You also have a sub-game that pretty much survives due to the influx new players and popularity of the game it is based around and instead of having those games compliment one-another by being in catagories seperate enough that they don't clash and close enough that they mold together you instead have a seperate entity which operates somewhat by itself and splits the playerbase and community in a way.
A free online version might also not be beneficial, I would probably from a dev's persective have it as a payed for multiplayer like what the online version of catan has right now.
The final thing is also though the way that the game will funtion being three different games all together but with seperating degrees, for example the stardew valey, the original game will obviously hold priority and main sales as well, the new online game will also be by itself. The problems arise though when the original board game comes into play, right now it workd as kind of a side course to stardew, but will it now become part of the new game and it's community or stay split between it and the original game?
There are more questions we can ask to further accentuate the point but I think this covers the bare bones of a counter argument and just some things to consider without taking into accoutn the making and maintaining of the game, etc. that I said on the top of the post.

 

[Colito]

So glad you had so much fun with the game! From my perspective, I feel that having digital versions available online is purely helpful for the board game. It lets more people play it and if they really enjoy the digital version, they have a higher chance to grabbing a physical copy to enjoy while away from their computer. I love playing board games with friends online remotely, but for me it is so much better to be at the table with the real thing.

That said, you can play the game on Tabletopia and Tabletop Simulator already if you want to check one of those out!