Silo Kickstarter Rolls the Dice on Turning a Board Game Into an App

Silo is a board game, made in a garage out of ingenuity, wood and math. Now, via Kickstarter, Red Raider Games is looking to bring it to market as an app.
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The Silo prototype

Here at GeekDad, we still hold board games in high regard. They are a great way to bring family and friends together without the need for anyone to be inundated in technology. These days though, it seems people would rather plant imaginary farms on Facebook, relying on social interactions rather than in-person ones. This is where the new game Silo from Red Raider Studios hopes to fit in, bridging the gap between board game and social interaction.

So what is Silo and why should you care? Aren't there enough games out there in app world?

First off, Silo is rife with sentimental value. Created by Marc Girolimetti, Silo is one of many games that was hand built in the Girolimetti household growing up. Now well into his third decade of life, Marc is finally attempting to complete his parents' dream of bringing their board games to marketability - by making Silo into an app.

Says Marc, "The funny thing about how this game came about. We used to call it 'Tumble Rumble' because the original version had a top loaded rolling tower you throw the dice down and they land in the tray. That came about because my step-dad hated the fact that the dice would fly off the board onto the floor, so he went out to his workshop and created the rolling tower."

The game will be made into a Facebook, iOS, Android, Windows 8 and Kindle version, as well as a children's version called Silo Jr. That's where the financial challenge comes in, and that's why Marc has started a Kickstarter campaign to reach his company's financing goals. Marc is backed up by engineer Rich DiBona and designer Brian Thomas.

Second, Silo actually sounds challenging (to a point) as they are building in logic that will increase the difficulty based on how much you play the game. So not necessarily level by level, but based on frequency. The game is a math based game that will integrate social mechanics as well as being able to be played solo. Not only that, but because of the number combinations you will never play the same board twice. This is the official description of the game from the Kickstarter site:

Silo is a strategy game, where you have to move five balls through your two silos in order to win. Each silo has six levels and is represented by a number. The only way you can move to a new position/number is roll five dice and then execute a custom math equation, via any combination of the dice, so that it equals the number. This needs to be accomplished within a time limit of 30 or 60 seconds. First player with five balls out wins.

There has got to be a point when you look at the app store and you think to yourself, "I need some more math based strategy games." I know how that sounds, but that is the only kind of game that I download, and they are pretty scarce. I'm getting tired of people telling me that the most challenging game they play is Temple Run. You mean you swipe your finger across the screen constantly? Sounds like the challenging part you refer to is the possible finger cramps.

I get it, you want to zone out when playing games sometimes. That's fine. Silo offers that unique mixture of logic and challenging puzzles with the ability to not take it too seriously. While it is clearly not an adventure game, it is a thinking game. Considering how popular Sudoku is, thinking that another challenging strategy game (based in numbers) could become popular is not too much of a stretch.

So what do you get out of it if you back this Kickstarter campaign? For as little as two bucks you get a free copy of the game for Facebook. The Facebook version will be completed first, with the rest to follow. The best deal is for 25 bucks, in which you get all five versions of the game, including beta access for all. This allows you to be able to give the game as gifts, or in my case generally - bribes.

If Silo ends up being a success, you can be rest assured that Red Raider Games surely has a garage full of challenging board games just waiting to be made into apps.

You can follow the progress of Red Raider Games on Facebook, Twitter and Silo itself on Twitter as well. You can back the Kickstarter for Silo here.