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The Dungeons & Dragons faithful have another option for times when a physical tabletop isn't feasible. Wizards of the Coast's Sigil is a 3D virtual tabletop (VTT) experience that borrows some elements from video games without straying too far from the joy of sitting around a table with like-minded cohorts. It launched publicly this week and is now available for anyone to try. If you have no clue what a 3D VTT is, imagine a graphical recreation of all the hallmarks of tabletop D&D: virtual versions of a game board, miniatures, dice, character sheets and so on. It isn't a full-on video game like Baldur's Gate because the characters are still static minis that you move around as if they were physical pieces. But it adds digital touches like animated spell effects and lighting. If done well, it's like recreating top-of-the-line D&D gear (with some added flair) that you can use to play with anyone in the world. Sigil (named after a city in D&D lore) isn't the first of its kind. BouncyRock Entertainment's TaleSpire is a popular 3D VTT currently in early access for PC and Mac. And its business model will be preferable to many: Everyone pays $25 as a one-time purchase. Although Sigil is free to tinker around with and join others' games, you'll need a D&D Beyond Master Tier subscription ($6 monthly or $55 annually) to host multiplayer games and unlock extra goodies like builder kits and mini customization options. Wizards of the Coast Where Sigil has an advantage is its integration with D&D Beyond's character sheets. So, if you've already built out your characters, equipment and abilities with the official D&D digital companion service, you should (at least in theory) have an easy transition. Sigil provides a library of assets, brushes and lighting effects for you to play around with and customize your maps and minis to your heart's content. "These customizable tools let you bring your world to life, whether you're exploring fantastical landscapes, towering fortresses or dangerous dungeons," the company says in its pitch. It also includes tabletop-esque touches like virtual dice that tumble realistically across the game board. You can customize your miniatures with different scales, sizes and appearances. "All of our assets are created in a way that's like actually buying a high-end mini or figure," the company said in its 2024 introduction video. "We wanted them to feel kind of painted, but kind of realistic trying to capture that beautiful in-between where art, figures and games come together." Wizards of the Coast Sigil runs on Unreal Engine 5, and you'll need at least a decently powerful gaming PC to partake. Although its minimum system requirements are less daunting, D&D Beyond recommends at least an Nvidia RTX 2080, AMD R9 380 or Intel UHD on the GPU front, along with 16GB of RAM. It's Windows only for now, but the company wants it to eventually run on consoles, mobile and maybe even your fridge. (Fridge-top gaming, anyone?) If this sounds like your kind of adventure, you can sign up with your D&D Beyond account on the product page. (For a more established alternative, you can also give the highly rated TaleSpire a spin.) For a better sense of Sigil, check out Wizards of the Coast's intro video from D&D Direct 2024: This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/dds-3d-virtual-tabletop-experience-sigil-is-now-available-for-pc-212113793.html?src=rss
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Anyone looking for an alternative to Instagram might have a suitable candidate in Flashes, a recently launched app built on Bluesky that seems to get all the important basics right. Flashes technically launched on the App Store on February 24, but a series of updates released in the days after launch have made the app much easier to recommend. If you remember an Instagram before Meta turned it into its Facebook replacement, you have the basic gist of what Flashes is. It's an app for sharing photos and videos, with some Bluesky-flavored wrinkles, like multiple custom feeds to choose from instead of Meta's algorithm-driven default option. Ian Carlos Campbell for Engadget When you first open Flashes you'll be prompted to login with a Bluesky account or create a new one to use exclusively with Flashes. If you use your existing account, the app essentially repackages image and video posts from whoever you're currently following into an Instagram-style feed. This setup also works in reverse: Any post you put on Flashes will also show up in your normal text-focused Bluesky feed. The app itself features multiple tabs, with a home tab for your feeds, a search tab where you can search for posts and view trending topics, a dedicated tab for creating new posts, a notifications tab that features all of your Bluesky notifications and a profile tab. Flashes includes some filters to apply to your photos, along with some custom feeds that you can use if you want, but otherwise customizations are minimal. It's really an image and video-focused version of Bluesky. That comes with some annoying drawbacks, though. If you get a lot of Bluesky notifications, you'll now get them twice, once in the Bluesky app and once in Flashes. If you delete your account from one app, it will also be deleted from the other. Ian Carlos Campbell for Engadget Building a more customizable, portable version of social media that doesn't lock you to one platform is a big part of Bluesky's goal with the AT Protocol and what apps like Mastodon and Threads are trying to do with ActivityPub. It's not clear if one standard is going to become the default, but Bluesky has been picking up momentum. The app hit 20 million users in November 2024, prompting a dramatic expansion to its moderation efforts, and then passed 30 million users in January 2025. Flashes design means all of those new Bluesky accounts are potential Flashes users, too.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/flashes-an-instagram-alternative-based-on-bluesky-is-available-for-iphones-now-205946754.html?src=rss
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Developer Necrosoft Games has assembled another huge bundle of games on Itch.io to support a good cause. It includes more than 400 games that can be yours if you pony up at least $10 to support wildfire relief efforts in Southern California. Tunic, one of our favorite games of 2022, is arguably the highest-profile game in the California Fire Relief Bundle. Buying this beautiful, Zelda-esque adventure on Steam right now would cost you $30. That alone makes the bundle great value, though it includes over $3,200 worth of games. There are a few other particularly notable games on the list. You may have heard of restaurant sim Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!, the fairly self-explanatory SkateBird or the utterly ridiculous Octodad: Dadliest Catch. There's also Hidden Folks, a charming puzzle title that we reckon is a great way to help you destress. Hundreds of other lesser-known games await your curiosity too. For instance, there's a pretty puzzle-platformer called Hoa that I've been meaning to get around to. Along with video games, there are physical table-top roleplaying games (including a Bugsnax card game you can print and play), asset packs, books, comics and other projects in the bundle. You'll find a few Playdate games in there as well. Note that there are no Steam keys available through this bundle, but it's not too complicated to set up an Itch.io launcher on Steam Deck. Organizers are aiming to raise $100,000 for CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort). The Los Angeles-based organization "offers direct monetary support to survivors of the fires and supports projects for fire resilience in affected areas (and potential disaster zones)," the bundle's page states. Save for processing fees, all proceeds will go to CORE. The campaign, which will run until just before midnight ET on March 13, is already over three-quarters of the way to its goal. The wildfires that struck Southern California in early January damaged or destroyed more than 18,000 structures and led to the evacuation of more than 200,000 people. As of February 12, 29 people are known to have died in the fires.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/tunic-and-400-other-games-can-be-yours-for-just-10-thanks-to-a-charity-itchio-bundle-202504116.html?src=rss
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