Technologies

Sunderfolk Hands-On: A Cozy Co-Op RPG Streaming Tabletop Magic Into Everyone’s Home

Four friends, four phones, one video game. This is how you bring board game night into the digital age.

My party of adventurers walks into a spider-infested cave, and my friends and I start chatting strategy about the plan of attack for each of our heroes — then we leap into the fray by controlling the action through our phones.

This is Sunderfolk, a new roleplaying game and the debut title from studio Secret Door. Made by veterans from Blizzard, Riot Games and fantasy tabletop hits like Descent: Legends of the Dark, Sunderfolk brings board game nights to modern video games. It’s available for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch for $50.

The game looks conventional enough, with up to four players choosing between six animal adventurers packing varying skills to protect their town. The game’s combat and action play out on a shared screen, but the novelty lies in each person pulling up their phone to move their character and look up battle info.

«[Sunderfolk] is built for folks who are already genre-lovers in this space who want to bring in folks who are not genre lovers,» said game director Erin Marek. The game was designed to be intriguing to fantasy tabletop veterans, yet approachable to those put off by complex board games requiring deep dives in manuals.

To do that, the Secret Door team started with a concept of «TV DnD,» as the studio chief Chris Sigaty explained: «It’s like [Dungeons and Dragons] meets JackBox.» That’s the party game where everyone jumps in to play on their phones, and it aptly describes the mediums Sunderfolk attempts to blend. The team wanted to bring the camaraderie of the couch to digital games, all set in an evocative fantasy world.

While Secret Door was kind enough to invite me into a Discord to connect with other players, I knew I had to experience this game with my own tabletop group. My dice-rolling battle-hardened cadre of thirtysomethings has tackled campaigns in RPG systems like Dungeon World, The Sprawl, Blades in the Dark, A Quiet Year, and Stonetop — all of which eschew the staid elements of Dungeons and Dragons in favor of more streamlined approaches to role-playing. That made them great sample players for Sunderfolk.

I attempted to get a game going in-person, but like every classic RPG campaign, we faced the greatest tabletop villain of all: scheduling. Nobody could find the same night to meet. Yet Sunderfolk’s setup allows everyone to play remotely: We just logged into the game on our phones sitting in our respective homes while all watching the same screen.

This is also the genius of Sunderfolk: All players share one big screen. At any time, players can treat their phone screen as a thumb pad to move their cursor around to look up enemy details or battlefield features (like healing shrines or exploding rocks). But it also lets players point and gesture around the map to plan and coordinate moves. We may have been sitting in our respective homes dozens of miles apart, but it felt like my friends and I were gathered around a table in person.

Streaming Sunderfolk to the whole party

But since my party wasn’t in the same place, I used a clever workaround, running the game on PS5 and streaming it through our friend group’s Discord, which everyone tuned into.

Admittedly, this was a bit challenging on the PS5, which doesn’t let you stream to Discord natively from the console — instead, I had to use a workaround I found online to use the Remote Play app to run my PS5 on my PC, and then stream that window through Discord. Complicated! There are alternatives, like streaming to YouTube or Twitch, but those require extra steps before you start broadcasting to the masses. Note that Xbox Series X lets you stream directly to Discord, and PC players will be just fine.

This shows a bit of the double-edged nature of Sunderfolk’s unique setup, but at least the trouble was on my end, and my friends didn’t need to download extra copies of the game — one copy will work for a whole party. All they had to do was download the free Sunderfolk app, watch my stream, scan the QR code on screen with their phone to log into the campaign, and we were off to the races.

How Sunderfolk’s phone-controlled RPG plays out

Once logged in to our campaign, three friends and I chose our quartet of characters from the six animal hero choices — and gave them silly names, as is tabletop tradition. One friend picked the barbarian polar bear (named Bearzerker), another the lamb ranger (Big Lamb), a third the raven spellcaster (RavnAbtMagic), and I picked the bat bard (Bat Stevens).

Like any good tabletop RPG, the campaign opens up in a tavern. Here we learned basic mechanics and ran through our early move selections, which differed for each character, before spilling out into a proper brawl outside. The local ogres had descended on the town to raid and pillage, but our brave heroes fended them off.

Though fights feel familiar for fantasy RPGs, like using different attacks to whittle down enemies, Sunderfolk has a heavy emphasis on moving around the battlefield. Our spellcaster teleported around (and likewise ‘ported enemies hither and thither), while I used my bat bard to swap places and drop power-ups around the area, encouraging different playstyles while never staying put.

That all led to The Moment. If you’ve ever played a tabletop RPG, you’ll probably remember the first time it became suddenly clear that you could do anything. When you tried something so spectacular that, succeed or fail, it was vividly memorable. In Sunderfolk, our next encounter had us chasing the ogres onto a bridge — and one by one, each party member found an attack or movement ability that let us shove our foes off the edges.

«What we’re stealing a little bit from tabletop games is those moments where something that should never have happened, happened,» Marek said. «You have that moment, that storytelling with your friends that you carry through with you and try to explain it to other people, and they don’t get it because they weren’t there.»

There are things we couldn’t do that a regular tabletop game would’ve allowed, like trying to talk to the ogres or bribing them to leave. Sunderfolk trades that in for fewer but still potent possibilities — just ask my party of thirtysomething men, gleefully cheering each other to boot enemies into the wild blue yonder — and the streamlined system with codified rules that a video game enables. From personal experience, it is a joy to have the game handle all the monsters, quest progression and more, meaning our regular dungeon master could join in, too.

As we wrapped up our first adventure, we chatted with townsfolk and grew relationships, did a little shopping and unlocked new abilities — standard RPG stuff, all wrapped up in a 2-hour session, which I later learned was the target time the Secret Door team set for a night of adventuring (quests take about an hour, and every two quests should result in a level-up awarding new skills). While I had a good time with the game, I was impressed that everything worked smoothly — even though I’d never used my phone to play a game this way.

Designing a new way to play old games

Sunderfolk’s team is full of people who have taken games from other platforms and mediums to adapt to play on the humble smartphone. Before joining Secret Door, Marek worked on Wild Rift (League of Legends on phones) while Sigaty worked on Hearthstone (a digital card game on PC and phones). Kara Centell-Dunk, Sunderfolk’s campaign designer, has over a decade of experience making tabletop games — including working on Descent: Legends in the Dark and Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth, which have smartphone app assistants to help with play.

On an interview call with the three Secret Door creators above, only the fourth hadn’t worked in the intersection between phones and tabletop — Daren Bader, art director at Secret Door, who didn’t play Dungeons and Dragons or tabletop at all despite submitting fantasy art for Monster Manuals and Magic: The Gathering cards. «I was kind of the perfect guinea pig for the team,» Bader explained, as someone who would need to be dragged into the game. His conversion into a tabletop gamer during Sunderfolk’s development is a proof of concept.

«My favorite thing is that we created a game that I want to play, to tell you the honest truth,» Bader said.

Designing a game that would be «TV DnD» as Sigaty described was a process. Gamers don’t look down at their controller or mouse and keyboard while playing, but Sunderfolk would have lots of essential information on the phone app — what the team found was that players were staring at their phones instead of the action on the screen. The solution lay in another TV implement.

«One of our UX/UI designers, Hasiba Arshad, was actually looking at Apple TV remotes and how they use their paradigm … and she came up with this idea of what if you’re actually controlling a cursor?» Marek said — almost like drawing with a drawing pad.

It took years of evolution and lots of playtests with friends and family to get the controls just right (even in release form, the app on the phone tells players to look up when important gameplay is happening on the main screen). Other parts of the design took time to refine, like having each move arrayed in a row for players to tap and swipe between, like they’re holding a hand of cards — and then swiping the one they want upward to start their turn, like a sort of skeuomorphic motion.

All of this work would amount to a novel proof of concept if the game weren’t fun to play, but it is. It’s not the most complex RPG to start, but it’s designed to ramp up — as Centell-Dunk explained, the game’s philosophy is simple parts that, when combined, become complex. So those spiders I found lurched over merchant loot that scatter when I hit them? That can be combined with other movement abilities to get the tactical advantage.

As my friends and I wrapped up our second session, having delved in the vibrant underground worlds Bader designed — full of light and mushrooms, friendly animals and vicious ogres — we called it a night. But not before my tabletop-tested friends gave it their seal of approval by asking when we’d play the game next.

Ahead of us was the thing Centell-Dunk was most proud of: boss fights, and the systems she made for them.

«I hope players also enjoy being crushed by our bosses,» Centell-Dunk said.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Sept. 19

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Sept. 19.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

I didn’t get off to a great start with today’s Mini Crossword, completely blanking on 1-Across. Thankfully, the other clues were easy, and that answer filled itself in. Need some help? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Cancel on plans at the last moment
Answer: FLAKE

6A clue: Shade of light purple
Answer: LILAC

7A clue: ___ acid (protein builder)
Answer: AMINO

8A clue: Sarcastic «Yeah, sure»
Answer: IBET

9A clue: Sardonic boss on «Parks and Recreation»
Answer: RON

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Stylish panache
Answer: FLAIR

2D clue: Party game that tests how low you can go
Answer: LIMBO

3D clue: Visitor from outer space
Answer: ALIEN

4D clue: Philosopher who posed the question «What can I know?»
Answer: KANT

5D clue: Environmentally friendly prefix
Answer: ECO

Technologies

Your Old Android Isn’t Dead. These Tweaks Can Bring It Back to Life

Clear space, optimize your battery and update the basics. These quick changes can make an old Android phone feel snappier.

You don’t need the latest Android flagship to get good performance.

Thanks to longer software support from brands like Google and Samsung, older models can still run smoothly, as long as you give them a little attention. Clearing out unused apps, updating your software and tweaking a few settings can breathe new life into a device that feels sluggish. These quick fixes can help your phone last longer and save you from spending on an early upgrade.

Before you start shopping for a replacement, try a few simple adjustments. You might be surprised by how much faster your phone feels once you free up space, optimize battery use and turn off background drains.

Whether you use a Samsung Galaxy, Motorola or OnePlus phone, chances are you can still improve battery life and overall speed without buying something new. Just remember that Android settings vary slightly from brand to brand, so the menus may look a little different depending on your phone.

Don’t miss any of CNET’s unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome.

Settings to improve your battery life

Living with a phone that has poor battery life can be infuriating, but there are some steps you can take to maximize each charge right from the very beginning:

1. Turn off auto screen brightness or adaptive brightness and set the brightness level slider to under 50%

The brighter your screen, the more battery power it uses.

To get to the setting, pull down the shortcut menu from the top of the screen and adjust the slider, if it’s there. Some phones may have a toggle for auto brightness in the shortcut panel; otherwise, you need to open the settings app and search for «brightness» to find the setting and turn it off.

2. Use Adaptive Battery and Battery Optimization

These features focus on learning how you use your phone, including which apps you use and when, and then optimizing the apps and the amount of battery they use.

Some Android phones have a dedicated Battery section in the Settings app, while other phones (looking at you, Samsung) bury these settings. It’s a little different for each phone. I recommend opening your settings and searching for «battery» to find the right screen. Your phone may also have an adaptive charging setting that can monitor how quickly your phone battery charges overnight to preserve its health.

Why you should use dark mode more often

Another way to improve battery life while also helping save your eyes is to use Android’s dedicated dark mode. Any Android phone running Android 10 or newer will have a dedicated dark mode option.

According to Google, dark mode not only reduces the strain that smartphone displays cause on our eyes but also improves battery life because it takes less power to display dark backgrounds on OLED displays (used in most flagship phones) than a white background.

Depending on which version of Android your phone is running, and what company made your phone, you may have to dig around the settings app to find a dark mode. If your phone runs Android 10 or newer, you’ll be able to turn on system-wide dark mode. If it runs Android 9, don’t despair. Plenty of apps have their own dark mode option in the settings that you can use, whether or not you have Android 10.

To turn it on dark mode, open the Settings app and search for Dark Mode, Dark Theme or even Night Mode (as Samsung likes to call it). I suggest using dark mode all the time, but if you’re not sure, you can always set dark mode to automatically turn on based on a schedule, say from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day, or allow it to automatically switch based on your location at sunset and sunrise.

Keep your home screen free of clutter

Planning to hit up the Google Play Store for a bunch of new Android apps? Be prepared for a lot of icon clutter on your home screen, which is where shortcuts land every time you install something.

If you don’t want that, there’s a simple way out of this: Long-press on an empty area of your home screen and tap Settings. Find the option labeled something along the lines of Add icon to Home Screen or Add new apps to Home Screen and turn it off.

Presto! No more icons on the home screen when you install new apps. You can still add shortcuts by dragging an app’s icon out of the app drawer, but they won’t appear on your home screen unless you want them to.

Read more: Best Android Phones You Can Buy in 2024

Set up Do Not Disturb so that you can better focus

If your phone routinely spends the night on your nightstand, you probably don’t want it beeping or buzzing every time there’s a call, message or Facebook alert — especially when you’re trying to sleep. Android offers a Do Not Disturb mode that will keep the phone more or less silent during designated hours. On some phones, this is referred to as the Downtime setting or even Quiet Time.

Head to Settings > Sounds (or Notifications), then look for Do Not Disturb or a similar name. If you can’t find it, search for it using the built-in search feature in your settings.

Using the feature, you can set up a range of hours when you want to turn off the digital noise. Don’t worry, any notifications you get while Do Not Disturb is turned on will still be waiting for you when you wake up. Also, you can typically make an exception that allows repeat callers and favorite contacts’ calls to go through. Turn that on. If someone is calling you in an emergency, odds are they are going to keep trying.

Always be prepared in case you lose your phone or it’s stolen

Is there anything worse than a lost or stolen phone? Only the knowledge that you could have tracked it down if you had turned on Google’s Find My Device feature.

To prepare for a successful recovery, here’s what you need to do: Open the Settings app and then search for Find My Device. It’s usually in the Security section of the Settings app.

If you have a Samsung device, you can use Samsung’s Find My Mobile service, which is found in Settings > Biometrics and security > Find My Mobile.

Once that’s enabled, you can head to android.com/find from any PC or mobile device and sign in to your account. Samsung users can visit findmymobile.samsung.com to find a lost phone.

If you have trouble setting any of this up, be sure to read our complete guide to finding a lost Android phone.

Assuming your phone is on and online, you should be able to see its location on a map. From there, you can make it ring, lock it, set a lock screen note to tell whoever has it how to get it back to you, or, worst-case scenario, remotely wipe the whole thing.

And always keep your phone up to date

As obvious as it may seem, a simple software update could fix bugs and other issues slowing down your Android device.

Before you download and install the latest software update, make sure your device is connected to Wi-Fi, or else this won’t work.

Now, open the Settings application and type in Update. You’ll then either see Software update or System update — choose either one. Then just download the software, wait for a few minutes and install it when it’s ready. Your Android device will reboot and install the latest software update available.

There’s a lot more to learn about a new phone. Here are the best ways to boost your cell signal, and here’s a flagship phone head-to-head comparison. Plus, check out CNET’s list of the best cases for your Samsung phone. More of an Apple fan? We have tips for boosting your iPhone’s performance, too.

Technologies

Your Pixel 10 Might Have Issues With Older Wireless Chargers

You might want to try taking the case off your phone in order to successfully charge it.

When Google introduced the Pixel 10 lineup in August, it became one of the first major Android phones to receive the Qi 2 wireless charging standard, which Google calls Pixelsnap. However, users noticed issues with wireless charging on the Pixel 10 almost immediately after its release.

Some people are having trouble charging their phone with the new Pixelsnap charger, and others are having issues with older wireless chargers, including Google’s own Pixel Stands. The bulk of the problems happen when a case is on the phone — whether it has the magnet array or not.

I own both the first and second generation Pixel Stands and both will charge my Pixel 10 Pro XL without an issue if there’s no case on it. However, when I add a case to my phone, the problems begin.

I have three cases for my phone, the Mous Super Thin Clear Case, the Magnetic Slim Case Fit by Grecazo, and a no-name soft TPU case. If my phone has any of those cases on and I attempt to charge it while it’s vertical, it starts to charge and then stops after a second or two, and keeps doing that.

I can fix this for the first-generation Pixel Stand by turning the phone horizontal, but it will still charge very slowly. I can’t seem to fix it at all for the Pixel Stand 2 — vertical, horizontal, it doesn’t charge.

Not everyone has this issue

The problem doesn’t seem to be universal. CNET editor Patrick Holland said he had no issues charging the Pixel 10 Pro during his time with it.

A Google spokesperson told me the Pixel 10 lineup is not optimized for older Qi wireless charging standards, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the phones won’t work with older wireless chargers.

Qi 2 is backwards-compatible with older standards, but the phone’s height and charging coil placement on both the phone and the charger are still factors. If you’re having problems, you might see if removing the case helps.

The prospect of potentially needing to replace your older wireless chargers with newer ones isn’t ideal, especially if you shelled out $80 for one or both of Google’s own Pixel Stands. Still, if you want the best wireless charging speed for your brand new Pixel 10 phone, it won’t be with wireless chargers that only support older Qi standards.