React-Ionic VS VBM.games

VBM.games's answer:

I am building a universal tabletop RPG, Cosmic Order, and I playtest it online. The game held up. The virtual tabletops did not. Every one we tried wanted an account from every player, a download, plugins, a rules engine and a manual, and every player at the table was unhappy with the experience. What they wanted was a battle mat in a browser tab with their friends' faces around it. Online tabletop gaming should feel like Saturday night with your friends.

So I built one. Virtual Battle Mat is built by one person and launched in April 2026. Players join from a link, voice and video are built in, and the tokens are renders of real 3D minis, so the table looks like miniatures on a battle mat. Independent studios supply the minis and maps under agreements that require every piece to be made by human artists, and players can paint any mini in the browser and share the result.

The rule I build by: if the software is in the way, take it out.

VBM.games's answer:

Three things:

• Extremely easy to use as a GM and player. GMs can build scenes in minutes and have access to a large library of maps and tokens. Players join from a link, no account, no download.

• Voice and video are built in, so the whole game runs in one browser tab. No Discord, no Zoom, no extra apps.

• Isometric maps and tokens. The tokens are renders of real 3D printable miniatures, so your table looks like minis on a battle mat. Flat tokens are supported as well.

VBM.games's answer:

Your players join from a link. No account, no download, no install. Voice and video are built in, so the map, the minis and your friends' faces sit together in one browser tab. No Discord, no Zoom, no extra apps.

The tokens are renders of real 3D minis, so your table looks like miniatures on a battle mat. VBM works with 3D isometric minis or traditional flat tokens, on isometric or top-down maps.

There is no rules engine to learn. Run any game with your own sheets. Nothing to configure, no add-ons, no macros.

A catalog comes stocked. Independent studios supply the minis and maps, and every piece of art in the catalog is made by human artists, which is written into the agreements with the studios who supply it. Players can paint a mini in the browser and share the paint job with everyone.

The free tier is free forever. One paid tier, Premium, adds more uploads and the full catalog.

Start a session in minutes, not hours.

VBM.games's answer:

Game masters who want their group playing tonight, and the players they invite, including the friend who will not sign up for anything. Groups moving from the kitchen table to online play, and groups who already play over video and want a battle mat under the minis. Tabletop RPGs of any system and skirmish wargames alike, because VBM runs the table, not the rules.

VBM.games's answer:

The app is built in Flutter and runs in the browser. Firebase is the backend. Each token comes out of a render pipeline I built, which turns a real 3D mini into a single rendered image at the isometric angle. Voice and video run in the browser with nothing to install. Payments run through Polar.

VBM.games's answer:

Virtual Battle Mat is built for individual game masters and their groups, not for companies, so there is no customer list to show. The catalog is supplied by independent miniature and map studios who license their work into it.