Gloomhaven, the wildly popular tabletop dungeon crawler, is getting a video game adaptation. Board game giant Asmodee’s digital branch announced on their Facebook page that we can expect Gloomhaven in early 2019, and it is being developed by Flaming Fowl Studios. Check out the trailer below:
This is very fitting for a board game like Gloomhaven, as it is very obviously based on video games.
Not quite a tabletop roleplaying game like Pathfinder or Dungeons & Dragons, not quite a miniatures game, and not quite a traditional board game, Gloomhaven has attracted quite a bit of attention through its gigantic box and excellent art work. It isn’t just a pretty picture, either; it is currently rated the #1 tabletop game of all time through Board Game Geek‘s rating system.
Gloomhaven is essentially a distilled down RPG dungeon adventure that runs itself through a series of AI decks. Each player selects a character class, each with unique abilities, then is given a finite amount of turns to clear a dungeon of baddies and collect loot along the way. The board is constantly evolving, decisions that players make can impact later missions, and it is constantly asking players to make choices: new paths might open up if players have worked closely with the city guard, perhaps. Other missions might close themselves off if the players failed to achieve a certain mission objective in a previous dungeon.
It’s an excellent marriage of tabletop gaming and video games, so it seems fitting that it is making the jump into the digital realm. There is no exact release date, just Q1 2019 listed, and not many details on how faithful it will be to the actual game (for example, it is only listed as a “Single Player” game right now on the Steam page). However, with a box that big to draw from, hopefully Flaming Fowl Studios can put together something special. Stay tuned for more information on Gloomhaven as it becomes available.
