There's a Dark Souls Board Game Coming to Kickstarter

ffronw

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Oct 24, 2013
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There's a Dark Souls Board Game Coming to Kickstarter

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1311/1311046.jpgA new Dark Souls board game will hit Kickstarter later this month.

If you're a fan of Dark Souls, and you want to share the experience with your friends outside the game, an upcoming Kickstarter may be of interest to you.

Steamforged Games has licensed the Dark Souls IP from Namco Bandai to create a new board game based on the series. In the announcement on their official site [http://steamforged.com/news-dark-souls-develop], Steamforged said,

"As Dark Souls fans, we could not be more excited to be given the honour of developing a board game that embraces everything that makes Dark Souls the deep, compelling game experience that it is."

Steamforged is the company behind previous Kickstarter board game success Guild Ball, a medieval football game that raised £93,691 in its campaign.

The Dark Souls board game should hit Kickstarter later this month.

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Covarr

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May 29, 2009
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I don't have good enough reflexes for a Dark Souls board game.

P.S. Thanks
 

Corven

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Sep 10, 2008
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You know if they wanted to make a board game where the players lose their will to live through a grueling play session, all they needed to do was debut a Dark Souls reskin of Monopoly.
 

OldNewNewOld

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Mar 2, 2011
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Here is my view of Kickstarter and well know IP from ridiculously rich companies.
NO!

Bandai has the money, I don't care if they licensed it out to someone else or not. They should pay for the game and make it. Not open a kickstarter for it. Steamforged can license it, they can pay for the game's development. What happened with the money from the previous games that Steamforged Games sold? What happened with "companies" saving the profit from sales in order to fund the next project they might work on in order to keep the freaking company alive? Kickstarter should be a one time thing for upstarting companies. Not a got to solution because they don't know how to run a company.

That being said, I don't see the board game being good. Board games are the antithesis of Dark Souls and other skill based games. Dark Souls is hard because it requires skill and luck places no role in it. Board games usually are pure luck because no matter how skilled you are the player are, the dice decides everything. You have no idea how many games of monopoly I've lost because I everyone makes several rounds and buys everything up before I even manage to get out of the first quarter of the board.
 

11zxcvb11

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Apr 13, 2012
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BiH-Kira said:
Board games usually are pure luck because no matter how skilled you are the player are, the dice decides everything.
you don't play many board games, do you? there are a whole host of games which are fully deterministic and luck plays no role at all; as well as many others where luck is somewhat a factor, but skilled play outweighs any good or bad roll of the dice.

that said, i don't think this will be a great board game. you need a good concept and execution, not just the name of a popular franchise :(
 

Jeroenr

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Nov 20, 2013
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11zxcvb11 said:
BiH-Kira said:
Board games usually are pure luck because no matter how skilled you are the player are, the dice decides everything.
you don't play many board games, do you? there are a whole host of games which are fully deterministic and luck plays no role at all; as well as many others where luck is somewhat a factor, but skilled play outweighs any good or bad roll of the dice.

that said, i don't think this will be a great board game. you need a good concept and execution, not just the name of a popular franchise :(
I do see where he is coming from.
For example in Dark Souls doing a successful dodge you have to recognize the enemy and its attack, know the timing to start de dodge roll, and press the button at that exact moment and correct direction.
This is all skill and experience.

Boiling this down to a dice roll makes it on par with D&D on the luck vs. skill level.


I also am skeptical about this, but it does intrige enough to keep an eye on this.
 

J.McMillen

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Sep 11, 2008
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Caramel Frappe said:
I'm a die hard fan and even this sounds kind of ... meh. Granted, it could end up being a really successful board game, but why play that with my friends when I can play Dark Souls III with my friends instead? Eh, ehhhh?
Because playing with people in the same room with you is vastly different than playing over the internet (even with voice/video chat).

Also, they haven't said anything about the game will actually be played. There are many different types of board games out there, any number of which could be used as the basis for creating a Dark Souls board game. So until I see some rules or game play, I'm keeping an open mind and hoping for the best.

Then there's the possibility of Dark Souls miniatures in the game. That alone could sell tons of copies. Especially if there's a proper scale mini of Priscilla.
 

J.McMillen

Senior Member
Sep 11, 2008
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BiH-Kira said:
Here is my view of Kickstarter and well know IP from ridiculously rich companies.
NO!

Bandai has the money, I don't care if they licensed it out to someone else or not. They should pay for the game and make it. Not open a kickstarter for it. Steamforged can license it, they can pay for the game's development. What happened with the money from the previous games that Steamforged Games sold? What happened with "companies" saving the profit from sales in order to fund the next project they might work on in order to keep the freaking company alive? Kickstarter should be a one time thing for upstarting companies. Not a got to solution because they don't know how to run a company.

That being said, I don't see the board game being good. Board games are the antithesis of Dark Souls and other skill based games. Dark Souls is hard because it requires skill and luck places no role in it. Board games usually are pure luck because no matter how skilled you are the player are, the dice decides everything. You have no idea how many games of monopoly I've lost because I everyone makes several rounds and buys everything up before I even manage to get out of the first quarter of the board.
You obviously don't know much about the tabletop game industry. Except for a handful of companies, most are 1-2 bad product gambles from going out of business. This risk is even higher with miniature based games as there are added costs associated with design, sculpting, mold making, and casting of the mini's. And there isn't a best choice of material either. Metal, resin, and plastic all have their good and bad points. Sculpts and molds for metal and resin are less expensive, however the cost of the metals used has skyrocketed in recent years and resin has been know to be a bit fiddly with casting quality (i.e. air bubbles trapped in the mold). Plastic is the cheapest to mass produce, but the molds cost thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars to produce. Also, even non miniature games have large startup costs with the initial layout of art on everything and getting the text formatted and proofread (for cards, rule books, etc...). Making a quality looking tabletop game isn't cheap.

That's why many of these companies, even some of the larger ones, are turning to Kickstarter to launch new product lines. With crowdfunding they can make sure that there is a large enough market for the game to justify actually producing it. As someone old enough to remember the heyday of tabletop gaming in the 80's, I also remember the many casualties that came about because someones game just couldn't find the audience it needed to keep the company going. If you can find old Dragon or White Dwarf magazines you'll find tons of adds for games and game companies you've never heard off. Small companies that took an idea, sometimes a really good idea, and invested money in making a game that just didn't sell. Steamforged has already taken a gamble just buying the license to make the game. If the Kickstarter actually fails and they can't make the game, I doubt they can get their money back from Bandai.
 

Kahani

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May 25, 2011
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Jeroenr said:
I do see where he is coming from.
For example in Dark Souls doing a successful dodge you have to recognize the enemy and its attack, know the timing to start de dodge roll, and press the button at that exact moment and correct direction.
This is all skill and experience.

Boiling this down to a dice roll makes it on par with D&D on the luck vs. skill level.
I take it you don't play many board games either? Why do you even assume dice will be involved at any point? Many of the best known board games in the world are all skill with no luck or dice at all - chess, Go, draughts, and so on. It really makes no sense to see the term "board game" and immediately assume it will be a skill-less dicefest on a part with monopoly.
 

AlbinoBunny

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Mar 14, 2014
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Jeroenr said:
11zxcvb11 said:
BiH-Kira said:
Board games usually are pure luck because no matter how skilled you are the player are, the dice decides everything.
you don't play many board games, do you? there are a whole host of games which are fully deterministic and luck plays no role at all; as well as many others where luck is somewhat a factor, but skilled play outweighs any good or bad roll of the dice.

that said, i don't think this will be a great board game. you need a good concept and execution, not just the name of a popular franchise :(
I do see where he is coming from.
For example in Dark Souls doing a successful dodge you have to recognize the enemy and its attack, know the timing to start de dodge roll, and press the button at that exact moment and correct direction.
This is all skill and experience.

Boiling this down to a dice roll makes it on par with D&D on the luck vs. skill level.


I also am skeptical about this, but it does intrige enough to keep an eye on this.
Go play Container. Zero luck, all predictable and highly engaging because it's still hard to predict how the game will play due to the other players movements and in-puts in the game.

Which is to say you can have a game that rewards knowledge and the ability to react to developing situations. Though I doubt the game will be about killing individual monsters. I'd guess it's more of a push your luck style thing (considering the death mechanics) with some neat player interaction where you can use items to get assists and so on.

But really I don't think the game will be bad. CMON have a pretty solid track record of putting out games that are at least playable and the quality of their sculpts mean that the Dark Soul's game will at least have a place in any fantasy RPG GM's collection.
 

Milenkov

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Aug 16, 2009
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I... Don't know how I feel about this. Most franchise-based board games end up being shallow cash-ins, and as much as I love Dark Souls I can see it getting the same treatment.

Will definitely keep it in my radar though.