Popular 2021 survival game Valheim is getting a board game adaptation, which will see one to four players working together to endure a hostile Norse-inspired environment, full of hazards both natural and monstrous. The publishers plan to crowdfund the project on Gamefound later this year.
The Valheim board game is being made by Danish developer MOOD Publishing, creators of the Deep Rock Galactic board game, with which it shares a lead designer, Ole Steiness.
According to a press release, Steiness has “hundreds of hours” in Valheim, and Henrik Törnqvist, co-founder of the video game’s developer Iron Gate, says “The prototype has captured the essence of Valheim better than we could have ever expected.”
A description of this co-op board game’s primary loop will be familiar to Valheim fans. You explore biomes (with four in the base game), to find crafting materials, to upgrade your weapons, tools, and base, and ultimately tackle fearsome bosses.
To us, it sounds like there’ll be two different gameplay ‘modes’ in the Valheim board game. The crafting stage, where you gather your strength, and arena-battler boss fights. According to Coffee Stain, when players activate an altar they will be thrust into a boss-specific arena to test their mettle against some of Valheim’s darkest horrors”.
We expect there’ll be some miniatures too, for the figurine-fanciers out there. Apparently, MOOD is “developing an array of figurines and artwork to support immersion, including a viking longhouse that will represent players’ settlements.” We see one mock-up of a monster mini in the Gamefound teaser too.
It seems to be a particularly hot period for board games based on survival video games, as the Don’t Starve board game was announced just a couple of months ago. Here’s what we thought of that title when we caught a glimpse of it at UKGE at the start of the month.
For more content, take a look at our favorites from among the best board games, as well as the top strategy board games.
Source: Wargamer
