Jamey Stegmaier, co-founder of Stonemaier Games, has made an indelible mark on board gaming since he entered the house in 2011. Not solely has he designed and printed unbelievable technique video games like Scythe and Viticulture, however he additionally helped produce and publish Elizabeth Hargrave’s genre-defining nature-themed board recreation Wingspan and its sequel. On Wednesday, he introduced a secret undertaking, the end result of seven lengthy years of labor. It’s referred to as Vantage, and it could be some of the thrilling tabletop tasks slated for 2025.
Stegmaier describes Vantage as an open-world, cooperative, roguelike science fiction-themed journey recreation impressed by trendy video video games. In a current livestream, he famous that the first inspiration was the long-lasting Zelda: Breath of the Wild, however he’s additionally drawn in themes and mechanics from such disparate titles equivalent to Elden Ring, A Short Hike, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Gamers will tackle the roles of explorers headed to an unknown extrasolar planet. A malfunction results in a crash touchdown, scattering from one to 6 gamers all throughout the map. There are 100 touchdown websites in complete which, along with 800 extra location playing cards, make up the unnamed planet’s singular, cohesive floor. Playing cards are organized in such a means that gamers can freely traverse the complete planet, shifting vertically and horizontally throughout its floor within the type of The 7th Continent.
The trick is that you could’t present what you see to the opposite gamers on the desk. Every participant solely has their very own perspective — their very own vantage level — and should talk what’s in entrance of them to the opposite gamers.
To achieve success, gamers should share as a lot as they will concerning the unusual new world in entrance of them. Due to the roguelike nature of the sport — which wipes your character, their expertise, property, and different skills away whenever you fail to outlive the expertise — the one true measure of development is your individual private expertise of the mysterious planet itself.
“The one factor that persists from one recreation of Vantage to the following,” Stegmaier mentioned, “is your data, your data of this planet and the way you may apply that to future video games.”
The best way that the sport limits communication, mixed with an enormous variety of playing cards within the field — greater than 1,700 complete, Stegmaier mentioned — ought to make each journey distinctive.
“Even when you play the identical character, and also you occur to crash land in the identical location as earlier than, you’ll be able to simply go east as an alternative of west,” Stegmaier mentioned. “You possibly can go north as an alternative of south. You possibly can work together with that location differently than earlier than. So there’s loads of replayability that I’ve baked into this recreation.”
“It’s not a marketing campaign recreation,” Stegmaier burdened. “You might be enjoying till you win, or till you fail. […] And you then begin over from scratch.”
Whereas the design has largely been accomplished, in addition to many of the recreation’s artwork, Stegmaier mentioned that Vantage is at the moment in a blind playtesting section. Which means prototypes are being run by way of a gauntlet of gamers who don’t know what to anticipate once they open the field. Subsequent comes graphic design and finalization of the supplies contained in the field — particularly the guide that may assist onboard new gamers. Extra data, together with pricing and the ultimate launch date, will he shared within the months to return.
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