Actors Take The Stage
We have a major update on Dying Light: The Board Game we’d love to share with you as we know you share our passion and anticipation for this project!
Without further ado, we are happy to announce the project’s authors Przemysław Zub and Bartosz Tomala, members of the Glass Cannon Unplugged team, who will be responsible for bringing the best possible experience with a fast pace parkour movement system, adrenaline-pumped, combo-heavy, environment-oriented combat, and breathtaking city exploration. The original prototype was developed with help of David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin, the designers that are perhaps best known for their work on the award-winning Undaunted series, but have designed many games together including War Chest, Resist!, Orc-lympics, and most recently Dire Alliance: Horror.
Wait, there’s more! We are also proud to inform you that the game will be developed closely with Techland’s team, led by none other than Rafał Jaki (formerly CD PROJEKT RED). Rafał’s participation is dear to us not only because of his excellent, creative work on Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (as writer and executive producer) but also because he was responsible for all board game collaborations for The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077. Now, as the Senior Director of Business Development and Franchise Expansion in Techland, we firmly believe he will help us to bring the absolute best parkour experience in board game history!
Since we’ve been silent for a long time, we feel we owe you something more tangible regarding the development. So, let’s bite deeper into the game itself and check out what our developer Przemysław Zub (longtime pro player and former FFG’s tester) has to say:
In Dying Light: The Board Game, the 1-4 players will leave their mark on the last city of Villedor as a group of Night Runners. They will explore the vast city areas represented by eye-catching 3d terrain, risking their lives traversing the infested streets and buildings to gather valuable resources, establish safe footholds, explore dark zones and discover secret GRE locations. The key to survival is to cooperate and adapt to sudden changes in any situation. A motherload of parkour skills, combat abilities, gear, and crafted weapons will fuel the gameplay experience.
Thinking about our basic principle, engineering adaptations, we have set ourselves the goal to reflect the essence of what makes Dying Light an outstanding gameplay experience and put a spotlight on it in the tabletop adaptation.
Parkour & Dynamic Combat
The first thing that comes to mind when you think about Dying Light is the parkour dynamics, making it very rewarding to navigate the city’s landscapes. It is the axis of all our activities; therefore, we treat this aspect as the most crucial challenge in designing Dying Light: The Board Game. Fast and fun movement execution with various possibilities is the way to go here. You can expect dice, and a fresh management system for it.
City Exploration
Villedor does not allow boredom, and city exploration gives players a sense of freedom while providing quite a challenge. Here too, we want players to feel that they can test their skills in the challenging environment, so we are strongly focusing on the board presence. The game area, depicting the city with the addition of 3D objects, brings the scale, a challenge, and a satisfying visual experience to the players. The icing on this cake will be made with absolutely stunning miniatures!
Day & Night Paradigm
An inseparable aspect of the player’s functioning is, of course, the Day and Night cycle. The responsiveness of the world and the ever-changing balance of power gives players a lot of space for various strategies. At the same time, it builds tension and a sense of urgency. When approaching a board game, we want players to feel the need to adapt to those terms.
The day is for Humans.
The night is for Infected.
But will there still be room enough for a wholesome, engaging story? We’ll make sure there is. Glass Cannon Unplugged’s CEO and creative director, Jakub Wiśniewski (co-author of This War Of Mine The Board Game and story creator for Frostpunk: The Board Game) will personally oversee this project. It is only natural since Jakub started his career in game development working on the first Dying Light, aeons ago as quest and narrative designer!
We’ll have more information soon about how you can prepare for the coming night.
Stay tuned & stay human!
