Video games are different to board games. Quite the revelation that, eh? Don’t thank me, I share such deep wisdoms as this for the simple pleasure. Adapting an IP from one media to another isn’t always successful. Take the movie version of The Shining (sorry peeps, it’s a cold and uninteresting movie), or the TV series of Under The Dome (dear, oh dear). Sometimes, though, it can pay off in spades, and there’s been a few strong examples in our hobby over the last few years. Kingdom Rush made a fine jump to the table not too long ago, and Dead Cells seemed to receive good feedback. Today, then, it’s time for Don’t Starve to throw itself from award winning rogue-lite videogame into a new format.
This adaptation takes 1-4 players into the unrelenting, randomly generated nightmare world of the Constant, a distant and ominous realm in which magic and science intertwine in ways better left unspoken. Pitched against the elements and a grim bestiary of monsters, the players assume the roles of iconic characters from the series, having to work closely together and use their wits to outsmart fate, strive for subsistence, and simply stay alive. The crafting elements of the original videogame are present and correct. You’ll transform raw resources into tools, structures and strange inventions that might just keep you alive another day. The ever-changing wilderness of the Constant contains new biomes, secrets and lurking threats for you to stumble upon, meaning you’ll have to stay on top of your hunger, sanity and health levels (just like day-to-day life, really).
The characters are as wacky as ever – Wilson, for example, grows his beard every round, which shields him from the cold (it can also be shaved to provide resources (must try this with my own)), and has the skill of transmutation, which means he can turn basic resources into items of value (maybe he could turn a Jacob’s cracker into a Ritz). Wendy, on the other hand, is obsessed with death and dying, which means she’s particularly resilient to sanity loss. Nice.
With its mechanisms highlighting player choice, dynamic combat, crafting, and open-world exploration in night and day conditions, Don’t Starve: The Board Game features unexplored levels of immersion, with its visual design fully embracing the unique, whimsical art style long cherished by fans of the series. And the art style has been very well served by the transition to the table. It looks fantastic, a real head turner.
With plenty of scenarios and stacks of replayability, this could be a great adaptation. Check out the Kickstarter page here, and sign up for notification of the crowdfunding launch date. With 46,000 signed up at time of writing, this has the looks of being a very successful project.
About the author:
Steve is currently a freelance board game blogger, but often dreams of life as a pirate, or as a ghost herder in the Lake District, or as an evil estate agent who sells haunted houses for his own dark pleasure. Instead of figuring out how to do these jobs in real life like a normal lunatic, he tries to write about them instead, and releases the resultant books upon the unsuspecting world via famous digital bookstores. More books are bound to follow. Find this peculiar entity here: www.instagram.com/positively.board
