Kinfire Chronicles board game that shares a writer with The Witcher 3

Jane Hoffacker had to be stopped down by a worldwide pandemic. Former videogame developer Jane Hoffacker began her career working for Activision over three years. She worked on Guitar Hero. Skylanders. After a while, she moved to Riot Games, a small startup, where nine years later she was the executive producer. ArcaneThe critically-acclaimed animated Netflix series is based on League of Legends. Despite her extensive experience and expertise in games, it somehow wasn’t until the COVID-19 shutdown that she first played Dungeons & Dragons — and that’s when she got hooked on tabletop gaming.

“I’m ashamed to admit that it took me so long,” she said. “But I fell in love with that experience, that kind of shared journey and shared adventure that you take on with friends. “I remember thinking: It took me so long!”

The answer, she decided, was that the barrier to entry in today’s tabletop games is simply too high. Modern RPGs like D&D, for instance, require lots of preparation and a skilled player — the Dungeon Master — to lead the experience. Campaign-focused board games such as Gloomhaven Legends of the Dark: DescentThese rules are complicated and can take time to put together. Imagine if there was a middle ground. Something that would draw people away from their monitors and screens to be able to have time with each other around the table and something simpler and easier to learn.

Image by Incredible Dreams

The concept was born from that thought. Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall The project was launched. Polygon provides important information about what you can expect from the finished product and the crowdfunding campaign that goes live on Tuesday. It’s a campaign in a box, and like many high-concept board games produced today, it also comes with a premium price tag — $149.99 at retail. Hoffacker claims that her company Incredible Dream Studios will offer a completely new experience in board gaming. It is designed to be more similar to opening and setting up an Apple product than building flat-pack furniture.

The team

Hoffacker has spent more than 10 years developing games and other related projects. She knows great games can be built upon great stories. That’s why she hired two of the best writers in the business, Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz and Jakub Szamalek, to create the world of Atios. The Witcher and The Witcher books were also part of their CD Projekt Red time. Cyberpunk 2077. Tomaszkiewicz, in particular, is well known for creating the Bloody Baron quest line. Wild Hunt: The Witcher 3This story is widely considered to be one of the greatest in RPG history.

Hoffacker didn’t stop there. While touring the Polish game development industry, she tapped Katarzyna “Kate” Redesiuk, formerly an art director on Cyberpunk 2077. This is due to their unique skills. Kinfire Chronicles’ distinct look — a combination of darkness whimsy that the team calls “grimsical.” Then she capped the crew off with Kevin Wilson, a 20-year veteran of the board game industry whose credits include legendary titles like Arkham Horror and Journeys in Darkness: Descent.

Wilson spent many years as a freelancer and the change to full-time work was huge for him. Wilson was excited by the opportunity to work with a world-class team.

Incredible Dream

“I don’t know what your home PC setup is like,” Wilson said during a recent interview with Polygon, “but it’s like, suddenly you get all the best video equipment you could ever ask for, the best audio equipment, and all the software you could want. And they’re like, What are you going to do with your time? Because you’re the expert in this field. You’re the expert in this field.”

“We’ve gone all sorts of directions since then,” he continued. “It’s been almost like a two-year project, getting it done. […]It should be extraordinary. We want it to blow people’s socks off.”

The Story

Incredible Dream

Kinfire ChroniclesThe setting is high fantasy and features both humans and fantastical animals. According to Wilson, the storyline begins during a siege of the elven city known as Din’Lux by an army of dwarves. The battle ends when the stars burst and an eerie darkness descends onto the planet. But the elves have prepared for this with a magical lighthouse that they’ve tended to for generations.

“The defenders of the city decide they’re going to open up the gates,” Wilson said. “They let [the invaders]In, they disarmed them, and darkness fell over the whole world. Only this one little city was protected.” Beyond the light of Din’Lux, monsters and magical horrors rule the land.

It takes place in a time where years have passed since Starless Night’s beginning. Players take on the roles of Seekers Guild members. Their first mission is to take an ember from Din’Lux to try and establish a new town somewhere in the wilderness. They may even lose their mission, as they will be in grave danger. The game will continue regardless thanks to a mix of intricate branching narratives, tactical battles that are turn-based, and an extensive system for exploration.

Wilson said that his greatest pride is in the gentle way the game onboards new players. Kinfire ChroniclesThe story is the heart of this game. Only when there’s conflict, can the gameplay mechanics unfold.

“You have a little 18-card deck,” Wilson said, “and you’re playing your cards. […] By staying in character, you get experience points that let you modify your character’s deck. Go [to] sleep at the inn in town, you can shuffle around some cards — put some cards in and take some cards out, or get more powerful cards to change how your character plays.”

It is hoped that the players would learn together the system as they unbox it.

Product

Hoffacker has opted to focus on packaging, rather than spending their precious time on making intricate miniatures and complex terrain. What is the best way to get modern board games from one table to the next?

Amazing Dream

The solution they came up with is modeled on the music industry — specifically, vinyl records. Each one Kinfire Chronicles’ 15 quests will be packaged like an LP. On the outside of the packet, there is thematic album art to get players in the mood, and on the inside, they’ll get only the things they need to play for the next hour. It’s easy to grab the correct components without having to go through a stack of cards and sort them out. It’s just grab and go.

“It would have been way cheaper for us if we just, like, stacked a bunch of punch boards and then have everything kind of meshed together,” Hoffacker said, “basically relying on the gamer to assemble more themselves. I feel like sometimes you buy these games and it feels like you’re about to assemble Ikea furniture, because you literally are. We’re taking advantage of packaging — which makes it a bit more expensive, because now you have to pay people to actually stuff each little box — but we want it to be as simple as possible for you to sit down for a play session. Let’s maximize your play time.”

After the design of the packaging is finalized, it will now be up to the team to get fans involved with the game’s lore and then keep them engaged with gameplay. Incredible Dream has sponsored a YouTube play series, drawing inspiration from tabletop RPGs. Live, the first episode features Chrissy Costazana (Twitch streamer/lead singer of Against the Current), Brian David Gilbert (formerly with Polygon), Krystina Arelle (@IncredibleDream)Star Wars: The High Republic Dimension 20), Ryan Verniere (BlackbirdsRiot Games (tabletop RPG)

Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s FallKickstarter launches the base game on Tuesday. Pre-orders for $99. You can also get a deluxe version for $175.