Castle Panic is a gateway to co-op board games, now it’s even better

One of the biggest genres in modern board gaming — cooperative games — effectively didn’t exist two decades ago. In fact, even 15 years ago tabletop gaming was stuck in a somewhat rut. There were board games, both family friendly and traditional that Americans have kept in their hall closets for many generations. There were niche miniatures and elaborate strategy games on the other hand, that only a few people could afford. In all instances, players were looking to get into a fight, via chutes, ladders, or other violent methods. In the 2000s everything was different.

Justin De Witt (co-founder Fireside Games), creator of the successful cooperative boardgame Fireside Games Castle PanicHe recalls that moment when everything changed.

“I want to say it was 1999 or 2000,” De Witt told Polygon during a recent video call. “A friend pulled out a copy of Catan SettlersI was stunned. Is it time for board games to die? They’re fun now! And you don’t have to beat the other guy down!”

It’s now called Catan, Klaus Tueber’s internationally best-selling board game brought “European-style” tabletop games into the spotlight. Eurogames, as they came to be called, don’t rely on randomized dice rolls. Open confrontation is discouraged. Instead, they encourage competition between players while working towards the same goals. Eurogames have another advantage that made them difficult to sell in the US: they often lack a strong, recognizable theme. This makes them difficult to explain, market and kinda boring.

“I didn’t really feel like I was building a village,” De Witt said, recalling that first time playing Catan. “I was scoring points by buying things, and by trading things. I was looking for something to make you feel that you are going to die. I wanted to have the players have that, ‘Oh, my God! We work together or we’re doomed!’ moment.”

De Witt was inspired to create. Castle PanicThe game is played by 1-6 players who work together in defending their castle from a horde. The game takes tower defense’s simplicity and pleasure and combines it with Tolkien-style fantasy. It is an enjoyable experience that appeals to all age groups. Today, more then a decade later, it is still in use. Castle Panic II EditionAvailable at Retail

But the best-selling board game almost didn’t get made at all. De Witt’s educational background was as an artist, and he always dreamed of one day working for Disney. After working a series of jobs in the technology sector — and also experiencing some nasty layoffs — he eventually came to work at Steve Jackson Games, a company best known for its Munchkin line of novelty card games.

“That’s when I started working on the idea of an actual cooperative game,” De Witt said, “before anything big like that was out there. Different ideas were in my head. Well, maybe we’re on a pirate shipOr maybe we’re on a spaceship. It was around the time The Lord of the Rings films were released. Like, Oh! One castle would be a great idea!”

The concept, inspired by the Battle of Helm’s Deep, stuck. De Witt quickly had a prototype, and several samples of his final game. Anne-Marie De Witt was his spouse. They drove around the American South to show the final game to retailers. While on vacation, they managed their new company almost entirely from their cars. They learned a lot from the experience about customer expectations.

Fireside Games

“One of the things we had to do to make Castle Panic work very early on was to take the players out of the game physically,” De Witt said. “Instead of having a piece on the board, you became the castle, which is a weird abstract jump That, to this day, I still see people when they’re new to gaming go like, ‘Wait, what? I’m not that tower?’ Nope. ‘Am I the red side of the board?’ Nope. You are the castle.”

In a time before crowdfunding was common, and in a time before investment in tabletop gaming was even on Silicon Valley’s radar, the De Witts funded the development of Castle Panic themselves. Justin De Witt did the entire art and saved the company lots of money. After that, they bet a lot on the experimental print run of their final game.

“There’s a great moment where Anne-Marie is literally writing the check,” De Witt said, “and I’m like, Stop. Are we truly willing to do that? You could always cancel.. We must do it. It is possible to gottaDo this. We take the large check, and send it off. Our 3,500 copies sold out within 10 weeks. We are just stunned.”

Castle PanicFireside Games catalogue is now based on this foundation. The Fireside Games catalog is now a profitable small business. Castle Panic II Edition is a chance to modernize the look of the game which, De Witt admitted sheepishly, “looked 10 years old.” The gameplay remains almost entirely unchanged. The same artwork was used in Castle Panic The Big Box 2nd EditionThe combines all the popular expansions into one package. They are both ready and waiting to welcome new generations of board gamers.

“We built it to be a gateway,” De Witt said. “So many people come up to us and tell us it was their first game, or it’s the one their kids still love to play the most. […] I think we’re still on the right track.”