Dev Update #1: Unveiling the Mysteries: A Sneak Peek Into My In-Development Board Game, Cryptid Crisis

It is my absolute and utter pleasure to announce: Cryptid Crisis, a board game that I'm currently working on. As a lover of horror films, cheesy slashers, and the wonderous world of Cryptids, as well as an avid board game enthusiast, I thought the world was lacking in cryptid-themed boardgames (sarcasm). So to fix this injustice, I started on working on one of my own! It's still early days but I've started seeing the first few shakes of the cockatrice egg and I'm ready for the game to hatch!

Premise

A group of unlikely heroes step up to confront the weird goings on around town, tasking themselves with driving off the menace that's revealed itself, but will they be successful? Only time will tell, so grab your makeshift weapons and quippy one liners, because it's time to fight a monster!

Traverse the sleepy town gathering resources to bolster your arsenal, prepare your decks and face the cryptid, but beware, the nefarious beast is doing the exact same thing!

Gameplay

Cryptid Crisis is an asymmetrical boardgame consisting of 2-4 players playing as heroes and one playing as the chosen Cryptid. The players and Cryptid travel through the town, collecting powerups and boons, then they use those collected card upgrades to fight against the cryptid using their constructed decks. Will the heroes drive the monster off or is it judgement day for the sleepy town?

Inspiration

As mentioned I'm a big fan of board games, as well as the cheesy horrors of the 80s/90s from Friday the 13th to Mars Attacks.

Gameplay inspiration

Some of the largest gameplay influences include:

• Slay the spire

• The Snallygaster Situation

• Arkham Horror

• Quoridor (Out of left field, I know)

• Good ol' DnD

  
  

Theme

The themes of the game are largely inspired by:

• The Evil Dead Series

• Cabin in the woods

• Rubber-mask horrors of the 80s

• Lovecraftian mythology (But not the ideals of the author)

Current State

I'm still very much in the early days of development, but as of right now, I have 4 hero decks and one Cryptid deck that have gone through their first round of playtesting with many many more to come.

The core mechanics of the game have got at least a skeleton, the game is in two parts, upgrade gathering and then combat. I wanted to combine the tactical aspect of DNDs combat with actions and bonus action economy and mix it with the flexible deckbuilding of games like Slay the Spire.

Thanks for reading and I hope you find it interesting!