Adam Sblendorio (VP of Creative at Cryptozoic)
A couple weeks ago, at Gen Con, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Cryptozoic’s Vice President of Creative, Adam Sblendorio. Cryptozoic is one of the better known Indie game houses to explore licensed IP (intellectual property) in their games. They’ve been responsible for the trading card game versions of The Lord of the Rings and DC Heroes, as well as original creations like Epic Spell Wars of The Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre (which was recently featured on Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop).
Their most anticipated release will be the board game version of Ghostbusters, something that has been a long time in the making and for which they conducted a highly publicized kickstarter campaign for.
As to the length of time in development versus the final product, Sblendorio stated,
“I’ve been personally wanting to make a Ghostbusters game for about 8 years now, but the timing’s never been right. Sony’s always been great and cooperative with the likeness rights and how the IP has been handled, but…the time wasn’t right. But this past year, finally things…aligned. I’m actually incredibly pleased that it’s this time and with this game, because they were very gracious in allowing us to pull from all canon in one product.”
What this means is that fans of the franchise will find ghosts and monsters that were part of not just the films, but also exclusive characters from the cartoon series, the comic book, and the toy line. Dan Schoening, the lead artist of IDW’s 2011-2012 Ghostbusters comic run, has designed all the art for the new game, giving it a “cohesive feel and style to the rest of the Ghostbuster’s universe.”
The beta of the Ghostbusters game in play.
While all current Ghostbusters’ IP will be included in the game, upcoming IP—like the 2016 Paul Feig Ghostbusters reboot and the announced Ghostbusters-universe movies—would not. Obviously, if this game proves half as popular as it already seems like it will, they will undoubtedly work out some arrangement with Sony for a follow up!
The game plays 1-4 players with a cooperative episodic feel that reminded me somewhat of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. The game will include 10 double sided game board tiles for a variety of combinations and 48 28mm PVC figures, including everyone from Venkman & Spengler to Slimer & the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
While an official price has yet to be announced, the anticipated price as of the Kickstarter was a somewhat hefty $80. This isn’t a huge jump from similar games like the aforementioned Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (which starts at $60), but it’ll likely make a lot of folks want to check out reviews of it ahead of time and see it covered in shows like Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop before pulling the trigger.
While the official release date has not yet been announced, industry buzz has it that the game will be released around Halloween, which would be appropriate!
To see an early play test of the game that Cryptozoic Uploaded earlier this year, check out:
To read more about the game and see what’s included in the box, go to the Official Ghostbusters Board Game page.
As to what else will be coming out from Crytpozoic this fall, Sblendorio was also very pleased with the upcoming release of Portal—a board game very “loosely based” on the extremely popular video game of the same name. No official release date has been listed on the Portal page, but it was also in full beta test at Gen Con and could be out before Ghostbusters.
Epic Spell Wars—which has proven very popular with our audience—has an anticipated 3rd release coming out around Gen Con 2016. For more from the Cryptozoic booth, check out the images below.
For more about Cryptozoic and their upcoming games, go to: www.cryptozoic.com
