Elden Ring board game studio picks up HeroQuest spiritual successor Altar Quest
Steamforged acquires Warhammer Quest designers’ co-op dungeon-crawler from Blacklist Games.
Elden Ring, Dark Souls and Monster Hunter World board game studio Steamforged has acquired Altar Quest, the co-op board game that serves as a modern spiritual successor to classic dungeon-crawler HeroQuest.
Altar Quest was announced in 2019 as a co-op dungeon-crawler by Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game co-designers Adam and Brady Sadler. The game went on to raise more than $600,000 on Kickstarter ahead of its 2020 release.
Like its open inspiration HeroQuest, the seminal '80s board game which aimed to bring the combat of D&D to a dungeon-crawler, Altar Quest includes a box crammed with miniatures and 3D terrain to populate its modular maps. Players fight their way through each level using their heroes’ unique abilities and equipment - represented by individual card decks - and some lucky dice rolls, reflecting the fantasy world of Aridika’s unstable ‘altar magic’.
Powering the game’s cardplay is the ‘Modular Deck System’ debuted in arcade game-inspired brawler Street Masters, allowing a different combination of enemies, bosses, quests, story events and more during each playthrough. As well as the customised quest deck, the game can throw up random enemies in the form of a 'Lurker' deck. Altar Quest's rules allow it to be played either in standalone scenarios or as an ongoing campaign.
Steamforged’s acquisition of the Altar Quest IP from original publisher Blacklist Games will see the Manchester studio take over development, production and distribution for the game and its future releases.