Dead Cells board game coming from designers of 7 Wonders and Cyclades

Dead Cells, the indie video game, is getting turned into a board game by the designers of 7 Wonders – Antoine Bauza – and Cyclades: Bauza and Ludovic Maublanc.

Announced by Scorpion Masque, one of the co-publishers of the upcoming board game, Dead Cells: The Rouge-Lite Board Game is an adaptation of the 2018 indie video game. The original Dead Cells sees players controlling a Beheaded – a strange character who’s seemingly able to survive without a head – as they explore a series of labyrinthine biomes within an enormous castle.

Part of the Metroidvania genre of video games – or games that feature a large location requiring plenty of exploration and backtracking – Dead Cells challenges players to make as much progress as possible before dying, as there are no lives in the game. Instead, whenever the player character dies, they must start from the beginning of the castle, but with all the knowledge, experience and Cells they’ve managed to collect along the way.

Dead Cells: The Rogue-Lite Board Game will adapt the original video game into a dungeon-crawler board game for one to four players. In the game, players will be able to choose from various playable versions of the Beheaded before exploring the castle. During the game, players can travel through branching paths within the castle’s different biomes, with each type containing its own rogue’s gallery of enemies for players to fight.

Whenever players encounter an enemy, they will be able to use their unique deck of Beheaded cards to perform a variety of actions, with every class having their own approach to combat. Fighting enemies and exploring the castle will give players the opportunity to acquire more power scrolls, weapons, equipment and Cells: all of which will make them stronger.

Cells gathered from enemies can be spent at The Collector in order to grant the player character permanent mutations which will remain with them, even if they die during their adventures in the video game board game. Mutations will go into character decks, giving them new cards to use in fights – with players able to choose from three decks: brutality, survival and tactics. Players can also grow their loot capacity with blueprints, as well as increase their health pool and slots for items. Alternatively, players can spend their Cells in a mysterious well that may or may not have a purpose.

Dead Cells: The Rogue-Lite Board Game was co-designed by the aforementioned Antoine Bauza and Ludovic Maublanc, as well as Corentin Lebrat and Théo Rivière. Besides Scorpion Masque, Dead Cells: The Rogue-Lite Board Game will be co-published by Motion Twin – the developer and publisher of the original Dead Cells video game - and Evil Empire.

The Kickstarter campaign for Dead Cells: The Rogue-Lite Board Game will be launched sometime this Spring, with pledge amounts and estimated delivery dates yet to be confirmed.