Steamforged Games has just upgraded its game roster, reaching a deal with Blacklist Games LLC to acquire their smash hit board game Altar Quest, along with all of its intellectual property assets. This is obviously a calculated move by Steamforged Games, as it just acquired a major competitor in the world of cooperative fantasy adventure games.
Calculated Move Resulting in Even More Great IPs
The acquisition seems to be a part of a trend, as earlier this year the studio acquired the rights to Kinghill from Czech studio Purple Dragon. Board game enthusiasts will be quick to link Steamforged games as the studio behind massive titles like the Elden Ring, Rivet Wars, Dark Souls, and Monster Hunter World board games.
Altar Quest, on the other hand, is a cooperative fantasy dungeon-crawler game set in the world of Aridika. The is ambitious, using a modular deck system (first introduced in Street Masters and Brook City), which allows players to combine the decks in the card-building aspect of the game, allowing for nigh-endless combinations.
To be more specific, the players in Altar Quest must choose a quest deck to undertake, a threat deck to combat (representing the general enemies throughout the campaign), and a villain deck – perhaps the most dangerous of them all. All of them are fixed and require no deckbuilding whatsoever, but they can be mixed and matched in various ways – and that’s where the variety we mentioned above comes in.
And just in case the threat and villain decks aren’t enough, there are always Lurkers lurking about, represented in their dedicated Lurker Deck. They can spawn at any moment during player encounters, adding additional encounter variety and a whole new layer of challenge. Altar Quest also has the added bonus of a modular map, allowing for an extra layer of immersion. The game also has a solo and co-op mode, a fit for any type of player.
Just an Acquisition or a New Beginning?
All in all, Altar Quest was extremely successful on Kickstarter, earning over $620,454 in pledges, with over 5000 backers. Given this success, it is speculated that the recent acquisitions of Steamforged Games are a sign that the studio is looking to expand its horizons and dabble into other genres.
Steamforged Games have further announced that it will continue to develop, produce, and distribute Altar Quest and related items, and with all the intellectual property of this highly successful game at its disposal, it is not likely to go to waste. Who knows what the future holds for Altar Quest in the hands of its new owner.
Steamforged has recently confirmed that it is working on a Sea of Thieves board games adaptation, to the excitement of the franchise’s fans.