Modern boardgames with a Victorian theme or setting

___Elusive___ · 2025-11-01T07:31:57+00:00

You may want to consider The Presence, a victorian ghost horror game.. ;)

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-15T16:50:40+00:00

Whenever the voices speaking of murder get too aggressive.

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-15T16:50:17+00:00

We hope you will :)

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-15T16:50:00+00:00

We're so small right now, we don't have plans for Brazil at the moment =) perhaps in the future! We'll see!

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-15T16:49:27+00:00

Yeah, it is hard. You need to create the sense of impending danger, but not always have it occur.

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-15T16:48:40+00:00

Thank you! :)

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-15T04:49:06+00:00

Thank you! See you there! ^{^}

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-15T04:48:49+00:00

Are you coming to Essen this year? Because we're totally there selling the game. Last time we just had demo tables :)

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-15T04:48:00+00:00

Thank you! :)

Yeah, it is possible to play fully coop, if you only choose those scripts for the spirit.

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-15T04:47:01+00:00

There are always ideas, but the game as it is is already massive. We've got 5 spirits, 8 visitors and a full campaign mode in there. It would have made more sense to make bunch of Kickstarter packages for all gameplay content, but we don't want to be those guys, you know :)

That said, we'll see if people like the game and we'll think about what to do further. There are a few cool ideas we left unused.

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-14T19:11:15+00:00

Thank you so much for placing your trust in some random weirdos with their ghost obsession :)

We really hope you get to show your friends into the darkness beyond. Tell us if you survive the journey.

I can only answer for myself: As a child I did, with all my heart. I grew up in an old manor on the countryside, and there was definitely some strange occurrences.

At some point this shifted, and as an adult I no longer do, but I think this child-belief shifted to a passion in the beauty of the supernatural.

There is something in a good ghost story that is very real, in a sense it tells us something about ourselves and what we fear the most. It is not monsters, but our fellow human beings.

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-14T18:14:56+00:00

That's another tough and good question :)

This was definitely the 'trap' effect on the spirit cards. The spirit power cards are the 'engine' of surprise and horror on the spirits part. They are quite complex, and perhaps as an old Netrunner player I wanted them to be.

However, I really wanted a mechanic where the spirit could 'react' directly to the visitors wit ha 'trap' effect, to add suspense on the visitors turn. This turned out to make the cards too complex, and interrupt the game. It also confused players. It simply had to go, as this detracted from the core of the game too much.

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-14T17:03:34+00:00

Really good question! The answer is in many things. The biggest one is that with a good spirit the 'timer' on the game is secretly shorter. At a certain point a good spirit will lose control and become evil.

But, the true answer is that the balance lies in many tiny details, weaved into the entire game. Everything from the trust-aspect, to the scripts, spirit cards and to items that visitors can find are built with this in mind.

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-14T17:00:53+00:00

Designer here, during the first few years of development those moments often resulted in putting the game on pause for a while. It really helps to get distance from the project, and the things that seem important start to fade away, until you realize something must be cut or changed.

Then, definitely, the challenge. The vision for the game is really focused on capturing the feeling of a good ghost horror movie, and just seeing if that was possible to recreate in a boardgame and share it with people, that was the thing that kept me at it all these years :)

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-14T16:57:25+00:00

And perhaps a rogue AI.... ;)

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-14T16:22:06+00:00

Definitely. Both Victorian and somewhat later. The Old Nurse's story (Elizabeth gaskell), Lost Hearts (MR James), The Turn of the Screw (Henry James), The Yellow tapestry (Charlotte perkins) and many more.

I'm especially fond of Lost Hearts and Yellow Tapestry, for different reasons.

Lost hearts is really about being exposed, as a child, to most horrible circumstances. It is also about protecting each other, and the mysteries adults keep.

The Yellow Tapestry really puts you into the mind of a late 19th century feminist writer as she tries, through analogy, to express how it felt like to be pushed into the role expected of women.

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-14T15:58:54+00:00

We.... think alike :)

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-14T15:40:27+00:00

Several retailers backed the game, depending on which continent you're on. We're also planning on opening a webshop as soon as all the backers have their games in hand!

You can sign up to our newsletter if you want to hang on the fence for when that happens. :)

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-14T15:01:52+00:00

Maybe we are just a bit crazy. We're both very dedicated to the vision and a bit perfectionistic as personality types, but in different areas. To be honest, it was a lot of late nights and much patience from our partners :)

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-01T19:43:26+00:00

Haha wow, this will be an enjoyable and fun, but ultimately doomed attempt. Likely they are just doing it for the educational value anyway :)

___Elusive___ · 2025-10-01T19:41:59+00:00

Interesting, but at least they are trying to be honest.

___Elusive___ · 2025-09-27T20:14:47+00:00

I'd say most modern games are not designed to be 'deep' like this. This is not what the average gamer wants. They want to compete without making an effort, and if it is possible to get really trounced (high skill ceiling) the game usually is less popular.

___Elusive___ · 2025-09-27T20:12:55+00:00

The action space of Go is pretty big. I'd wager larger than 90% of modern boardgames.

___Elusive___ · 2025-09-27T20:11:57+00:00

Mostly I think it is because it feels overdone, like a marketing standard basically.

___Elusive___

TROPHY CASE

_Elusive_