Taylor Smith and JD Boucher Further Talk Evil Dead 2 Board Game
David Gelmini
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Yeah, I know we already interviewed the makers of the Evil Dead 2 board game. But we’re so completely and utterly hyped for this game that we decided one interview simply wasn’t enough so we tracked down Taylor Smith and JD Boucher to learn even more.
Dread Central: So, without giving too much away, can you talk about the gameplay mechanics?
Taylor Smith: Don’t worry; we’ll be revealing all sorts of gameplay insight as the campaign goes on! Players take the role of the human characters of the movie to fight off Deadites and monsters while collecting pages of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis around the cabin and surrounding area. Event cards introduce new enemies, crazy situations, and utter terror throughout the game to keep everyone on their toes.
DC: Why did you decide to focus on Evil Dead II rather than the entire series?
Taylor: Evil Dead II is easily my favorite in the franchise—it has the best balance of camp, horror, comedy, and gore. The boring answer is licensing rights. When we found out Evil Dead was available a couple of years ago for comics, we jumped at the chance, but the other films are tied up with other companies. When it came to the game, we chose to build on what we’ve been doing with the comic books.
DC: The miniature figures look awesome. Can you talk about the design process?
Taylor: We have the excellent artists Jacob Anderson, James Phillips, and Aditya Nugraha working on the renders; each has a slightly different process, but they all have to go through approval with editorial (that’s us), the licensor, and the manufacturer. The most recent designs in are the Deadite players, and they have some awesome stories behind them. Ash, Linda, and Ed appear as Deadites in the movie, of course, but we got inventive with the others based on their deaths. Bobby Joe was eaten by that demon tree, so we gave her a gnarly tree arm; Jake was skeletonized, so that’s how he looks undead; Annie gets to use the Ex-Mortis pages for spells in her Deadite form, so she’s got this necromantic sorceress thing going on. It’s been a really fun process!
DC: Are Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell involved in any way?
JD Boucher: Sam and Bruce are hard at work wrapping things up on “Ash vs. Evil Dead” Season 2 so they won’t be doing anything too hands-on with the game. But every piece of Ash anything goes straight to the desk of Groovy Bruce himself to get approved. If they wanted to take some time off and get involved, we’d be happy to have them!
DC: So, I understand that you hit your goal in only a few hours. That must feel pretty damn sweet, right?
JD: It was insane! We had no idea the huge and amazing response we got from fans and backers about the game. We had to kick our schedule for stretch goals and add-ons into overdrive as we thought it would be a week or so before they unlocked and not in a couple of hours. We’re just so happy that Evil Dead fans are as excited for it as we are, and we want to make a game they’ll be happy to have on their shelves.
DC: Are you hoping that this will introduce newcomers to the franchise?
JD: That would be the dream, wouldn’t it? I think Evil Dead is the best horror franchise ever (come at me, Friday the 13th fans), and if this board game could somehow make more people fans of it, I’d say it’d be a grand success. With our new comics, the board game, and the amazing TV show, it’s probably the best time ever to be an Evil Dead fan, and we’re also looking for more people to join the fold.
Categorized:Horror Gaming News
