Homeworld 3 is condensing its release schedule for post-launch updates. Instead of free and paid content arriving into 2025, it will all – three free updates, and two paid DLCs – arrive together in a “one major update” in November.
The Finals‘ fourth season approaches. It’ll kick off on September 26th, with a new map, a new tutorial and the restoration of Cashout as the core ranked mode. There’s a new trailer below, which is worth watching even if you don’t play The Finals, says I.
Comic-style art appears across video games and board games. In the 1980s, my childhood was filled with several of these stylized games that integrated comic characters into their gameplay. While Steve Jackson’s cartoonish dungeon crawler Munchkin wasn’t around back then, it is certainly a game I find myself returning to for nostalgia and silliness here and there.
Munchkin is a cartoon foray into a dungeon featuring a cast of characters from fantasy and reality. The card game is filled with comical art and often witty banter that will have you laughing and probably rolling your eyes at some of the dad jokes.
Gameplay for Munchkin is fairly quick and simple. You start as an ordinary human with a few cards in your initial arsenal of goodies. The cards in your hand, along with others you’ll pick up as you play, help you navigate 10 floors of a dungeon by giving you attributes of a specific class and arming you to fight the monsters you’ll encounter. You’ll employ various zany antics and characteristics against formidable foes as you compete against other players, kicking in doors to fight monsters and gaining loot to increase your power throughout the dungeon run. Which player will reign victoriously in the end? The journey is yours to discover in Munchkin.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to battle your way through the dungeon and get to level 10 before your counterparts. Kick in the door and start fighting across plenty of different versions of comical shenanigans.
The base card game of Munchkin is a fantasy dungeon crawler that incorporates the types of characters that you might expect to help you along your quest. It also has a few that you might not expect, with fantasy monsters that go beyond dragons to plants and even lawyers.
While Munchkin has a considerable number of expansions, there are five that pair with any base game.
Contents: 112 more cards, including orc race, new armor, allies, new weapons
This expansion can be played with the original base game as well as Munchkin Conan or Munchkin Pathfinder. Unnatural Axe adds the orc race to the game, as well as new armor, new allies, and some zany new weapons.
Contents: 112 cards, including bards, gnomes, new monsters, new armor, five comic artist-created expansion exclusive special items
Clerical Errors adds gnomes as a playable race. It also adds my personal favorite of an archetype class – bards. There is new armor. There are new monsters. There are also five uniquely designed items, each designed by comic artists.
Contents: 112 cards, including 30 new kingdom cards featuring new elements
What fantasy game would be complete without trusty steeds to bring us to victory or defeat? The Need for Steed expansion adds dragons, tigers, giant mutant gerbils, chickens, and… Big Joe? Yeah, Big Joe might be a steed, or he might be a hireling. Use these steeds to help you to get to level 10 before your friends do.
Contents: 112 cards, including ranger class, new monsters, new armor, and new weapons
Ah, rangers. They’re either beloved or the butt of a joke in fantasy games. In Munchkin, they’re a little bit of both. Rangers can tame monsters and ride them to escape new monsters like the treacherous Telemarketer, Poultrygeist, or Undead Clowns.
Contents: 112 cards, including 40 dungeons
This expansion brings 40 new dungeons to life and 32 portals to get to and from each one. Each dungeon has different rules and variations to change up the experience. This expansion will open up the possibilities of where you can go and the monsters you will run into immensely. Proceed with caution.
There are 14 other versions of Munchkin to play. Like Fluxx, they are separated by theme. Pick a favorite and go from there. Below are four of my personal picks to consider.
Contents: 168 cards (including new dungeons) rules, and one six-sided die
Lovecraft lore fans will appreciate the Cthulhu spin on the game. There are also three available expansions for it to add to the cartoony horror spin on the Lovecraft Mythos universe. Those expansions are Cthulhu Sanity Check, The Unspeakable Vault, and Crazed Caverns.
Contents: 168 cards (including new dungeons) rules, and one six-sided die
Yes, Munchkin has comic art in the game, but this version includes superheroes. Comic book lovers will likely want to see how Munchkins can become superheroes and villains. There’s also one expansion available for this version called The Narrow S Cape.
Contents: 168 cards (including new dungeons) rules, and one six-sided die
The Steampunk version of Munchkin was done by a comic artist who did the Steampunk comic called Girl Genius. Each of the classes in this steampunk spin is unique to this version.
Contents: 168 cards (including new dungeons) rules, and one six-sided die
In most zombie spins of games, it’s you versus the zombies. The fun thing about this version is that you are the zombies in Munchkin Zombies, and your enemies are the human race. Several different expansions can be added to this one. Four of those expansions (Armed and Dangerous, Hideous Hideouts, Spare Parts, and Grave Mistakes) add additional cards. One adds Zombie Dice.
Dire Wolf Digital (makers of Clank!) created the digital version of Munchkin, which is available on Steam for $14.99.
While this version doesn’t come from the same team as the original, it’s a highly enjoyable game at the base level that plays well digitally. You can play against friends who also have a copy of the game or against the AI. Games outside of the tutorial can be played with 3-6 players. A single player can choose to go against two or more AI or combinations of AI and human players on the same machine or online.
One of the key differences between the digital version and the physical version is that you can choose to play without gender-connected items. In the original versions, gendered items (only two different ones in these games, which do not acknowledge the gender spectrum) are a big part of the game.
Currently, the Steam version is the only way to play Munchkin digitally. There was talk about it being a mod on Tabletop Simulator, but comments on the Steam community regarding things allude to potential licensing issues. A 2014 forum post on the Steve Jackson Game website also noted, “Our policy has been consistent and clear: people who want to create digital versions of our games must obtain a license to do so. I’m sorry that you feel this is disrespectful to our fans and customers. We feel exactly as disrespected by people who use our content without our permission.”
That said, I found the digital version to be worth playing. It also has an expansion called Unnatural Axe for an additional $4.99, which requires the base game.
Munchkin offers some cartoonish art often paired with witty and zany adversaries. In several ways, I’ve found myself enjoying the game. I know several friends who enjoy it for the most part as well. However, as I’ve aged and the years have passed, I’ve found that the game misses the mark in some ways, particularly at the expense of others where it shouldn’t. This seems also to be the case for others on Board Game Geek, as the current rating is only 5.9.
Gendered items and character designs can take away the enjoyment of some players. I liked how the digital version allowed me to step away from that a bit if I wanted. I wish other physical game versions did. The zany objects and fantastically witty text could be much better with more inclusivity.
Jennifer Stavros is a contributing freelancer for IGN, covering everything from comics, games, technology, and nerd culture. Follow her on Twitter or watch her on Twitch under the handle @scandalous.
Rayman’s limbless brand of anarchic puzzle-platforming has been delighting fans since 1995, with five main video games and a number of spin-offs, across multiple systems. But one play Rayman has yet to save from the forces of evil is your tabletop. Now that’s about to change thanks to the upcoming Rayman: The Board Game (see it on Kickstarter), a collaboration between Ubisoft and Flyos games on the one hand, and three designers on the other: Maxime Tardif, creator of critically acclaimed, best-selling title Earth, one of our picks for the best strategy board games, alongside Gary Paitre and Thomas Filippi of Flyos.
What unites the trio is a love for the source material. “We really wanted to see our favorite eggplant hero back in action,” laughs Filippi. “The games are all about having fun, a bit of chaos, and some friendly competition, and we felt that vibe would be perfect for a board game setting.” The resulting board game has been designed to be playable by all ages, and includes solo and cooperative modes and different difficult levels alongside the head-to-head competition you’d expect.
Having a family-friendly vibe was important to the developers, not least because they have children of their own. “When I play with my young daughters, I usually stick to with the rookie and intermediate modes,” Filippi reveals. “But when I face team members, we can play more aggressively.” He also feels that it’s one way in which the game channels the essence of its source material. “Rayman is a positive character, always smiling, making him perfect for younger players,” he continues. “The humor, the smooth action, and those imaginative worlds, all of it adds up to something special.”
With so many different video games to draw on, the team decided to blend the two most contemporary titles to form the basis for their game, but one of them took the fore. “Rayman Legends felt like a natural fit as it’s the most recent game in the series,” explains co-designer Gary Paitre. “And honestly, we wanted to include Barbara! She’s got such a cool vibe. The musical levels, in which you run in rhythm while making quick and sharp decisions, was also a big source of inspiration. However, some elements from Rayman Origins are also included, such as missiles.” These zip around the board, providing dangerous dynamic hazards that the players must avoid.
Besides Rayman himself, the two other characters featured in the game are Globox and Murfy. Each has a miniature figure to use on the board, but in the basic game they’re mechanically the same, each having an identical deck of action cards that lets them run, jump and glide around the board, slapping enemies, and avoiding obstacles, just like in the computer games. Keeping all the basic decks the same was a deliberate design choice. “In the video game, each hero has the same set of actions,” Paitre points out. “What makes your adventure unique is how you choose to apply those actions.”
As players gain confidence, however, they can make their chosen character more unique by including special ability cards keyed to each personality. “It’s a little light asymmetry, to add some variety,” says Filippi. Paitre fills in the details. “They let you choose which actions you prefer,” he explains. “You can have more initiative, or focus on slapping. They help make every game different, and we’ve tried to ensure that no hero is stronger than another.”
With all the attention paid to tying in the board game to its source material, fans might be surprised to discover that Rayman The Board Game is a race game. This seems rather different from the standard platforming levels in Rayman Legends, but there’s a good reason. “It’s inspired by the time-trial runs from the video games,” says Filippi. “We wanted that same feeling of intensity and quick thinking in the board game. It’s not just about getting from point A to B fast; it’s about making smart moves, keeping an eye on what everyone else is doing, and maybe throwing a wrench in their plans. We wanted each playthrough to have that unpredictable, ‘anything can happen’ feel that makes Rayman games so fun.” There are still Teensies, Rayman’s magical friends, to save along the way, and you’ll need to have rescued three of them to take the win.
During each turn, players secretly select a pair of action cards for that round, which are added together to give a total value of in-game moves like jumping and slapping. These tie into the features on the racetrack, so you’ll need to jump to gain access to platforms, slap enemies in your path and glide over gaps and there are multiple paths around each board that you’ll need to assess strategically to gain an edge. The cards you chose are discarded and, to get them back, you need to take a “bubble” action, skipping a turn and falling behind in the race in exchange for temporary immunity and the chance to pick up and re-use your discards.
Getting this right is a surprisingly cerebral and challenging task: almost every card selection will see you wasting actions or falling short in some way of what you actually want to do. The tactics are in optimizing your available cards to the track before you. Doing so can cause players a bit of analysis paralysis as they work through the options, which gives the game plenty of depth but isn’t necessarily a close fit for the frenetic pace of parts of the original video games, something that’s true of a lot of video-to-board game adaptations.
Filippi acknowledges that this was a challenge for the team. “We wanted to keep that feeling of intensity but also add some depth that you can only get in a tabletop setting,” he says. But he feels they got the balance right. “You still have those moments of quick action, but mixed with the need to think ahead, which is just like navigating a tricky platform level. You have to plan your moves, and figure out when to go all out or when to hold back.” And he thinks there’s a payoff for introducing more analytical elements, too. “It offers that same sense of accomplishment when you pull off a great move or outsmart your friends.”
Bringing in third designer Maxime Tardiff to work on the game was, in part, an attempt to meet that challenge. “At first, Gary and I wanted to make that game ourselves,” Filippi continues. “But we decided to bring an experienced designer to the table. He was a perfect match, passionate, smart and accessible. His input was crucial for refining the action decks, the level structures and the solo and cooperative mode. He pushed us to elevate and balance the gameplay even further, like integrating the asymmetric elements.”
Flyos have worked on a race game before, 2017’s Kiwetin in which the players chase each other through a fantasy forest. It has similarities to Rayman: The Board Game, with players collecting action tiles to speed them on their way, but they’re largely superficial. Movement in Kiwetin is dice-based, for example, whereas in Rayman it’s totally down to the player’s decisions. Nevertheless, they learned a lot of lessons from developing and producing it that they were able to apply to their latest project. “It was our first crack at both board games and crowdfunding, and it taught us a lot about balance and keeping things replayable,” Patire explains”
There were, however, lots of other board games the team did draw on in their quest to bring Rayman to the tabletop. One was popular, family-friend car-racing game Heat. “It gave us a great feel for how to make a fast-paced racing game exciting with its immediate reveal phase,” Paitre explains. Their other major influence was a little more unexpected: dungeon-crawling campaign behemoth Gloomhaven. “That helped us think about depth in cooperative gameplay,” he continues. “Playing two cards at once from your hand and improvising a new plan last second is a feature, not a bug,” he laughs. “But we didn’t just copy those games, it’s about mixing the best elements of what we love to create something that feels like Rayman.”
While the game is currently in a fully playable state, Filippi admits that, like a lot of crowd-funded games, there’s still a bit of work to do to fully realize its potential. “The balancing isn’t fully finalized yet but, so far, the winning player is never too far ahead of the last, which keeps the excitement high until the end,” he says. Talking to them both, it’s a delight to see how committed they are to the source material, and how proud they are of the opportunity to bring it to the table. “Seeing it come to life is truly a dream come true,” Filippi beams. Rayman fans all over the world will soon be able to judge for themselves how well that dream has been translated into reality.
You can find out more about Rayman The Board Game, and back it, on Kickstarter.
Matt Thrower is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in tabletop games. You can reach him on BlueSky at @mattthr.bsky.social.
Splinters not included.
It finally happened: Lego and The Legend of Zelda have come together, and the form they’ve taken is that of the Great Deku Tree in two delicious flavours. Whether you prefer Ocarina of Time’s or Breath of the Wild’s incarnation, this kit covers both. Not at the same time, of course – that would be yet more expensive, we’re sure.
But growing a mighty tree like this takes time, so join us, will you? We’ve got a Great Deku Tree to build.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Cap it off.
Well folks, the weekend is here and it’s capping off (heh) a pretty interesting week in the world of Nintendo.
For starters, it’s been a big one for the upcoming Switch successor. Many folks online thought that this would be ‘the’ week that Nintendo would finally reveal the new console, but alas, it wasn’t to be. Instead, we got a glimpse at what might be with a series of renders and photos of unknown origin. Are they real? Are they fake? We still don’t know for sure, but we’re certainly intrigued.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Update: The ‘GC Ultimate Controller Kit’ has been “fully funded”.
Update :
Well, the Kickstarter for the ‘GC Ultimate Controller Kit’ has now been “fully funded”. Creator Mitch Cairns has also provided an update, thanking everyone for their enthusiasm and support.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Full game launches next month on Switch.
Ahead of its arrival next month, RPG Maker With has received a new Switch eShop demo, which you can download right now.
In addition to this, NIS America has also announced the launch of a wiki – teaching players how to make their first-ever RPG game with a bunch of useful guides, tutorials and walkthroughs.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Last week, Bloomberg reported that 25 people comprising the entire staff of Annapurna Interactive walked out the door in a group resignation. But while some of the circumstances around their departure emerged in the reporting, one pressing question was left unanswered: why?
Having spoken to multiple individuals close to the situation who requested anonymity due to fear of reprisal, as well as an Annapurna spokesperson, IGN has pieced together a somewhat complex answer. Disagreements over the direction of the Interactive division, chaotic departures, communication breakdowns, and a perceived lack of leadership transparency at Annapurna Interactive led to a staff walk-out that has left 25 individuals jobless, Annapurna leaders scrambling, and numerous developers concerned about their contracts with the publisher.
Though the collapse of Annapurna Interactive as we once knew it started earlier this year, its roots lie in the company’s historical leadership structure. Annapurna Interactive was initially conceived as the gaming division of Annapurna Pictures, which was founded by film producer and billionaire Megan Ellison in 2011. Annapurna Interactive itself was spun up in 2016, tapping a staff of industry veterans including including former Sony creative director Nathan Gary, former Capybara Games president Nathan Vella, former Sony executive producer Deborah Mars, and former Sony producer Hector Sanchez for leadership roles. Sanchez left the company in 2019.
The film side of Annapurna’s business has undergone well-publicized struggles. In 2018, it was bleeding enough money to prompt Ellison’s father, multi-billionaire Larry Ellison, to step in. By 2019, Annapurna Pictures was reportedly teetering on bankruptcy, and in the ensuing years its film and TV output slowed significantly. Variety reports that Ellison disappeared from public life in 2019 almost entirely, leaving her business to largely run itself during the height of the pandemic. She reemerged in 2021, only to name Gary president over all of Annapurna, with Mars and Vella stepping into co-head roles at the Interactive division.
In the ensuing years, Annapurna Interactive continued to grow, releasing financial and critical successes such as Stray, Outer Wilds, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Cocoon. While the company claims the Annapurna Pictures side of the business hasn’t struggled in recent years, saying that film and TV were more profitable than Annapurna Interactive in 2023, a spokesperson alleged to IGN that Gary was a less-than-ideal steward of Annapurna Pictures. Under his guidance, they claim, resources were pulled away from film and TV, key executives were pushed out, and the company was largely refocused on gaming. Annapurna tells IGN that Gary also elevated co-founder James Masi to chief administrative officer, a role the spokesperson suggested was unnnecessary at a company of Annapurna’s size. Notably, Annapurna did launch an animation division under Gary’s tenure that released the critically-acclaimed film Nimona just last year. IGN has reached out to Gary, but he declined to comment.
IGN understands that opinions of Ellison within Annapurna Interactive prior to 2024 varied from indifference to latent mistrust given previous reports on her behavior toward employees. Anonymous sources I spoke to all cited a strong fear of reprisal from Ellison in particular, given her resources, history, and reach. A few people referenced creative or compensation disagreements during their time at Annapurna that contributed to a general feeling Ellison would not keep promises. Multiple sources we spoke to described Ellison as a largely hands-off leader and rarely present in the gaming division, an attitude that for years suited many of Annapurna Interactive’s employees just fine.
This was the state of things at the start of 2024 according to our sources. Prior to March of this year, work at Annapurna Interactive was business-as-usual, they say, until employees were suddenly informed mid-month that James Masi had been unexpectedly let go. An Annapurna spokesperson confirmed Masi was made redundant, saying that Ellison had chosen to step back in at the company and oversee the Annapurna Pictures side again in an effort to re-invest in the film and TV side of the business. As a part of this, Annapurna claims that Ellison reinstalled Gary as head of Interactive, and deemed Masi’s role unnnecessary.
However, at this time, Gary also left the company. Annapurna claims he left of his own accord in response to Masi’s firing and his change in role. But sources say employees were told in the following days by leadership within Annapurna Interactive that Gary had been fired along with Masi. The belief that two of their leaders had been fired seemingly out of the blue sparked confusion and fury, and a handful of individuals quit in protest, including at least one other Interactive leader.
The sudden resignation of multiple key individuals came as a shock to the company, and IGN understands that Ellison held a video call with Annapurna employees to discuss what had happened and find a way to move forward. On the call, Ellison allegedly expressed a desire to keep the entire group, including those who had been fired or resigned, together. In the following days, all the departed staff returned, including Gary and Masi, and discussions began for a potential spin-off of the company that would allow Gary and Ellison to achieve their respective visions with minimal disruptions to partner developers.
Roughly, the plan was for Gary and the Annapurna Interactive staff to become a new company called Verset, with ownership split between Annapurna and Verset’s leaders. Verset would oversee all currently existing signed Annapurna Interactive projects, with revenue split between itself and Annapurna proper in Annapurna’s favor. It would also be free to sign its own, independent deals. Developers IGN spoke to report being made aware the spin-off was happening in the following months, and were reassured their contracts would be fulfilled.
While employees understood such a venture would take time to get off the ground, in the ensuing months a number of events occurred that made some skeptical of Ellison’s commitment to parting with Annapurna Interactive. In early summer, sources tell us that employees discovered Hector Sanchez had been quietly rehired back at Annapurna by Ellison and was working on gaming projects without the knowledge of the rest of the Interactive staff. The news wasn’t made official until August that Sanchez had been appointed president of interactive and new media at Annapurna — a title that seemed to some as potentially at odds with Vella and Mars’ roles at Interactive.
Annapurna, for its part, claims that talks between Ellison and Sanchez began as far back as February for Ellison to fund a new venture Sanchez was planning after departing Epic Games. As talks continued, Annapurna says Sanchez began negotiating with Remedy Entertainment for a deal related to film and TV spin-offs of its properties. However, when spin-off negotiations began to crystalize at Annapurna Interactive, Ellison offered Sanchez a position at Annapurna. The intent, per the spokesperson, was for Verset to become the company’s indie arm, and for Sanchez to lead efforts in the AAA and AA-gaming space, including transmedia properties.
Which is how, months later, Annapurna announced it was partnering with Remedy Entertainment on film, TV, and other projects including funding support for Control 2. The press release, which IGN received, referenced both Sanchez and Ellison. But it doesn’t reference Annapurna Interactive at all, and IGN understands Annapurna Interactive employees were only informed the deal was happening that morning. Employees, unaware of Ellison’s plans or the status of the spin-off, were confused, concerned, and frustrated about the direction of the company and the future of its Interactive division, Verset or no Verset.
While all this was going on, sources say that discussions with Ellison regarding the spin-off appeared to have stalled out, and in August Annapurna officially terminated discussion. Annapurna claims this was due to Gary’s lack of response to requests for feedback on legal drafts. Meanwhile, multiple people told IGN that in those final months, they began to see signs of Ellison exercising greater involvement over Annapurna Interactive’s deals, projects, and budgets in a way that began to make them further uncomfortable with the direction the company was taking overall.
All of this came to a head at the end of August when all 25 Annapurna Interactive employees including Gary, Vella, Masi, and Mars signed a joint resignation letter. The group gave two weeks notice and departed the company together on September 6 leaving Ellison, Sanchez, and newly-hired chief strategy officer Paul Doyle working on a semblance of Annapurna’s gaming efforts. Sources tell IGN that up to the letter being sent and after, the group asked Ellison to work with them on other possible solutions such as the aforementioned spin-off, but did not receive any interest.
IGN also understands that despite the two-week notice, partner developers did not learn about the sudden exodus of all their Annapurna contacts until a day or two before it occurred. Annapurna claims they didn’t have enough time to collect developer contact information to alert them sooner, while Annapurna Interactive sources say they received no guidance from the company during that period as to who should tell developers, when, and how.
While IGN couldn’t glean any details on the future of the 25 departed employees, there are some indications that the group is collectively working on some new venture together. A website for Verset appears to be online at the time of publication with a PR alias, which IGN reached out to for comment. IGN was also unable to find any posts or other discussions from the departed members indicating they were looking for employment elsewhere. Whatever their future plans, IGN understands that the group did not have a ready-made venture waiting when they left, as some have speculated. Whatever they build, if anything, it will be largely from scratch.
Meanwhile, at Annapurna itself, efforts are underway to right the ship. Multiple developers I spoke to expressed a mixture of frustration and confusion at the sudden departure, but several told me they felt confident in Sanchez’s ability to honor existing obligations. Several individuals with projects at different stages of development told me about meetings they’d had with Sanchez in the wake of the event that they reported had reassured them. Sanchez has previously stated his intention both to backfill roles as well as work with outside agencies to fulfill Annapurna’s contractual obligations, and IGN has confirmed this process is ongoing. Earlier this week, Annapurna also posted an open role for a QA Manager overseeing “multiple external QA teams.”
The unusual situation appears to have impacted a few specific projects in unique ways. On August 30, iam8bit shared an announcement that an upcoming PlayStation 5 physical edition of Outer Wilds: Archaeologist Edition had suffered from a manufacturing error, and did not include the Echoes of the Eye expansion as expected. Annapurna Interactive at the time said it would “continue to investigate”, while iam8bit offered either a digital DLC voucher to impacted customers, or a replacement corrected physical copy. Both Annapurna and Interactive sources have told IGN that this issue is unrelated to the resignations, and Annapurna reassured that it will not be impacted by the upheaval at the company.
Then there’s Blade Runner. Last summer, Annapurna Interactive announced it would be developing its first in-house game, based on the Blade Runner franchise, titled Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth. However, game director Chelsea Hash appears to be one of the 25 individuals who resigned, per LinkedIn, and IGN understands that all other full-time members of the development team joined her. Annapurna has told IGN that development on Blade Runner 2033 will continue despite the departure of its entire team.
An Annapurna spokesperson also shared the following statement when asked for further comment:
“The whole situation is a baffler, but now we’re focused on moving forward. We’ve had really great conversations with an overwhelming majority of our existing development teams and are grateful for their partnership. If our inbox is any indication, a ton of developers continue to want to be a part of what we’re building, and we look forward to seeing their pitches. We’ve also had an influx of quality job applicants and are excited to build a team passionate about our mission to tell original stories that aren’t being told elsewhere. P.S. We’re hiring.”
Annapurna has splintered into two groups, both of which are now working to pick up the pieces. The remains of Annapurna Interactive, (or perhaps a future Verset), consist of 25 individuals who felt strongly enough about perceived mismanagement, poor communication, apparent spontaneous layoffs of leaders, and one another that they were willing to give up paychecks and stability at a time of overwhelming industry job and funding uncertainty. When IGN approached its sources close to this group about Annapurna’s version of events (specifically, the conflicting information around Masi and Gary’s alleged resignation/firing and the collapse of spin-off discussions), they reacted with skepticism, but did not feel they could safely provide more specific details.
Meanwhile, at Annapurna, a tiny leadership team is struggling to ensure that around 40 projects have the support we need, while the company’s partners have been left at various stages of development and uncertainty as to what comes next.
Annapurna Interactive as we once knew it — a beloved publisher of critically-acclaimed, unique, beloved indie games — is no more. What, if anything, will rise to take its place?
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
In the corridors of 11 Bit Studios, there’s an old saying: the hardest challenge for a band is recording a second album that surpasses the debut. This sentiment echoed through our minds when thinking about a sequel to Frostpunk. The first game was designed not necessarily to be followed by a direct sequel but to establish a world that could host different kinds of games. And yet, here we are, more than six years later, on the eve of Frostpunk 2’s launch on Windows PC and PC Game Pass.
Creating something new always comes from a desire to say something fresh—whether it’s a new idea, a new story, or an innovative gameplay experience. The challenge for us was to ensure we had something meaningful to say about life in a post-apocalyptic city that would resonate just as deeply as the first game, but on a much larger and more evolved scale. We wanted to explore new aspects of human survival that felt both familiar and entirely new, delivering a true and creatively necessary sequel.
It didn’t feel right to simply have players survive a harsher winter or a more violent storm. That wouldn’t push the boundaries or fulfil our ambitions. By late 2019, the vision for Frostpunk 2 had begun to take shape, taking a significant step beyond basic survival. A 30-year leap forward, in fact—because that’s how much time has passed between the first and second games. While the original Frostpunk was all about keeping a single city alive and holding onto hope in an all-freezing world of despair, the sequel treats society itself like a fluid. Humanity has tamed the frost, and now it’s time to grapple with ideologies and visions of the future.
As the newly elected Steward, replacing the deceased Captain, it’s the player’s role to manage this fluid society—a society that can flow, boil, or even ignite. Players must navigate the needs of factions, knowing when to push for votes, even if it means becoming entangled in a web of conflicting promises. Sometimes, it’s better to step back, letting the whims of delegates play out, and observe the consequences. Frostpunk 2 is not about authoritarian rule, but about political and ideological conflict.
The “society survival” aspect of the first game is elevated in Frostpunk 2. To truly feel the weight of long-term decisions, we’ve scaled up the game. Instead of days, weeks and months pass. Instead of constructing individual buildings, you’ll be building entire districts. The societal impact is also more profound in Utopia Builder mode, which is similar to the Endless mode from the original game. Here, players can freely develop their cities and societies, unhindered by the narrative constraints of the campaign.
And for those eager to take their creativity further, we’re introducing mod support with our Frostkit tool. Starting in beta, it will eventually allow players to modify nearly every aspect of the game—from maps and models to entire scenarios. With all of this, we couldn’t be more excited to welcome players back to the frozen world of Frostpunk 2, launching today for Windows PC, with Game Pass.
11 bit studios
The city grows
The world is overtaken by an ever present winter, which makes expansion of the city the only way for the survival of mankind. In order to grow, the metropolis needs resources like coal and oil, just like its citizens require food and warmth. In Frostpunk 2, it’s your job to tackle this never ending circle of supply and demand.
City districts
Your city is divided into zones serving different purposes, such as housing or extraction. It’s up to you to build new ones and make sure that those already existing work in perfect unison.
Special buildings
In time, you will have to build places like City Hall or Research Institute. Inside these buildings, you will put forth laws and projects to ensure that your city develops in the proper direction.
Colonies
To ensure that your city growth will not falter, you have to venture into the frostland. There, you can build extensive colonies that will provide all the necessary resources.
Perlis of human nature
The number of your citizens steadily grows, making the task of governing them and satisfying their demands all the more challenging. As the Steward you will have to maneuver carefully across the interests of many groups inhabiting the city.
New Londoners
Your citizens can form communities and factions, each with different ideas for the city’s future. In the Council Hall you’ll put forth laws and negotiate them with the faction’s delegates.
Council Hall
Support of every faction inside the Council Hall costs dearly, as one’s faction ascension breeds discontent among others. That means you have to carefully think through every alliance.
Towards progress
The Research Institute is where you forge the city’s future. Each new project must be entrusted to a faction, forcing you to maneuver and form strategic alliances.
Factions
People of your city want to have a voice in how you run things. Each faction has its own ideology and ideas for the future, yet they also have one thing in common – insatiable thirst for power. Choose your allies in the Council Hall wisely.
Story Mode and Utopia Builder
The story of Frostpunk 2 introduces a multi-chapter saga set in the frozen wastes. Spanning across the life of the Steward this campaign lets you feel the burden of leadership as you take the responsibility for thousands of lives. At the same time, the sandbox mode called Utopia Builder with infinite play time leaves you room for boundless social and infrastructural experiments.
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