Dying Light: The Board Game - How Glass Cannon Unplugged Brought the Video Game to Tabletop

The world of Techland's Dying Light is about to be fully realized on tabletop courtesy of Glass Cannon Unplugged, as Dying Light: The Board Game has successfully funded on Kickstarter. There are several elements of Dying Light that allow it to stand apart from other games in the horror and zombie genres, and Glass Cannon Unplugged brought those elements to life in board game form, delivering a game that embraces parkour and traversal, a full day and night cycle, and a different way of approaching the infected and survival. The game is live on Kickstarter right here, and ComicBook.com had the chance to speak with Glass Cannon Unplugged CEO Jakub Wiśniewski all about the game and how they approached bringing the franchise to life in a completely new way. One of the first challenges to tackle was recreating Dying Light's trademark style of movement throughout the world.

"I'm glad that this is the first question that you've asked because when we first got the license and when people heard about it, they were like, 'Yeah, but how are you going to do parkour in a board game? Is it going to be like a Jenga, or are you going to roll on the floor?' We knew straight away that what distinguishes Dying Light from a lot of other games is the parkour elements," Wiśniewski said. "It's how you view the world, how dynamic the game is, and how it uses the infected as the background for what's happening and everything. So it's not about killing one, or two, or 500,000 zombies, it's about something else."

Another major element that the board game version needed was 3D terrain, something that was also going to be a part of Apex Legends. Wiśniewski is a big War Gamer and actually backed the first Kickstarter project for Acid House Terrain. That led to Wiśniewski working with Acid House Terrain's Marius Colomer de Simon on logistics for the project, so when Dying Light came up, Wiśniewski knew who could help them find a way to include stylish and effective Terrain in the game.

"Almost two years later I was thinking, 'How are we going to do affordable terrain? Because in board games we cannot have all plastic terrains, especially if we're doing licensed games that we want to sell at retail, because I cannot have a game that costs $300 bucks in Target, or Barnes & Noble. No one's going to buy it. So that's how we came up with the idea to hook up with Marius Colmar from Acid House Terrain. We sort of basically bought the license. He helped us to design the buildings for our games, and hence we had the tool to put the actual traversal and 3D into the world of tabletop," Wiśniewski said.

"And as you've said, it's a crucial part of Dying Light. There are other games about the infected, or zombies, other board games, and most of them use a flat board. And you're just moving from one side to the other. And here we knew that the most dynamic thing you can do in any board game, and the most thrilling and adrenaline-raising, is the moment when you roll a die, and when you spend it. So hence we knew that our core mechanic is going to be rolling a dice pool, and then allocating these dice to create those chains of actions," Wiśniewski said.

Wiśniewski compares the way movement works to something like Dungeons & Dragons, in that the fun of movement is in the picture you create along the way as opposed to just moving a bunch of spaces. "Because if you divide, in a roleplaying game like D&D, you're basically dividing a series of movements into six-second blocks, or in Warhammer. So we did just that. So in Dying Light The Board Game, when you're allocating dice, you're not just moving one space, or jumping from one building to another," Wiśniewski said. "You are building a cinematic chain of events that starts in your head, ends on the board, and is translated by how you allocate the dice that you've rolled, and how you interpret the equipment and the skills that you have, that your runner has."

Another key aspect of the Dying Light experience is how you approach the infected. In the Dying Light world, you do have to fight your way through sometimes, but more often than not it's less about taking things head-on and more about figuring out the best path through and only embracing conflict when you have to. That stands apart from other icons in the genre like Zombicide, but while they are different in some very important ways, Wiśniewski feels like Zombicide fans will find plenty to love in Dying Light.

"I'm really happy that you've mentioned Zombicide, because I think it created the genre, and it's a great gateway into Ameritrash games," Wiśniewski said. "And for many people, it was their first board game, modern board game other than Monopoly or something else. And we're approaching it with a lot of respect. I personally know the CEO of CMON, who's a really great guy, and who designed Zombicide all those years ago. This game built a certain niche in the industry, and absolutely, we think of Dying Light as the next step. If you've played Zombicide, if you liked it, you're going to like Dying Light The Board Game. It's an experience similar to it in some ways, but completely different in a lot of others."

That carries into your approach to the infected and combat in general. "And speaking about combat and how many infected you can mow through, in Dying Light, depending on how you play, you can focus on eradicating them, which is fun, but kind of pointless, because they're endless," Wiśniewski said. "There is no end to them. It's the same in the board game. If you're just going to keep rolling through them, they'll just keep on coming, and you're going to attract the attention of more dangerous, and more exotic, and more deadly infected out there, and there's plenty."

Now, you can still approach things more aggressively in combat mind you, and the game will have combat be a focus for certain scenarios. "And yes, you can do stuff like, maybe not 25, or although I think with some really epic loop it would be possible, you are going to have to eradicate them from the board from time to time, or simply draw them using the equipment from one place to another," Wiśniewski said. "And it's a genuine play style, but depending on the class that you choose, the equipment that you have, and how you're going to develop your character, because the characters grow within the game structure, you'll have different options, a lot of different options to sort of dodge them, jump over them, or simply lure them somewhere else. So we approached it with a very sandboxy approach. We wanted the players to choose their play style. You can take a bunch of tanks and just go zombie smashing and see how long you're going to last, but then you can do a mix."

Speaking of classes, there are a few to choose from. "You've got the Bruiser, the guy who's really good at killing stuff. You've got the Tank. Obviously, a guy who can take a lot of punishment, but also knows how to deal good damage. You've got the Ranger, and she's really good at killing stuff also, but also being stealthy and parkour. And then you've got the Medic, and she's a mix of all, but she's really good at support and has some aces up her sleeve," Wiśniewski said.

One of the coolest elements of the game is another hallmark from the video game version, which features a focus on UV light and how it affects the infected. The board game version also boasts components that glow under UV light to bring this to life, and the team did extensive research on making that a reality, though that's not even the final touch to the game. Over the course of the campaign there have been new infected, new expansions, and more brought into the game, and you can find out all of the details and back the Kickstarter right here.

Will you be jumping into Dying Light: The Board Game? Let us know in the comments, and you can also talk all things Dying Light and Tabletop with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!