Get ready for a fresh take on tactical RPGs! Sunderfolk, a new game from Dreamhaven (founded by Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime), is blending tabletop gaming with digital convenience. This innovative game, created by Secret Door (a team of ex-Blizzard and Riot developers), will have you exploring an underground fantasy world.
A Unique Gaming Experience
Dive into over 30 missions as you defend the village of Arden and its magical Brightstone. Sunderfolk is designed for couch co-op, using mobile phones as controllers to mimic that classic tabletop feel. The game is all about fostering social interaction! The unique voice acting is one of the special parts of the game!
Anjali Bhimani- The Voice of Sunderfolk
Voice actor Anjali Bhimani (Apex Legends) takes the reins, voicing every character in the game—alongside the narrative role— to make it sound very unique and help create something for people to remember. This brings that classic Game Master element into the game!
Choosing Your Class
Choose from six unique classes: Ranger, Bard, Arcanist, Berserker, Pyromancer, and Rogue, each with their own killer abilities.
The Evolution of Sunderfolk
The development journey of Sunderfolk spans from 2020, starting with the idea called "TV DnD" (combining Jackbox and tabletop elements). The team underwent a significant transformation in 2022, with Erin Marek as the new Game Director and a redesigned control system. There's not another game quite like it! One of the team's biggest challenges was to remove the need to constantly check phones by shifting control.
Inspiration Beyond Games
The designers of Sunderfolk took inspiration from several places for the characters!
- Gloomhaven and Frosthaven (board games) for overall complexity
- Redwall and Dale (board game) for the unique anthropomorphic animals.
Even the use of the phones brought up challenges as to how the players would interact with the controllers. They brought different systems for consideration!
- Wii U and the Gamepad
- DS with dual screens
Cultivating Social Gameplay
The game prioritizes that "couch co-op" experience, making social interaction crucial to winning the game.
- Class synergies encourage teamwork.
- Flexible turn order sparks player discussions.
- Shared town building adds to collaboration.
- The MVP system creates friendly competition.
- In-game messaging options, gold transfer in town, helps create special moments
Individual character prompts add to the feeling of a dynamic between players and non-player characters (NPCs)!
Card Mechanics and Class Design
The card-based system takes its inspiration from tabletop games! They created nine skill cards for each character (excluding the Arcanist)! There are opportunities to develop the characters!
- Arcanist: Unique Mana system added extra challenge. Berserker: Finding a way to add some complexity even though its less complicated.
- Ranger: Redoing this entire model for its gender ambiguous nature!
Progression and Replayability
Sunderfolk provides diverse gameplay with increasing difficulty, including unlocking biomes, encountering new monsters and unique events. There's even some added variation through different kinDS of tasks that players must perform!
- Shadowstone difficulty introduces challenging elite monsters.
- Unlockable weapons offer new strategic options, especially in later stages.
- Unique character ultimates are exciting.
The designers are looking to make new content as DLC.
Sunderfolk's Release
Prepare yourself to get this new game on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam sometime in 2025.
