Kickstarter is the fundraising site where anyone can get money to fund their project. Joey jumped on that wagon to gain funding for the Escape The Night: The Board Game, originally running from July 7, 2020, to August 6, 2020. However, it was later extended another week to August 13, 2020.
On day 1 of the campaign, the $30,000 goal was exceeded in less than three hours after launch and tripled by day 2. On Day 3, the campaign had earned eight times the original asking price. On day 6, the amount raised was ten times that of the asking goal, and was still climbing. Fans are able to continue pledging until the deadline.
The premium version has a gold box, whereas, the standard box is black.
Game Play Q&A
Q&A Videos
How many players can play at once?
This game is co-operative, meaning you work together. You can play it by yourself, with two friends, three friends or up to eleven people in total. There are 11 characters that must be used each game. So if you have 3 players, two of them would control 4 characters each and one of them would control 3 characters.
If a player is eliminated early, are they out for the whole game?
Generally speaking, you usually have more than one character you are controlling. So even if one is eliminated, you still have another one. Also, if all of your characters are taken out, another player can give you one of theirs to play. In playtesting there was very little sitting around.
Is this game a play once and done? Or can it be played multiple times?
This game has lots of re-playability. There are only 25 SAE tiles, but 80 different options for what could be underneath them. You also don’t know if it will be a monster or a clue. Plus the mysterious man does negative things to the characters each time you gain an artifact. You roll the dice to see what happens and so that is another mechanic that causes each play to be different. Lastly, there are different ways to set up the board to make it more or less challenging.
When you reach the endpoint of the game, does it become a PVP game at that point?
No. In the final round, it is much like ep 10 of season one. The players move their characters quickly, taking one turn at a time, and can keep going until time runs out on the hourglass. The only time it is player vs player is in the death challenge.
Why can the Savant defeat the Evil? Is that overpowering?
Defeating the evil of the house is less of a disadvantage than you think. There is only one card in the monster deck, which has 30 cards, named the evil of the house. That is what it is referring to. Some games, it might not even be drawn. It is the hardest monster in the game, so if it does happen it is awesome, but I don’t guarantee a win. The savant can still die in death challenges like any other character.
How does playing alone work?
Because this is a co-operative game, in truth, you are playing against the board. So it works for one player or eleven. In the single player version one player controls all eleven of the characters, rolling for each one separately. The only rule change is during the voting process. Instead of using the voting tokens, all living characters are flipped over and shuffled. Then two are drawn and that is who goes into the death challenge each turn. It is very fun even with one player.
What are the challenges?
All 20 of the death challenges are handled differently. Here are two examples – Perverted Mannequins: Each player rolls two dice. Player with highest number picks a character not in the challenge to die. You might remember this from Episode 4 of the show. Electric Chair: Each players roll one dice as fast as they can. The first person to roll three sixes lives. You might remember this from episode 9.
What does each round look like?
There are ten total rounds in the game and the last one is played different than all the others. For the first 9 rounds each character takes one action by rolling two dice. If they land on an SAE tile, they turn it over and resolve it immediately, whether it is a monster or a clue. If all of the tile are resolved in a room then a character can take their action, after they roll the dice, to land on the artifact and claim it. If an artifact is claimed, you roll the dice and consult the mysterious man card to see what disastrous thing happens. At the end of the round, all players vote, one token for each character. They are placed in the voting box, with a “shield” so other people can’t see who you are voting for. After everyone votes, the cover of the voting tray is removed and votes are counted per person with the highest two going in the challenge. Then a death challenge card is drawn and the challenge is played out as described. After the death challenge, move the turn tracker forward one turn and do the same thing again. On the last round, there is no vote. Instead an hourglass is turned over (90 seconds) and players take turns, one at a time, trying to gather the last few artifacts before time runs out.
How does voting work? Does voting change in singleplayer?
At the end of the round, all players vote, one token for each character. They are placed in the voting box, which has a “shield” so other people can’t see who you are voting for. After everyone votes, the cover of the voting tray is removed and votes are counted per person with the highest two going in the challenge. If there is a tie, dice are rolled with the lowest number going in the challenge. In the single-player version you flip over all of the character cards, shuffle them and draw the top two to see who goes in.
With larger groups of players, does having your deck of characters dead mean sitting out?
There is a relic card in the game that can bring a character back from the dead, which helps with people getting killed off early.
What are Stretch Goals?
Stretch goals are new items that are added to a game (in this case only the Premium Edition) based on reaching thresholds (number of backers, total $ backed, social achievements). They will be announced during the campaign.
Stretch Goal 1
Those who buy the Honored Guest tier (premium) or higher will now receive Tarot Cards of the characters in the board game. This does not include a personalized Tarot card if you bought the Exclusive Invitation tier.
UPDATE: Fans achieved this goal on July 11, 2020. This was about 3 days after the announcement video.
Stretch Goal 2
Those who buy the Honored Guest tier (premium) or higher will now receive gold dice, replacing the original in the premium version.
UPDATE: Fans achieved this goal on July 14, 2020.
Stretch Goal 3
Those who buy the Honored Guest tier (premium) or higher will receive 3 Secret Room Tiles. To use the Secret Rooms, you will need to shuffle them face down and draw one, placing it over the Dining Room. Placement of the SAE Tiles and the Artifacts are the same as in the Dining Room.
UPDATE: This goal was reached late on July 26, 2020. This was the first goal to take more than three days, taking a total of 12 days to accomplish.
Stretch Goal 4
TBD
Stretch Goal 5
TBD
Outages
Like many other sites, Kickstarter can suffer server overloads and outages on their network. On July 27, 2020, one such outage shut down Kickstarter so that no one could see a thing. However, the mobile site and the ability to back projects were still operational for a time, but this changed to allow limited access to the desktop site. This meant that the mobile and desktop sites ran slower and payments may not go through as fast, or at all.
Gallery
Trivia
- The Gold Dice pictured in the Premium tier and higher were in by accident, and black dice were meant to be there instead.