Frosthaven Preview - Another digital haven is on the horizon

In the realm of board game enthusiasts and crowdfunding backers, I would be willing to bet there aren’t many who don’t recognize the names Frosthaven or Gloomhaven. These monolithic legacy board games have helped redefine the nature of board game publishing thanks to their success on Kickstarter. Now, Frosthaven is making the jump from the tabletop realm to your computer screen with a brand-new digital version, developed by Snapshot Games. RPGSite had the chance to check out and play a preview build before the beta begins next week, and what we saw was impressive and has us excited.

As a bit of a crash course in Frosthaven, it’s a large campaign board game created by Isaac Childres and Cephalofair Games that takes place in the same world and after the events of Gloomhaven, Isaac’s previous campaign title that shares many similarities. In Frosthaven, players will choose from 17 possible characters, each with unique skills and ability cards, to tackle quests and explore the frigid north while using gathered resources to help build and fortify an outpost. The campaign itself consists of more than a hundred different scenarios where your decisions will affect the outcomes and options available to you. To put it simply, this is one big board game, and this digital version looks to be just as expansive.

Frosthaven marks the second digital adaptation of a Cephalofair title, with its predecessor, Gloomhaven, receiving one back in 2021. However, this is the first adaptation by developer Arc Games, who are handling things this time around (though they were able to get the source code from the previous developer of Gloomhaven). Speaking with Hristo Petkov, the game’s Director, and Rossen Cholakov, its Lead Game Designer, the team is not only striving to create a fun and faithful adaptation but also working with Isaac Childres to refine what worked in digital Gloomhaven and improve what didn’t. Having played Gloomhaven previously, I can say that the team so far looks to be succeeding with flying colors.

This digital iteration of Frosthaven has been in development for three years now, with one of the team’s main focuses being improved clarity and ease in presenting information to players—no small feat in a game with so many systems and mechanics. One way they have achieved this is by incorporating a feature where, with a single button press, anything you are currently hovering over—be it cards, enemies, terrain, etc.—will present a window with relevant and important information. It was easy, it was intuitive, and best of all, it was a fast resource that I could access and close when I had the information I needed.

From the visual side of things, even though the demo I played was still a pre-beta build, the graphics were lovely, with bright and detailed enemy and character models and dynamic-looking battlefield maps. What really stood out, however, was Frosthaven’s outpost map and its various buildings, which featured an almost painterly aesthetic. Developing and growing your outpost is one of the defining aspects of Frosthaven that separates it from its predecessor, so it is nice to see the love and care that has gone into this relatively static screen.

Snapshot Games is using their team’s expertise with strategy games to bring Frosthaven to life in the hopes of appealing not only to fans of board games but also to fans of tactical video games—and even those who fell in love with the immensely popular Baldur’s Gate 3. Perhaps it was the more refined visuals, the new outpost-building mechanics, or the snappier gameplay, but this game feels more like a solid tactical game, whereas its predecessor felt more akin to just a digital board game. Before all you board game aficionados out there pick up your swords or start to decry this new game, just know that it still retains the same strategic card-based gameplay and difficult decision-making that you know and love. That said, it remains to be seen if the team will succeed in their mission to appeal to these other audiences—but I hope they do. For Frosthaven veterans, the team compares this new version to a “you’ve read the book, now check out the movie” scenario. They have had to make slight tweaks and adjustments to some of the scenarios—mentioning that some platforming scenarios took months to adapt—so there will be brand-new content for experienced players to uncover as well.

With such a passionate community built around the Haven games, I was curious to know if the team was planning to support mods and allow players to create custom quests. Hristo and Rossen responded with a resounding “Yes, but…” Hristo explained that while modding will be available when the game fully launches, the team is still figuring out the extent of the tools they will provide. At least for now, they don’t intend for it to be extensive due to time constraints with development. However, they didn’t rule out the possibility of expanding it through future downloads and patches. Continuing down the icy trail of post-release content, the team is also exploring the feasibility of releasing both the original Gloomhaven characters (in the board game, you could bring characters from Gloomhaven into Frosthaven) and the special Solo Character stories as DLC. These special quests dive further into the lore of the individual characters you can play as and further enrich the world these games occupy.

Gathering friends around a table to play Frosthaven is a feat in itself, and these digital versions provide far greater access for players to experience these goliaths—which is never a bad thing. Currently, the game is roughly 80% complete, with a goal of entering early access later this year. Fortunately, interested playgroups won’t have to wait too long to try it out themselves, as Snapshot Games announced today, alongside the game’s debut reveal, that an open beta will begin on March 27 and last until April 24. I can’t wait to dive back in, spend more time with the game, and see what mysteries are hidden in the Frost.