Nearly a decade after its initial success on Kickstarter, a new version of the dungeon-building card game Boss Monster is in development. On Tuesday, February 8, creator Brotherwise Games announced in a Reddit post that it was working on Super Boss Monster, a revised edition of the game that wants to make the best-selling Boss Monster an even better game than before.
Brotherwise co-founder and lead designer Johnny O’Neal didn’t simply head to Reddit to announce the game, however – he was looking for “frank and constructive feedback on the original game”. “We know Boss Monster has a lot of flaws,” O’Neal notes, “and it’s not unusual to see it on lists of people’s least favourite games.” O’Neal explains that the core gameplay of Boss Monster will remain unchanged. However, Brotherwise is planning a “major overhaul of the rules” that might mean new and updated cards, rules and components coming to Super Boss Monster.
The original Boss Monster is a love-letter to video games, dungeon-crawlers, and side-scrollers. However, in Boss Monster, you play the final boss rather than the heroic fighter. Two to four players play cards to build rooms in their dungeon or play spells, competing to lure hapless heroes into their dungeon – and hopefully to their doom.
O’Neal has already seen a lot of interest in Super Boss Monster on Reddit (even if it is critique of the original game). In an update to the original post, he says “I suspected that ‘tell me what you don’t like about Boss Monster’ would generate a lot of responses, but I think this is the most popular thing I’ve ever posted on Reddit.” He then announces that more formal critiques and playtesting will be the next stage for Super Boss Monster, though no official dates or plans have been outlined yet.
Can’t wait for Boss Monster’s level-up to get your card game fix? Check out some of the best card games for adults in 2022. Alternatively, if you’re after more videogame-inspired tabletop experiences, you may be interested to know that Dark Souls is getting its own tabletop RPG.