No, really, upcoming board game Werewolf in the Dark is billed as hide and seek meets Werewolf, but we can’t unsee the similarities to Among Us, the lockdown social deduction obsession now mainly seen on kids T-shirts.
Made by the creators of two other social deduction games, Two Rooms and a Boom, and Dead Last, Werewolf in the Dark came to crowdfunding platform BackerKit on May 21, and has already raised close to $60,000.
The gameplay works like this: you make the building you’re in as pitch black as possible. Everyone runs around or hides in the dark, hoping not to be killed by a tap on the shoulder from a werewolf. But you can’t all stay put – you need to find a ‘body’ in order to call a meeting, in order to vote out the werewolves.
If that sounds like an adrenaline-pumping good time, but also a disaster waiting to happen, you’re not wrong. Publisher Tuesday Knight Games wears its warning label like a badge of honor. “To say there is a risk of injury or damage to property might be an understatement,” warns the crowdfunder page, adding that “more than one individual has been injured” while playing the game.
As well as the roster of villager, monster, or villain roles, each with their own abilities, Werewolf in the Dark has roles for dead players too – and it’s generally to freak everyone out and add to the atmosphere. Ghost roles require you to run around with little LED tealights, and could include flickering lights on and off or playing creepy music on your phone.
As well as Among Us, we notice the basic rules of Werewolf in the Dark are also extremely similar to the game played in the A24 horror film Bodies, Bodies, Bodies. So if you’re a bunch of irritating Gen Z-ers playing Werewolf in the Dark in a mansion during a thunderstorm-induced power cut, try not to get so paranoid that you all murder each other.
Tuesday Knight Games says Werewolf in the Dark will be sent to the printers as soon as it’s funded, and expects it to be available to backers by late 2024.
For more tabletop excitement, check out our guide to the very best board games.