The Shivers Preview
I’ve been following The Shivers on Instagram for a few months. I have been excited to see its development and progression on the social media platform. Even more exciting is that it will be available on Kickstarter in Spring 2020. I was lucky enough to chat to the game designer just before Christmas, so now I can tell you why you should be excited too!
So what is The Shivers?
The Shivers is a one-of-a-kind pop-up tabletop mystery adventure. In the game, players will take on the role of one of the Shivers family members as they explore a spooky haunted house called Mirador Manor. They’ll look for clues, work together to solve puzzles, confront monsters, and work through their greatest fears. The entire game is constructed with a novel modular system that features paper-crafted pop-up rooms which magnetically lock together to form the tabletop gamespace. You can see why I am excited right?
Who is behind The Shivers?
The answer is a new company called Pop Fiction Games. A team of three creatives from different backgrounds:
Andy Logan is the game designer. Andy draws on a long career as a veteran in California’s ultra-innovative design culture. He has worked with some of the world’s leading brands and brings that to the tabletop game world.
William Tiller is the illustrator. Bill’s work will be familiar with those that played the Monkey Island series as he previously lead game design at LucasArts. He is responsible for the awesome looking rooms and box art.
Robert Sabuda is the pop-up artist who will be providing the miracles of the three-dimensional board. The list of books Robert has produced is extensive. I urge you to seek out images of his Alice in Wonderland production to see why he is one of the leading paper engineers in the world.
Can you tell me more about the game?
They are planning on 7-8 rooms and 8 stories in the core game. When I was chatting to Andy, he hinted that there will probably be an expansion also available at time of launch and hopefully many more to come. The game rounds play in about 30-60 minutes and the rules are intended to be lightweight and streamlined.
It is a game for all the family, although Pop Fiction Games are recommending the storyteller role is for 14 years and up due to the complexity of leading the other players’ adventure. Seven years plus should be okay for the other players though.
At PAX unplugged 2019 in Philadelphia the game was featured on the Kickstarter stand and some lucky people got to playtest or see a walkthrough of the game. I saw nothing but positivity in the responses. In the words of Andy ‘People genuinely fell in love with our small demo’. With “I’ve never seen anything like this!” being their most frequent comment. Nor have we here at Board Game Review so we are eagerly awaiting the launch of The Shivers on Kickstarter later this year.
For more information on this awesome looking game, follow The Shivers on Instagram and sign up to the newsletter on their website.