Translating Helldivers 2 into a board game is about nailing the "correct satirical tone" says Jamie Perkins of SteamForged Games

I've been speaking to SteamForged product owner, game designer, and game developer Jamie Perkins this morning in the wake of the recent Helldivers 2 board game announcement. Opening up about what it's like trying to translate an iconic game like Helldivers 2 into a board game, he let me in on a few design secrets around how the team has been tackling the job. Turns out, it's all about getting the core feeling down, as opposed to matching the mechanics perfectly, or copying the narrative beat for beat.

"It's not a copy and paste job," says Perkins, talking about the way the team evolves their own boss battler engines for the Helldivers 2 board game. "You have to make sure that you take the design over and think 'ok, how do we change this to make sure that it fits the feel?'" This is the big challenge many designers of the best board games come across when translating licensed material from one form or another: capturing it without either making the game ridiculously complex or, at the other end of the spectrum, diluting it.

When it comes to Helldivers 2, he notes that the game has a very distinct satirical tone that SteamForged will certainly have a time trying to adapt into board game form. "The tone of this particular video game has made it an extra fun project to work on, just because in doing the research on the video game itself and playing with the board game, it's a lot of laughs as you're trying to hit the correct satirical tone for it."

The Helldivers 2 video game provides a masterclass in designing comedy games, but since the slapstick nature of its humour relies so heavily on delivery and timing, it's going to be tough getting it to work in board game form. Still, with the jokey tone of the Monster Hunter World video games coming across so masterfully in Monster Hunter World: Wildspire Waste, Steamforged seems well placed in my mind to deliver that comedic finesse. And as Perkins says, "Arrowhead themselves have been instrumental in making sure we hit that tone just right, so we're really hopeful that will come across in the translation."

"A really key part of getting the translation right is – we sometimes refer to using the video game license as not so much as a Bible, but as a guiding star or lighthouse." He continues, "What you're really trying to get from the source material is what's the feel and experience that you want the players to feel like 'oh, this is familiar, I know what this is even if I haven't played many board games before. This feels reminiscent of the video game that I love in board game form.' It doesn't have to be an exact one-for-one, as long as you get that core feeling correct."

In speaking of Arrowhead's part in the year-long design process, Perkins makes it clear that they're "extremely cool to work with as a license partner." Adorably, "they themselves are really excited about the board game [...] there'll be times we'll drop something to them for approvals, like a miniature sculpt of a Helldiver, they'll drop it into their own channels and all the staff members react to it: 'Oh this is fantastic, this is wonderful to see!' They get super excited about it as well."

The Helldivers 2 board game crowdfunding campaign is set to launch on Gamefound come April 8, so head on over and sign up if you want to show your support for DEMOCRACY. I'm doing my part.

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