Production troubles push Gloomhaven back to January 2017

Crowdfunded co-op strategy combat game Gloomhaven has been delayed into next year after a series of production mishaps.

Creator Isaac Childres took to the game’s Kickstarter page to announce the need to push the shipping date into December – making expected delivery January 2017.

Childres explained that one of the major problems regards the player mats for the title, which use a series of holes to track HP and experience points. After discovering that the holes system was ineffective, it was replaced by a single slot mechanic – which also failed to hold the markers properly.

“Luckily the main bulk of these player mats hasn't been cut yet, so we are able to still work more on it and come up with a more reasonable solution,” Childres said. “We are limited in the fact the wood trackers have already been made and the player mats are printed, so the only thing we can modify are the cut lines, but we're working on a number of ideas, and I'm hoping the problem will be solved to my and your satisfaction.”

That wasn’t the end of Gloomhaven’s woes, however. It turns out that the character tuck boxes for the game had been incorrectly measured and printed far too large, throwing off the organization of the box. The boxes will be reprinted in the correct size, further delaying the project.

Childres added that Gloomhaven may arrive before the year is out, but with “the fact that the factory does everything slowly with the fact that attempting to do any shipping in December is prone to disaster anyway” expressed his belief that January 2017 would be the “most realistic estimate”.

It’s another blow for a project that raised close to $400,000 and was initially planned for release in May of this year – but a quick scan of the comments below Childres’ post suggest that backers are largely supportive of the wait to ensure the game’s quality.