Escape Plan is basically Reservoir Dogs: The Board Game and it sounds excellent

Designer Vital Lacerda and artist Ian O’Toole have made some very, very good games together, including wine-making masterpiece Vinhos, arty strategy epic The Gallerist and this year’s Lisboa, about the historical destruction and rebuilding of Portugal’s capital (which came just a little too close to art imitating life).

Now, the pair have announced their next project – and it’s a bit of a shift in gears from their past work.

Escape Plan is a bank heist game inspired by crime movies but, like Quentin Tarantino’s massively influential Reservoir Dogs, takes place after the robbery has already been successfully pulled off.

The success doesn’t last long, as it’s soon discovered the police are closing in on the robbers’ hideout, sparking suspicion as to who may have tipped them off.

The one-hour game is set as the criminals prepare to flee, planning their route through the city while collecting their hidden money. Players will be able to aid their escape by bribing police officers, adopting disguises or creating diversions.

There’s no honour among thieves, either – this is a competitive game, with players able to send the pursuing cops after their former crewmates by influencing the police’s movements.

The two to four players don’t interact or fight directly with each other, but each thief has a unique role within the group and must use their individual talents to get out of town with as much cash as they can.

Escape Plan has been in the works for a few years, with Lacerda originally struggling to find a publisher for the project until Eagle-Gryphon Games – which put out several of the designer’s other titles – signed it.

As with Vinhos and Lisboa, Escape Plan will soon be headed to Kickstarter, with the crowdfunding campaign currently planned for sometime in 2018.