Flick ‘em Up: Dead of Winter will not get a wooden edition, Pretzel confirms

One of the defining features of Pretzel Games’ first two titles Flick ‘em Up and Junk Art are their gorgeous wooden components, but the studio’s latest big game bucks the trend by going all-plastic from the off.

Flick ‘em Up: Dead of Winter, the unexpected crossover between the gunslinging dexterity hit and the moody dice-rolling survival horror, applies the finger-firing of bullets, knives and baseball bats to the onslaught of the living dead, with a new zombie tower allowing the previously competitive shootout to become a co-op challenge.

The game, which costs £50 in the UK, comes with plastic figures for all its characters, with a sticker sheet providing the likenesses of Dead of Winter’s roster of survivors, as well as their undead foes.

It’s a stark difference from the original Flick ‘em Up, which launched with wooden pieces before following up with a cheaper – albeit slightly less beautiful – plastic set last year. Junk Art similarly started out as a box of wooden bits before getting a budget-friendly plastic spin-off.

Pretzel’s lead designer Martin Bouchard confirmed to Tabletop Gaming that the studio has no current plans to upgrade Flick ‘em Up: Dead of Winter with a wooden edition in the future.

“For this game, no,” he said. “This game really needed to connect to the Dead of Winter universe. We really wanted to use stickers to bring the zombies and characters to life. The plastic pieces honestly bounce better than the wooden pieces with the zombie tower. Also, the backpacks only came in plastic so we didn't want to mix plastic and wood.

“Lastly, Flick 'em Up: Dead of Winter comes with double the pieces than the original Flick 'em Up and the box would be significantly thicker. In the end, it would cost a lot more. We'd rather give our fans more game in the box for less money.”

Bouchard added that the publisher was looking into the possibility of extra crossovers between other tabletop series and Flick ‘em Up in the future, following the reception of its Dead of Winter-inspired spin-off.

“We'll explore the ideas and concepts of crossovers,” he revealed. “If it makes sense and it's a good fit, sure. We're obviously big fans of Flick 'em Up so we'd love to explore the design space crossovers could bring.”