Cave Evil Keeps Metastasizing and Getting Evil-er | Interview with Co-Designer Nate Hayden

When Cave Evil surfaced in 2011, it stopped me cold. I'd never seen anything like it. Our household was cutting our teeth on our first batch of Fantasy Flight designs with their slick illustrations and rich color gradients, and here was a big box of all-black components with all-white art looking like a year's worth of flyers and album covers for thrash bands.

I considered buying it, forgot about it, and the next time I looked, copies were going for hundreds of dollars because the first printing sold out fast. Nate Hayden, Mat Brinkman, and Jochen Hartmann had pulled off a beautiful coup in indie board game design: They decided to just make a game they wanted to play and created a cult legend.

Their people across the world heard and responded. They'd made a cult hit: Hours and hours and hours of good clean, fun: “In Cave Evil, each player takes the role of an ancient Necromancer. Located deep within an earth, their Necropolises have now merged, each seeking the Darkest Pit, the location of all evil. The dark wizards must build minions with precious resources from their Lairs to send forth and destroy, or dig further tunnels to locate other creatures, resources or to ambush another sorcerer.

The game is won when only one remaining Necromancer stands. A Necromancer can either be destroyed by combat, or an enemy minion may venture into their Lair and crush the wizard's shadow power, a Chthonic Crystal. BUT an even greater darkness may befall the players. As they build and destroy creatures the Dark Pit absorbs the shadowflame and may awaken the ultimate cave evil…”

During our talk, Nate described it as a “weekend game.” Clear the calendar. Tunnel doggedly away from what is fashionable and optimized. Battle your friends. Stop for pizza. Battle some more. I'm jealous of this group, frankly.

This is my talk with Nate Hayden. We discuss the group's decision to re-issue this game during COVID and how the act of design is driven by these long friendships and the process of constant play.

This is excerpted from Episode 103 of Breakup Gaming Society: "Cave Evil Reprint: The Resurrection of the Pedal-to-the-Metal Cult Hit": https://www.breakupgamingsociety.com/episodes/cave-evil-reprint-designer-interview-nate-hayden

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