LM Studios Gen Con 2014 Spotlight

Time can seem to stand still for some players in the turn-based combat we’ve come to associate with JRPGs, but when we got an opportunity at Indy PopCon to play LM Studios’s Super Turbo bit Crawl FX: Alpha Extreme, we were barely out of the gate before we were neck deep in monsters, loots, traps and more. LM Studios took the essence of a JRPG and distilled it into a pretty awesome board game. It contains elements from games like the D&D series of board games and Munchkin that culminates in a humorous and complex dungeon crawler all wrapped up in an 8-bit shell. Here’s an interview with Tyler Logan at Indy PopCon for a more detailed look at Super Turbo bit Crawl FX: Alpha Extreme:

Rutledge and I got a chance to sit down with creators Tyler Logan and Sean Murphy to do a quick play-through of the game. It was only a prototype copy as they’re planning on having their release at Gencon later this year, but the game was well thought out and polished. In the game, you play as one of four archetypical RPG roles: fighter, mage, rogue, and priest. You traverse your way through the dungeon collecting loot, fighting monsters, setting off traps, and gaining experience and levels.

However, every dungeon needs a boss and eventually, you and your party members will be summoned to fight the big bad. The bad news? You never know when this can happen! The boss could be in the first room you explore or the very last. The good news? Both the bosses and the rest of the monsters in the dungeon scale with your level, so the dungeon is always a challenge but is never outright overwhelming without a healthy dose of bad luck. Speaking of which, I had quite a bit of my own during our playthrough, but we all made it out alive (more or less). You can take a look at our quick play-through.

If JRPGs in board game form sound good to you or you’re just a fan of dungeon crawlers, make sure to check out LM Studios’s Super Turbo bit Crawl FX: Alpha Extreme with LM Studios at booth #2729 at Gen Con and follow them on Facebook and Twitter!

LM Studios will be announcing their Kickstarter project to fund Super Turbo bit Crawl FX: Alpha Extreme today (8/13/14)! If this sounds awesome to you, make sure to head over and fund that thing! If you're in the Indianapolis area today, you can also join the LM Studios team at their kick off party for the Kickstarter (more info here). You'll have your chance to speak to the creators, play the game before anyone else, have a chance to win bit Crawl Pocket, and maybe even get some waffles! Check it out!

Update: As of 11:30 AM CST today (August 19th), the Kickstarter has been funded! Check out our talk with Tyler at GenCon 2014 here!