Frosthaven's Video Game Adaptation Creates A "No Fuss" Experience At SGF 2025

At SGF this year, TechRaptor got a chance to check out the upcoming SGF demo for Frosthaven, a digital adaptation of 2022's hit strategy game. This faithful recreation of the board game presents a 'no mess' version of an incredible (and difficult) board game with deep legacy mechanics as you not only explore the world and develop your characters, but build up the settlement of Frosthaven to offer more gameplay opportunities and build up defences.

Before getting my hands on the game, I was lucky enough to not only speak with Hristo Petkov, the game director for Frosthaven, as well as Isaac Childres, the designer behind the Frosthaven board game.

Adapting Frosthaven From The Board To The Screen

Knowing that Gloomhaven, the previous game in the 'Haven' series, had already been adapted into a Video Game, I asked what it was like adding on additional elements to suit Frosthaven.

In praise of Childres and the new mechanics that were created, he said, "Each character has a very individual playstyle and mechanics, so we needed to actually change quite a lot from Gloomhaven."

The largest addition that had to be created was the Outpost phase. This is the part of the game in between the combat missions where you can "create buildings, craft potions, and so on. You also need to defend it from attackers that approach the city."

As a legacy game, Frosthaven iterates from session to session as you and your friends develop their characters and build out the town. I was excited to hear that even if you're playing a game with friends, if one friend isn't able to make it, the game adapts. 

"Let's say you have a four-person party and one of the guys cannot come today. You can still play with or without their character for a couple of missions, and he can come back after. It's not a problem, just like the board gam,e it's very adaptable in terms of the number of players."

It was highlighted that even in a scenario where one player ends up at a lower level than the rest of the players, then the game will adjust to the average level of the party.

I turned to Childres to ask if he'd considered a digital edition of Frosthaven while developing it, and he commented that he had only been focusing on making the board game. "Once it was made Twin Sales, who was the original publisher, approached us and asked, 'Do you want to do this one digital too?' and I said, 'Sure, why not?'"

Talking about the collaboration, I wanted to get a better idea of what it looked like as development continued and how it made sure to stay true to Childres' vision. Childres explained, "we have monthly meetings where they show me all the new assets and I'm like 'Oh, it looks awesome!'" while knowing he was easy to be pleased Childres also expressed appreciation that he gets to be so involved in the process.

Petkov also echo'd that sentiment "the approval process is very good, there are some things that we need to change, obviously, but generally speaking most things are approved first time."

From Imagination To Screen

Petkov did let me in on the idea that "the most challenging things, and the things that we had the most to talk about were things that didn't exist."

He began to list off a variety of aspects of the game where there's a written description, but nothing visual. A Metallic Ruin to explore, a zombie blacksmith boss that just used a guard token, or a moving elevator that is represented on your dining room table.

In Board Games it's easy to substitute miniatures or describe an environment in text, but adapting that to a video game means you need to create assets for it all. Luckily for all of these places where there wasn't art the artists at Snapshot Games were excited to create these unique elements.

Frosthaven Steam Next Fest Demo

From there I sat down with the Steam Next Fest Demo of the game, ready to get into the tutorial mission and explore Frosthaven.

Starting the game I was brought to a party creation screen, selecting Bonechiller and Drifter, I could quickly review cards and abilities and purchase starting equipment. Asking how players had reacted to the Closed Beta that was held earlier it was the look of Bonechiller and Drifter that had actually received quite a bit of feedback.

For Bonechiller, players though she should have more/deeper scars to reflect her tortured gameplay style, taking damage to summon creatures to fight for her. On the other hand, the Drifter was thought to have a face "too much like an Ewok".

Early Access Stats
When Frosthaven releases in Early Access there will be Six playable characters for you to play as and unlock. There will be 30 Scenarios from the Board Game made available, that means of the total 136 Scenarios approximately 22% of the game will be available.

Entering the first cutscene it was explained that the games events are fully voiced, this audio comes from the Official Frosthaven Companion App. By working together they were able to avoid reinventing the wheel and create a premium experience.

Loading into the first scenario Bonechiller and Drifter were placed on the board. Where the Board Game uses different dual sided hex tiles the world of Frosthaven has been more built out. In the snowy forest where I faced a group of Algox raiders the edges of the playable space were built up with rocks and foliage before drifting off into a haze. It didn't feel like the landscape stopped, but that it just wasn't in focus, leading to a better sense of immersion in the world.

UI And Player Tooltips

Speaking of the Beta feedback UI/UX was one that Petkov highlighted to me. "That's why we're doing the demo, that's why we are doing Early Access. It's so important because this game is really hard to do when it comes to UI. You want to shortcut things, then some people get mad because they want the agency, right?"

Character portraits appeared to the left, a list of combat participants to the top of the screen, and a list of selectable cards flew out in front of me. Each card I hovered over presented all of the information required in a quick and easy to digest format.

Petkov also showed me with a single key additional tool tips could be expended out related to just about anything your cursor is hovering over. If you want to know what the symbols are on a card, what any character has in their inventory, or even more information about an enemy fighter you can quickly gather it.

This is the kind of efficiency that I can imagine getting a lot of use out of at the start of the game, that would make me far more glad in the late game when I don't need any of that information and want less text and windows to progress.

That being said, while playing I did notice that there were a lot of 'confirmation' steps, that took place. You'd select two cards and then confirm, select where you want a character to move and have to confirm, pick the only enemy next to your character and have to confirm the attack.

At any point where it looked like my clicks weren't working around the screen my eyes began to learn to dart to the bottom of the screen to see if a red "Confirm" box had appeared.

While I won't give the full play by play my Drifter and Bonechiller were able to swiftly dispatch the Algox in the first room and approach a door made of Ivy to open up the second room. Before reaching the (currently burning) gates of Frosthaven you could see a hint of it in the fog surrounding the map. A neat tease for something big you're about to open up a door into.

Differences In Difficulty and Enemy AI
Alongside the standard Frosthaven gameplay, there is also a Story mode as well as a mode with increased difficulty. Based on feedback from the Open Beta they have made it that the enemy AI tends to move in a way that's better for the player, as that's how a lot of people play at home

Skipping through the rest of the battle I was introduced to the settlement building phase. Here there were a wide variety of options presented to me. Build and upgrade buildings, purchase new equipment or try to upgrade it with resources, and even potion creation where trial and error can lead to the discovery of new recipes.

This isometric view of Frosthaven, with plenty of empty plots of land, showed off just how far you'll be able to go when you get your hands on the game.

The Frosthaven Experience

Frosthaven, the board game, is an epic experience. A heavy box filled with all manner of characters, cards, boards, maps, and booklets. If you're able to get the box, a consistent group of friends, and the time to play it's well worth the experience. It's also understandable that for many getting the stars to align in such a way can just be impossible.

With the Frosthaven video game a lot of the stress of time and setup is washed away, with voice acting and beautiful (and scary) environments this is already shaping up to be an incredible way to experience Frosthaven without a number of the barriers to entry.

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TechRaptor had the chance to preview Frosthaven at Summer Games Fest 2025