Cave Evil Resurrected: Interview With Co-Designer Nate Hayden
I made contact with fellow Coloradan Nate Hayden — one of Cave Evil’s three designers — and interviewed him about the re-release of his crew’s 2011 cult hit. This is adapted from Episode 103: “Cave Evil Reprint: The Resurrection of the Pedal-to-the-Metal Cult Hit”
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. Longtime battle buddies and designers Nate Hayden, Mat Brinkman, and Jochen Hartmann had pulled off a beautiful coup in indie board gaming: They decided to just make a game they wanted to play and trusted the living hell out of the dream.
Their people across the world jumped at the opportunity for this rollicking incursion of Stygian death:
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.
We discussed 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:
One of my favorite board game writers, Charlie Theel of the Player Elimination blog, talked about Cave Evil this way in 2014 on BoardGameGeek: “Cave Evil is raw and brutal. It features exceptional black and white artwork fused with mechanics that bury the player in the dripping blood and ichor of theme. It’s the only game that has a trailer and an online radio stream dedicated to setting the atmosphere. It’s weird, obtuse, and unforgettable.”
The world of Cave Evil kept growing after 2011 as the group built growing battlespaces by fusing existing and prototype maps together and saying, “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was an item that…” The Warcults expansion came out in 2016, followed by a number of Chaos Packs.
The Skeletal Monstrosity, which comes with the Crypt City release: Looks like you better deploy it before another necromancer does.
After our talk, Nate’s team wanted to call out one in particular: Crypt City. The Crypt City add-on works with both the Cave Evil and Warcults properties. From the product description:
Built of molten corrupted steel the Undead have designed a labyrinthian tomb - Marching armies of the dead, mazes of tunnels, sarcophaguses sit ready to be raided for treasure. Tonight, Necromancers and Warlords descend upon CRYPT CITY!
Crypt City is issue #1 of Corroded Corridor. Corroded Corridor issues will center on variations of play for the base games Cave Evil and/or Warcults. Issues will most often feature different maps, but some issues may feature new base games or even brief Campaign and Path variations of play.
In Crypt City player raid a territory of the Undead species, seeking to plunder tombs for potential treasure of creatures, but many evils may be unearthed. New Dwellers, Protectors, Ancient Artifacts, Endgames and more!
So thanks to Nate for the chat and a salute to his crew for making this “weekend game.”
If you’ve got a weekend group that wants to vanish underground with you, take a look at Cave Evil before it vanishes beneath the earth for what will likely be the final time.