Video game puzzler Wilmot’s Warehouse is being made into a board game
Wilmot! designers include some of the team behind indie darling.
Wilmot’s Warehouse, the indie video game gem about sorting boxes in a warehouse, is being adapted into an official board game, Dicebreaker can reveal.
In Wilmot’s Warehouse, the player must unload a series of objects - represented by simple square icons - and freely arrange them within their warehouse. After the delivery phase timer runs out, the player must race to fulfil the demands of customers who request specific items, retrieving the objects from wherever they were stored. The items typically have an ambiguous nature, making them harder to easily categorise and recall under pressure. (Read Donlan's thoughts on Wilmot's Warehouse over on Eurogamer.)
Upcoming board game Wilmot! brings that puzzley organisation challenge of the video game to the tabletop as a 45-minute co-op party game. As in the video game, two or more players must work together as they first fill up their warehouse with item tiles, arranging them in a way that makes it easier to remember their position once flipped facedown. A frantic final round tasks players with matching tiles with a stack of customer cards - or risk unsatisfied patrons being added to an ‘Unhappy Customers’ pile.
The Wilmot’s Warehouse board game borrows the minimalist visuals of the video game for its item tiles, using the ambiguity of each icon to provide freedom in how players sort them on the grid-like board and aid their memory when revealing the hidden tiles during the final round. For example, a square with yellow and purple wiggly lines could be reminiscent of sea waves, spaghetti or even moustaches, inviting reasons to categorise it with other nature, food or people-themed tiles. Tiles can be freely rotated as the players see fit, turning a pair of antennae into legs or rabbit ears.
The board game introduces extra hurdles to efficiently retrieving and delivering items, throwing additional challenges at the players from being unable to speak and changing seats around the table to swapping tiles around and having limited time to place cards.
The team behind Wilmot! includes some of the original team behind Wilmot’s Warehouse, who told Dicebreaker that the board game was currently in the early stages of development and playtesting. Release details are yet to be announced.
The board game will be at this year’s EGX London - hosted by Dicebreaker owner ReedPop - where a prototype will be playable in the event’s Tabletop Demo Zone. EGX London will take place from September 22nd to 25th.