Do you want to play a game? No, like, an actual tabletop game? If your biggest frustration with the “Saw” franchise is the lack of ways to recreate the experience at home — shout out to 2009’s surprisingly well-reviewed video game adaptation — then take heart. In conjunction with the release of the latest “Saw” movie, tabletop and collectibles publisher Iconiq Studios has announced a new Kickstarter for “Saw: The Jigsaw Trials.”
Not a lot is known about the game yet — board game publication Dicebreaker has a few details and photos about the puzzle-based health system and the thousands of traps available in-game — but a “Saw” board game makes a decent amount of sense. Escape room and investigation-style board games have grown in popularity over the past few years, providing a collaborative experience for people who want to participate in their own mysteries. You wouldn’t need to reinvent the wheel too hard to craft an escape room-style tabletop game that leans heavily into the license.
Of course, with any adaptation, movie fans would do well to check the pedigree of both the publisher and the designer (or designers). This is not the first Kickstarter rodeo for publisher Iconiq Studios, who previously funded both a tabletop and a card game based on “They Live.” “They Live: Assault on Cable 54” presented fans of John Carpenter’s film with a rough recreation of the film narrative, opening the door to a wild range of possible outcomes. Maybe you do want to play a game after all.