Frosthaven Interview

Arc Games and Snapshot Games’s Frosthaven is a fantasy tactical RPG based on the board game of the same name. After spending a year in Early Access, the game is approaching its full release on PC this October. RPGamer was given the opportunity to put some questions to Game Director Hristo Petkov about the Early Access process and how it has impacted the game.

Alex Fuller (RPGamer): What made you elect to go down the Early Access route, and how happy are you with the experience?

Hristo Petkov (Frosthaven Game Director): Initially we were considering not going with Early Access, since this is a second game in the haven universe (Gloomhaven digital being the first) and normally sequels are not using Early Access. With that said, we decided that such game really needs its community to be the best version of itself. We have three main types of gamers that we would like to capture: fans of the boardgame, people that have played Gloomhaven digital, and also people that are fans of tactical games. For us, capturing the first group (the board game fans) was a must and we wanted the players’ opinion to help us shape the game. Overall, we are really happy with our decision and the process.

Alex: How do you feel the Early Access process has benefitted the final game?

Hristo: The community is very vocal about the issues they are having and it really helped find the right balance of how to interpret the board game in the digital space. Frosthaven being more complex than Gloomhaven was a huge challenge on how to not overwhelm the players or interrupt the gameplay with constant decisions. We needed to work with the community to find the right balance between information and control that we give to the players and fluidity of gameplay. This process is still ongoing moving towards 1.0.

Alex: How closely have you worked with the community throughout the Early Access process? How helpful were they for identifying areas of improvement?

Hristo: The community was nothing but helpful to us. The players are very understanding and we have great conversation on how to improve the game.

Alex: What are some of the main pillars that you have looked to adhere to throughout through the game’s development?

Hristo: Everything in the box is in the game was one of our first principles — no splitting of the game into DLCs. Faithful adaptation with a fresh look of the world visually was our second. We added a lot of small things to make the characters and the environment feel more alive; we did not want to copy the board game feeling, but to actually feel like a digital RPG.

Alex: Are there points where you have ended up taking something in a different direction than you might have originally intended?

Hristo: Mostly on the UI front, we have changed a lot of concepts and designs based on the player feedback and this process is still ongoing. I am happy with the changes based on the community feedback — I prefer us to be flexible and not stubborn when it comes to what the players want. With that said, we try to understand the reasoning and if there is a better solution than what the players suggest, we open a conversation.

Alex: Were there any elements where you looked to diverge from the board game, or consequently any elements where you ended up tying back closer to it?

Hristo: For the most part 95% of the game is exactly as the board game when it comes to balance and mechanics, but there are several exceptions. One was the trials system from the board game, which was centered around player interactions in real life. It was cut from the digital version, but we are exploring a way to bring it back in a different form. Another one was the puzzle book, where we kept the requirements but we completely changed its purpose; in the board game it was supposed to be a mystery you need to solve, and in our case it is a guiding system for the game’s ending. In the board game version of the puzzle book, it was gatekeeping progress of the players and it was not immediately obvious how to finish the game; that being a good thing for a board game is actually not very good for a digital game that already has very deep mechanics and interactions.

Alex: Are there any extra challenges you’ve found from going through the Early Access process?

Hristo: We have not found anything new because we already knew that the main problem with Early Access, especially in our case, is that we are treating it as a live game and not really a beta. We decided that we will not break saves for the players and will keep the game stable during the whole of Early Access. That caused a production pipeline nightmare of our doing because we needed to work both on the next update and on the live game at the same time.

Alex: Are there any areas that surprised you with how the community responded to them?

Hristo: I wouldn’t say there was anything very surprising, but anecdotally something that I have not realized before we started Early Access is that players playing the board game often play it “wrong” and come to blame us that the digital version is wrong. That is normally resolved very quickly when the community explains that the game works as intended, but it is an often thing that happens. That made me think that we should focus more on play-it-your-way options for the game.

Alex: You managed to keep a consistent three-month major update cadence for the Early Access process. How easy was it to follow?

Hristo: Since we are delaying the 1.0 to October from the original date of July, I don’t think we fully managed to do it. But with that said, it was not easy, especially for our QA team who did an amazing job despite the game being so complex and interconnected. I want to thank the whole team for making it possible, and I want to mention with almost no overtime.

Alex: Do you have any final messages for players, new or current?

Hristo: Me and the team love working on this game with you. Keep helping us make it the best possible version of Frosthaven. If there is anything that bothers you being UI, difficulty, graphics, or even bugs we are easy to reach so talk to us so we can make it work.

RPGamer would like to extend our deepest thanks to Hristo Petkov for taking the time to answer our questions, as well as to Tyler Gardner and Sandbox Strategies for setting up the interview. Frosthaven is available now in Early Access on Steam and the Epic Games Store ahead of its full release for PC on October 15, 2026.