Root, Arcs maker Leder Games in talks for video game of ‘one of its IPs’, comics also potentially in the works

Leder Games, the publisher of acclaimed strategy board games including Root and Arcs, is in talks over a video game set in the universe of one of its titles, less than two weeks after putting out a call on Twitter for ideas about getting its designs into other types of media.

Company founder Patrick Leder also told BoardGameWire that while progress on a potential Root movie remains “quite stop and start”, the company is in discussions over comic book adaptations of its various games after being approached about licensing by a comics publisher.

He said, “I set up a email account where people can send their business development ideas, and of course, people immediately started sending me Shopify spam and [emails about] borrowing money.

“…but we got a really cool pitch for a video game based on one of our IPs – it’s not a board game adaptation, but it’s a video game set in that space. And I wrote them back right away and said, ‘Yeah, let’s talk about this’, and so they’re going to send us a more formal pitch deck next week.

“It’s at a budget where I’ll probably be the one producing it too, so which I’m kind of excited about, so I can diversify my portfolio a little bit.”

Leder did not specify which game is in the running for the video game adaptation, but the company’s most popular titles include recent Kickstarter success Arcs, as well as Root, Oath and Vast.

BoardGameWire exclusively revealed in May last year that plans were afoot for a movie based on woodland warfare board game Root – but that the process was on hold amid the mass walk-out of Writers Guild of America members striking to improve pay and conditions.

Leder said that the pitch, which had been prepared by Kung Fu Panda animated series writers Ben Mekler and Chris Amick, was now back in play, with the pair currently working with a large creative agency in California.

But he said progress had been slow – and believes adaptations of Root or other titles in its range into other media could potentially help spur more activity in that space.

He said, “I get contacted by writers all the time, saying ‘I want to work on a Root comic book’ or ‘I want to work on a Root novel’. But one of the comic publishers, contacted us and said, ‘Would you be open to licensing your brands out for comic book writing?

“Of course I said ‘That’d be awesome’. And so now that’s getting better traction, and I think it is, you know, – it’s just the difference between the budgets, right? Like a comic book… that is more feasible to do than to come to an entire movie production and say,’ Hey, we haven’t even made a Ticket to Ride movie yet. Do you want to bet $10m on this little cave that these people in St Paul made’?

“So I get it, but I think for a comic we might just be able to get away with hiring a writer and an illustrator and an editor, and making something good – and that’ll help us then when we go to the next step: ‘Well, now we have this comic book. You can visualize what the story would be about’.”

Leder Games teamed up with publisher Magpie Games in 2019 to create Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game, which raised just over $600,000 in a Kickstarter campaign.

A new supplement for the RPG, Ruins & Expeditions, is currently crowdfunding, and has raised about $250,000 with a couple of weeks of the campaign to go.

Leder added that the company had also been approached in the past about licensing Root for products including craft beer and scented candles and was very open to seeing more of those options – but admitted he would draw the line at licensed versions of its existing games for IPs such as Marvel.

He said, “If someone asked me if I did Marvel Root I’d be like, ‘Nah, I’m good’. Maybe, maybe, if there was a lot of money on the line I might have to think about it. But I don’t think it’s gonna happen – I just want it to be what it is.”

Leder Games is currently preparing to launch a crowdfund for its latest Root expansion, which adds bats and frogs as two new playable factions. The campaign is set to begin next month.

Anyone interested in pitching ideas to Leder Games about working its titles into other forms of media can do so through the company’s web page.