As most know or are aware, in 2021, there was a successful crowdfund by a third party utilizing the same base game as designed by Sen-Foong Lim and Erica Bouyouris. And, since we're all here now, it is obvious the Rat Queens - To the Slaughter Kickstarter failed to ship. In the intervening years, many backers reached out to Rat Queens co-creator, Kurtis Wiebe, to look into what was going on.

He did, and upon finding many glaring and serious issues, of most important that there was never going to be a shipped game, and perhaps even more worrying, that with the prepared files he saw, should that game have shipped, no one would've been happy. 

Behind the scenes, a rescue effort came into play. Not simply to find a means to ship the game, but to do a complete creative direction overhaul so that the excellent game design matched the real flavour of Rat Queens, which was sorely missing.

For Kurtis, what bothered him the most was that at best, the game he was handed felt like a generic D&D battler. An an example, here are four monster cards from the production files. 

Four different enemies, four different artists, of which all pieces had been cut from various issues of the comic series. Of note, also, a distinct lack of characterization; no names or flavour text.

The collection of enemies spoke to what Kurtis and Roc felt was an issue across the entire project: The spirit of Rat Queens did not exist outside the gamplay.

Sticking with the monsters as a guiding star for this overview, it was here that the creative direction really took hold. Kurtis spent time with the base game design and recognized three monster groups. Instead of a 'type', the idea instead became three factions of villains, in three degrees and waves of difficulty, culminating in their boss arriving to flatten the town of Palisade.

Rat Queens is deeply rooted in satire, not just fantasy, but in our world generally. So, Kurtis and Roc got to work.

Above is the thematic structure and narrative design by Kurtis and handed over to Roc. Almost like little mini-scripts to inspire the new villain cast. Instead of recycled ideas and images from the comic, they created a massive new group of enemies and their bosses, specifically for their version of Rat Queens.

Pictured are three new villains, one from each faction; Harem of Helga, Beans Brigade and Delectable Delight. (UI not final)

The three bosses were perhaps the most glaring for the creators, and once again, a real opportunity to beat the ever living Rat Queens into the project. An example that best reveals this is through what in the original game was simply, "Troll Girlfriend". Cropped art, literally no personality or even name to the boss, and fairly standard attack titles.

And then, an example of what happens when the creators of the property infuse every layer of the project with their voice.

They replaced the generic text panels with comic book style shots and flavourful copy to ramp the comedy and satire that is perfectly Rat Queens. 

What is laid out above is a quick guide into the transformation that came out of the failed crowdfund where the property was licensed out to a third party, to when the creators took over to create a brand new campaign from the ashes of the old. It is, generally, an insight into what had been done, which other than the excellent game design, was Rat Queens in name only, and the work that has taken nearly a year of development to be the right and proper brand.

For all intents and purposes, with Talespinner Games (created by Kurtis Wiebe) taking over full time in January, 2026, this is a brand new game and campaign. In future updates, we will talk about the original development done going back to early 2025, and how that led to a full commitment from Talespinner Games, and more importantly, the Rat Queens creative team Kurtis and Roc.

See you in the next Creative Quest update!