Delve is a dungeon-crawling Carcassonne from the co-creator of Arkham Horror

The co-creator of tabletop classic Arkham Horror is applying his expertise to another board game icon, Carcassonne, in tile-laying dungeon-crawling effort Delve.

Richard Launius, who also worked on Elder Sign and Defenders of the Realm, as well as the 2005 reboot of his Lovecraftian hit, has teamed up with newcomer Pete Shirey to bring the game to Kickstarter, where they’ve already passed their $30,000 (£24,400) goal.

Delve plays much like Carcassonne with a twist, as players take it in turns to lay down square tiles with a combination of rooms and corridors and place their Delvers – tokens that essentially serve the same purpose as Carcassonne’s farmer, robber and knight meeples by staking a claim to certain rooms. However, the Delvers each have different strengths and abilities, and are placed facedown to encourage more strategic play.

When rooms are completed, players must roll combat dice to battle it out for their share of any gold and treasure within. If a single player claims the room, they instead draw an encounter card, which presents a challenge such as a test or fight, rolling dice for each Delver they have in the room in the hope of obtaining bonus gold and treasure.

The game ends when the gold runs out or the sun track – which advances when certain tiles are placed – reaches its end. The most gold wins.

The combined forces of Indie Boards & Cards and Action Phase Games are publishing the game, which is due out this June.

The base game is $38 (£31) (plus $10 (£8) shipping to the UK), with the upcoming Peril Awaits expansion, which includes 30 extra encounter cards and 10 new treasure cards, on offer for an extra $7 (£6). The Kickstarter campaign ends on February 15th.