Talking with Steve Gabry About The Sally Face: Strange Nightmares Kickstarter

Sally Face, the episodic game that tells the story of titular Sal Face, his friends, and the mysterious and sometimes horrific events of the Addison Apartments is coming to Kickstarter as a tabletop game. Sally Face: Strange Nightmares is a co-op dice-rolling game where players will have to try to solve the mysteries of the Addison Apartments and stop the corruption of the world. TechRaptor was lucky enough to catch up with series creator Steve Gabry to discuss 

What is Sally Face: Strange Nightmares?

Sally Face: Strange Nightmares is a 2-4 player game. Players will get to play as Sal, Larry, Todd, and Ashley, the four main characters of the game series. Much like the video game, Strange Nightmares' story will play out over a series of chapters with the narrative slowly unfurling over time. Each episode should take approximately 40 minutes to complete.

Those who enjoyed the game when it was released will find a number of the story beats similar but Gabry explained that he wanted it to be approachable for those new to the IP while also giving some new information to returning fans. The base release of Sally Face: Strange Nightmares will come with three episodes.

How do you play Sally Face: Strange Nightmares?

During the game, players will be tasked with exploring the Addison Apartments and solving the story that's central to the chapter. You'll navigate the floors of the Addison Apartments and perform tasks depending on what dice you roll. These custom dice give you the ability to complete tasks, find clues, and navigate throughout the apartment.

When working your way towards completing the story a number of other obstacles will begin to crop up. Players will draw cards from the Mystery Deck, "the Mystery Deck is a little bit more randomized so that it's varied each time you play it, the way you're solving mysteries has a bit of a Yahtzee element to it". These cards will be placed in certain locations and can trigger all kinds of in-game effects including having cops or ghosts appear. Players will need to coordinate balancing working towards the primary objective of the game while also tackling each of these other mysteries as they crop up. If too many mysteries turn up or aren't solved in a reasonable amount of time corruption will begin to take over, if corruption becomes too powerful then you'll lose the game.

For repeat plays the main overarching story will largely remain the same but due to the shuffled Mystery deck there will always be gameplay differences from one session to the next. Corruption might trigger faster than usual leading your party to have to make optimal decisions faster, or luck could be on your side with complementary mysteries and dice rolls that you sweep through with very little issue. "Essentially you want to solve each mystery before Corruption takes over".

One of the larger changes that fans of the franchise will encounter is that each chapter ends with a large boss fight. Instead of Charley being taken away by the police at the end of Chapter 1 of the game instead the players of Sally Face: Strange Nightmares will need to face him in battle as he becomes a raging maniac.

From Video Game to Tabletop

Gabry explained that through a mutual contact, he was able to get in touch with Maestro Media who were interested in helping him build this game. While the type of game was able to be figured out quickly they also learned early on that they needed it to be far more engaging. The Story Deck which was originally three simple cards has become a much larger numbered deck "Some of the cards are just narrative, so you read it and then turn to the next card and that will have a mystery that you then put on the board". This gives players more of the overall story, but also additional detail about specific characters.

Unlike the video game, there are also a number of guest artists working on Sally Face: Strange Nightmares. When I asked Gabry if it was challenging to take something that has been solely his creation for so many years and give it to other artists to work on he laughed and commented "For the Video Game I did everything on my own up until porting [...] It was nice to be honest, there's so much art in the game I wouldn't have time to do it all, as much as I would like to" it's also been interesting for Gabry to see how those artists have taken his style and enhanced it.

When does Sally Face: Strange Nightmares hit Kickstarter?

Sally Face: Strange Nightmares will hit Kickstarter on February 28th. The base game will be part of the campaign but of course, it's Kickstarter so the more pledges the more will be added. At this time there are all kinds of announced goodies like a Dark Glitter Pony Figure. Still, there are also two additional story episodes that they're hoping to add, as well as improved game tokens, and other Sally Face-related merchandise.

Gabry hinted that if the Sally Face: Strange Nightmares Kickstarter does well there are also a number of ideas for further expansions down the track.

TechRaptor would like to thank Steve Gabry for taking the time to discuss Sally Face: Strange Nightmares coming to Kickstarter February 28th