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Pug And Play · 24/06/2026
Netherworld Candle: Echoes of the Forgotten Tomb
Par INFINITY HEX GAMES LIMITED
Statut actuel
Pledge Manager ouvert
Fin de campagne : 17/07/2026
Fonds récoltés : 83 239 €
Welcome to the late Qing Dynasty. You call yourselves skilled Tomb Delvers; I call you fresh corpses. Netherworld Candle is a 1-4 player cooperative campaign of survival, dark fantasy, and exhaustion.
In the Story Phase, you will make agonizing narrative choices, trading my looted artifacts with ruthless factions to upgrade your pathetic gear. In the Adventure Phase, your survival against my supernatural horrors depends entirely on mastering your Sect abilities and managing a ruthless Fate Card engine. Evolve your Tree of Fate to build false hope, but keep your eyes on the Candle Track. When the flame dies, I collect your souls.
We have recorded a raw, unedited Unboxing Video of the actual physical production copy.
Look at the sheer volume of what awaits you. The thick dual-layer boards, the suffocating mountain of cards, the cold plastic of the miniatures. This is what pure, physical suffering looks like.
There are no CGI tricks here, only factory-pressed reality. (Yes, my scribes are still meticulously refining the English translations and polishing the final art files, but the physical mass and component quality you see in this video are exactly what will break your table.)
Why Back Netherworld Candle
What's in the Box
UNSEALED BOX:
The ancient seals are broken, and s̸o̷m̷e̷t̷h̶i̸n̵g̶ leaked out, infect your campaign with classified entities, premium hardware upgrades, and [D̴A̸T̶A̷_C̴O̷R̷R̷U̶P̸T̷E̶D̵] anomalies.
Banmen Legend Expansion:
THE FREE STORYBOOK APP
NO STRETCH GOAL, NO CATCH, LIVE NOW
- Está en español. La historia completa, leída en voz alta.
- Es ist auf Deutsch. Die ganze Geschichte, vorgelesen.
- C'est en français. L'histoire entière, lue à voix haute.
- 有中文。 完整剧情书,还能读给你听。
- And English, of course. Every word, read aloud if you want.
SWITCH MID-SENTENCE — change language at any moment; the whole interface follows, and you stay on the same page.
IT READS TO YOU — tap any paragraph and the app narrates it aloud in your language, while your hands manage the cards.
THE STORY TURNS ITS OWN PAGES — branching choices are tappable and jump you straight to the right entry.
Other creators would have buried this behind a stretch goal and made you dig. I don't ration mercy that cheaply. The entire 100,000-word storybook — the heart of this nightmare — speaks your language, free, for every backer and every curious coward still lurking outside the gates. And the translations grow sharper every day, because the players themselves refine them: every paragraph carries a ✏️ button, suggest a fix, and it lands in our review queue. You reshaped this game's art. Now you're reshaping its voice.
The app covers the storybook; cards and rulebook remain in English. Narration uses your browser's built-in voices (Edge on PC sounds most natural)
The Daily Unsealing (21 Days, 21 Seals)
THE FINAL BATTLE — PRINTED INSIDE THE UNSEALED BOX LID
I refused to stuff my finale into another expansion box — more volume, more weight, a heavier shipping toll paid to freight companies instead of to me. So my humans did something brilliantly sadistic: the Final Battle map is printed on the inside of the Unsealed Box lid. The moment you open that box, you release me — and your last stand happens inside the lid of the cage you broke, where every thread of the 150,000-word campaign ties back to my own story. You've read about me long enough. Now you meet me.
Final Battle Expansion Inside the Unseal Box
there is no separate box. We refuse to increase your shipping costs with extra volumetric weight. Here is exactly where you will find it:
If you have the [Unsealed Box] (Included in the Sovereign All-In and Immortal Pledge):
It is physical. The final boss map is printed directly on the inside of the Unsealed Box lid. The actual Boss miniature and all the components you need for the fight are packed right inside that same box.
If you ONLY bought the [Core Box]:
It is digital. Since the Core Box doesn't include the Boss miniature or the Unsealed box, you will receive a free Print & Play (PnP) PDF. You simply print the map and paper standees at home, and you can play the exact same final battle.
How To Play
Key Game Elements
Playthrough, Trailer and Review Videos
Playthrough Videos:
Netherworld Candle Deep Review | The Most Ambitious Chinses Horror Board Game Ever Made:
Netherworld Candle Board Basic Game Review & Discussion:
Netherworld Candle: Echoes of the Forgotten Tomb - MEGA UNBOXING
Unboxing Video:
Cinematic Story Trailer:
Trailer Videos:
Another Cinematic Story Trailer:
Preview video:
Rulebook, Storybook and TTS
Please note that this document is a Work-In-Progress (WIP) and does not represent the final product. All artwork, layouts, text, and rule mechanics contained within are subject to change prior to manufacturing. In the event of any discrepancies, the final printed edition shall be considered the definitive version.
Currently, the text provided herein is a direct translation of the original Chinese edition. However, our vision for this project goes far beyond a simple word-for-word conversion; we are fully committed to delivering a top-tier, culturally nuanced localization.
To achieve this, our team is actively analyzing hundreds of feedback reports from the original Asian release. We are utilizing this data to optimize rule clarity, streamline mechanics, and refine the overall content. Our ultimate goal is to present the English-speaking community with a highly polished, fully realized "Version 2.0" of the game.
Miniature Finishes - Production
Miniature Highlights -Render
Why You've Never Heard Of Us
WHY YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF US (AND WHY THAT ISN'T A RED FLAG)
Let's be honest: you've probably never heard of this game, or of us. If that makes you wary of backing a studio you don't recognize. That instinct has saved a lot of people from projects that shipped late, shipped broken, or never shipped at all.
But Netherworld Candle isn't a prototype, and this isn't our first attempt at making it. We already built this game, funded it, and put it in players' hands, in China.
The Chinese edition, 《彼岸之烛》, ran on Modian, China's main crowdfunding platform. It finished on December 5, 2024, raising ¥1,995,595, close to two million RMB, roughly US$280,000, from 2,085 backers, against a ¥30,000 goal. We manufactured everything and shipped to those backers in 2025. The game has been on real tables for about a year now.
That year left a paper trail. We've posted 124 project updates. The game has 3,977 reward reviews on Modian, sitting at a 99.97% positive rating. On Gstone (China's equivalent of BoardGameGeek) it holds an 8.1 from 319 ratings. And there are more than 100 player-made videos on Bilibili: full playthroughs, reviews, rules teaching, and a fair amount of rambling.
So if all of that is real, why is the game unknown in the West?
One reason: the Great Firewall. China's internet is mostly sealed off behind its own platforms. Most Chinese players have never opened BoardGameGeek, YouTube, Kickstarter, or Gamefound, we use Gstone, Bilibili, and Modian instead. A game can raise two million RMB, collect thousands of reviews, and spawn a hundred videos on that side of the wall and still stay completely invisible on this one. The two communities almost never overlap. That is the whole reason we're new to you. It has nothing to do with the game being small, rushed, or untested.
We'd rather not ask you to take our word for any of it. All of this is public, and most of it reads fine through your browser's auto-translate. You can check it yourself: (Might need Incognito Mode when browsing)
Sorry, the browser's built-in translation may not be as good as human translation.
Modian campaign — ¥2M raised, 2,085 backers, 3,977 reviews:
Gstone rating — 8.1 from 319 reviews:
Bilibili — 100+ player videos:
You're not gambling on an idea here. You're getting the first English edition of a game that thousands of players have already paid for, received, and rated. You just happened to be on the other side of the wall until now.
Team Members
AI Usage Declaration
We're a small group of board game nerds in China, and we'd rather tell you something uncomfortable up front than have you find it later.
The truth: with no funding and over 1,000 cards to fill, this game only exists because we leaned on A.I.-assisted pictures early on. We won't pretend that away.
If that's a dealbreaker for you, we get it. No hard feelings.
But we didn't leave it there. When we launched, we promised to replace the A.I. placeholders with real, hand-painted art before printing. A lot of campaigns say that. We actually did it, and the single biggest piece is already finished.
Every map card in the game is now hand-painted. All 158 Core Box location cards (316 double-sided faces), plus 15 in the expansion. It's one of the largest blocks of art in the whole box, and it's the art you lean over and live inside for sixty-plus hours.
Old AI pictures on the left, new hand-painted art on the right:
The rest is smaller and already moving, the item cards, some journey cards, and part of the encounter and story cards are being repainted batch by batch right now. Not one A.I. placeholder ships in this box. That's the line, and we'll hit it before the print files lock. And this is the last game we'll ever make with any A.I. art in it — everything after is 100% human from day one.
Here's the part worth hearing if you're on the fence: this isn't a hopeful render you're funding. Netherworld Candle is already printed, already shipped, and already being played by thousands of people in Asia. You're looking at a finished, proven game getting its art brought up to where it always should have been, at a price we could only reach by keeping our early costs low, with 6-month interest-free Stretch Pay if you'd rather spread it out.
We're not here to get rich. We're here to keep a small studio alive and put a game we're proud of on your table. Thanks for reading. 🕯️
Netherworld Team
About Us
We're INFINITYHEX GAMES, a studio founded by three passionate, lifelong board gamers who decided to turn our obsession into creating the kinds of deep, immersive games we've always wanted to play.
We know that backing a first-time creator can feel like a leap of faith, so let's be crystal clear about our position:
While this is our first English-language crowdfunding campaign, this is NOT our first time producing this game.
The full Chinese version of Netherworld Candle has already been successfully manufactured and recently released to an enthusiastic community. What this means for you as a backer is a massive reduction in risk:
The Game is 100% Designed: The core gameplay, rules, and extensive narrative are complete, balanced, and finished.
The Art and World are Finalized: All the stunning artwork you see is ready for production.
We've Done This Before: We have already navigated the complex process of mass production from start to finish.
You are not backing a concept or an idea. You are backing the English localization and production of a proven, finished, and highly-polished game.
We believe in open communication and building a lasting community. We're here to answer your questions and are excited to build this world with you.
Netherworld Candle official website: https://www.netherworldcandle.com/
Join the conversation on our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/NC2GhS4XcQ
InfinityHex Games official website: http://www.infinityhex.com
For official inquiries, contact us at: support@infinityhex.com
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