War of the DragonThe Wheel of Time Back on Kickstarter
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Designers & Development

From a 15-year passion project to a Dire Wolf release.

The team

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    Mike Mihealsick

    Co-designer — 15-year passion project to bring the Wheel of Time to the table.

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    Ryan Schoon

    Co-designer — partnered on the design from 2018.

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    Andy Clautice

    Dire Wolf Digital design lead.

How it came to be

  1. 1

    A 15-year passion project

    Mike Mihealsick begins designing a Wheel of Time board game.

  2. 2

    2018 — collaboration

    Ryan Schoon joins the design.

  3. 3

    Dire Wolf signs on

    Dire Wolf Digital takes on development and publishing.

  4. 4

    2026 — Kickstarter

    The campaign launches in May 2026.

A fifteen-year chase

For over fifteen years, Mike Mihealsick chased the same dream: a board game that could carry the weight of Robert Jordan's saga and its 2,700-plus named characters. Since 2018 he and collaborator Ryan Schoon had been refining the concept together, looking for the design that could turn the Light-versus-Shadow conflict into a real two-player duel.

When Dire Wolf Digital signed the game, they brought in Andy Clautice to lead additional design and development — pairing the founders' long familiarity with the source material with a studio known for tightly-tuned competitive games. Reviewers have repeatedly noted the result feels most reminiscent of War of the Ring: an asymmetric struggle where each side plays by its own rules toward its own kind of victory.