Vestiges: Living Dungeon Board

Living Dungeon Board

I have always been fascinated by the way technology can turn almost anything we imagine into something real. In some ways, it is the closest thing we have to making magic happen.

That fascination (somewhere between fantasy, engineering and childhood wonder) is what led me to start this project.

I kept thinking about a simple idea: what if a board like Jumanji could actually exist? Not as a video game, not as an app on a screen, but as a real physical object. A box that contains a world. A board that reacts to you. A dungeon where the pieces move, enemies behave in unexpected ways, and the adventure seems to be alive inside the table.

That question became the starting point for Vestiges of the Ancients.

The goal is to create a physical-digital dungeon crawler that feels like a magical artifact. Players explore the world of Aran, activate actions through NFC cards, listen to narration and sound effects, and watch as miniatures move by themselves across the board.

Under the surface, there is a hidden CoreXY-style motion system. A magnet moves below the board and pulls the miniatures from underneath, creating the illusion that characters and enemies are moving on their own. The system is controlled by an ESP32, with stepper motors for movement and a servo mechanism to raise or lower the magnet when needed.

The app handles narration, sound and hidden game logic, but the screen is not meant to be the focus. The idea is the opposite: players should look at the board, touch the cards, hear the story, and feel that the artifact is responding to their decisions in real time.

The project currently combines:

• A hidden CoreXY motion system
• Magnetic miniature movement
• ESP32-based control
• Stepper motors
• Servo-controlled magnet lift
• NFC cards and reader
• App-assisted narration and sound effects
• Custom electronics
• 3D printed parts
• Fantasy dungeon crawler gameplay

For me, the main challenge is not just making the hardware work. The harder question is whether this can become more than a technical trick.

If the board only moves a miniature instead of a player moving it by hand, that is not enough. I want the system to create tension, surprise and immersion: enemies that move in ways you cannot fully predict, mechanisms that react physically, hidden events, traps, sounds, voices and moments that make the board feel alive.

This is still a prototype, but the vision is clear: to build a dungeon crawler that does not feel like a normal game with electronics added on top, but like a mysterious object from another world.