With only a couple of days to go until players are able to get their hands on Gears Tactics, excitement rises for those looking to dive into an XCOM-like Gears of War game. That said, development on the title has come a long way as it began its life as a tabletop game concept.

Speaking with Polygon in a recent interview, associate creative director Steve Venezia revealed that Gears Tactics was certainly in tabletop form during the early stages of development. He noted how doing things this way helped the devs be a little more creative when it came to the video game. Venezia also mentioned how they did not want to make “Battle Chess but with the Gears logo on it.”

This led to The Coalition’s Tyler Beilman being brought in to help translate the language used to design the Gears games. Once they got the Gears Tactics tabletop prototype up and running, that’s when the fun began. Using a large map and some dice, they created a scenario where a 4-player squad was tasked with repairing a vehicle while also defending it from swarming Locust. “Right away we started learning things there about giving the player objectives that would give them a space to play in, but it could play out very, very differently each time,” Venezia said.

Eventually, the team at Splash Damage opted to leave the grid system behind, making Gears Tactics more akin to the likes of Warhammer 40,000. This, of course, allows players a lot more freedom when it comes to gameplay and movement. It even had the added benefit of making the upcoming title feel “so much more like you’re playing a Gears game,” said Venezia.

Gears Tactics is set to arrive on April 28th for PC via Steam, the Windows 10 store, and Xbox Game Pass for PC. Keep it tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers as this story develops, and for other gaming goodness going on right now, check out the following:

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What say you, gamers? Are you excited to play Gears Tactics when it arrives later this week? Sound off in the comments section below, and be sure to follow DFTG on Twitter for live gaming and entertainment news 24/7!