The Long Haitus

Hello, all you wonderful gamers out there. As you can see, it has been an inexcusably long time since the last post. Over a year! What the hell? The long, painful, aching silence (sounds like a line from a romance novel) hasn't been for lack of writing games...they just haven't been Art-Free Games. I've actually been writing some role-playing games in the last year, instead of card and board games. It has been fun to get into a whole new type of game. RPGs were good during Covid lockdown because you can play them over voice chats online, with people from around the world.

Still, that's no excuse for the silence here, and I am sorry about that.

However, working primarily on RPGs doesn't mean that there were no card and board games in the works. There are always card and board games in the works.

And so, without further ado, I give you five new games. There are short descriptions here. For full details, pics, and a free download of the rules, you can click on each game's name to be taken to The Game Crafter page for that game.

Three of the games are for the whole family, ages 12+.

In Mage Brawl, each player has their own deck of cards. Use various types of attack spells (Incantations, Conjurations, and Wands) to attack your opponent. Use defensive cards (Talismans, Amulets, and Scrolls) to block attacks. Your deck is your health. When your deck is empty you're out of the game. Last one left in the game wins.

In Murderficate, twelve of the world's greatest detectives are spending the night in Clueless Manor. You are not one of these detectives. Oh no. The players are all trying to kill these detectives, vying for the title of Master Assassin.

Strategy Board Game Bundle 2 adds green and yellow pieces to the Strategy Board Game Bundle, allowing all three games to be played with four players.

Two of the games are for adults, rated as 18+.

In Cheatin' Poker, you play poker...and you cheat! This is like no version of poker you've ever played. Cards have abilities that help you and mess with your opponents. There is a game board with cards printed on the squares. If you end the game on a square, the card listed in that square counts as being in your hand. Be devious. Be sneaky. Be cruel. And have fun doing it!

In Oh, the Horror, nightmares have invaded the land and you are trying to survive...typically by sacrificing your friends. Do whatever you have to do (including cheat!) to drive your friends insane. As people go insane they are knocked out of the game. The last person left in the game wins.

Three More

As I mentioned in the last post, we had 3 new games in the process of being printed. Those games are now ready for your playing pleasure!

Here's a short description of each game. For full details and pics, check out the page links below.

In Flabberduke, each card can be used for points or for its ability, but not both. Do you play the card in front of you for points, or do you discard it to use its ability? The choice is yours. Work to stay in the lead because you never know when the game will end. Whoever is in the lead when the Game Over card is drawn from the deck is the winner.

In Guildmaster of Dais, you kill monsters to earn glory, while trying to stop your opponents from doing the same thing. There is a push-you-luck element to the game because you earn more glory per kill if you have more monsters, but only if you retire before you die. If you die, you lose all your monsters and get no glory.

In Quests of Kyrea, you collect sets of adventurers to complete quests. Main Quests count toward winning the game. Side Quests don't count toward winning, but instead give you an ability you can use to help yourself or screw with your buddies.

To purchase any of these games or for a free download of the rules to have a look, check out any of these game pages on The Game Crafter:

    Flabberduke
    Guildmaster of Dais
    Quests of Kyrea

And in upcoming news:

Working on an adventure game with custom dice and a deck of skill cards you can use to upgrade your character. As with any new game, sometimes they work out in playtest and sometimes they don't. So only time will tell if the game is ever released. Stay tuned.

Five New Games

Been quite a while since the last post. But quiet doesn't mean nothing's happening. We have five new games to fill your game nights with joy.

Here's a short description of each game. For full details and pics, check out the page links below.

In Dungeon Merchant, you are, believe it or not, a merchant in a dungeon, selling your wares to all the other dungeon denizens. Build sets of cards to create orders and earn gold. But beware those pesky adventurers. Sometimes they attack, destroying your stuff!

Elemental Artifice is a game of bidding and bluffing. You have a hand of 4 elemental cards. You bid on Spells that you have the elements to cast. But you can bluff! You don’t actually have to have the elements needed to capture a Spell. You just need the other players to believe you do!

In Guild Assassin, you have 3 Guild Leaders. Create sets of cards to assassinate your opponents' Guild Leaders, while building Traps to protect your own. When all of your Guild Leaders have been assassinated you are out of the game. Last person left in the game wins.

In Zoot, players take turns challenging each other, forcing each other to discard cards to block the challenge. If your opponent only discards 1 card to block your challenge, you get to keep your challenge card. If they discard 2 or more then you must also discard your challenge card. When your hand is empty you are out of the game. Last person left in the game wins.

In Zyre, you are trying to match the last card played. Anyone who cannot match the card is out of the Round. Last person left in the Round wins a Point. The first player to take 7 Points wins the game. The catch is that the card matching rules keep changing.

To purchase any of these games or for a free download of the rules to have a look, check out any of these game pages on The Game Crafter:

    Dungeon Merchant

    Elemental Artifice

    Guild Assassin

    Zoot

    Zyre

And in upcoming news:

Three new games are done with testing and are at the printer. Once we're happy with the print proofs we'll be releasing those. Keep an eye open for those three games coming soon.

The Thought Process

A new game has been released. In Territory, you are playing cards to a 5x7 grid, using the special abilities of those cards to discard or turn (take control of) other players' cards. In the end, whoever controls the most territory is the winner.

For a full description of the game, or for a free download of the rules to have a look, check out the Territory page on The Game Crafter.

But that's not really what I wanna talk about. I'd like to give you an inside look at the thought process, at the way one change can have profound impacts on a game's design.

In my original tests for Territory, the game had 54 cards and a box that would just fit the cards and the rules. The way you knew which card belonged to each player was by the way the card was facing. You turned your cards so the bottom was facing you. The game was fun, but as the board filled up it got harder to track which cards belonged to which player. Card facing worked, but it was slow.

And so I added markers. You get 15 markers of one color and you always have a marker of your color on your cards. With that one change, the game was suddenly much easier and much more fun.

But that left a design hole: Since the game needed markers, the box was too small. It wouldn't fit both the cards and the markers.

And that led to this thought process:

1. Obviously, we need a bigger box to fit the markers.
2. Now that we need a bigger box, we'll have more room for cards.
3. Since we have more room for cards, let's expand the game!

So I started thinking of things I could add. I didn't want to change the base game, because the original 54 cards worked and were fun. So instead I added cards as optional rules, meaning there were additional cards you could snap into the deck when you wanted to use them to change the game in some way. In the end, there were 4 optional rules that added a total of 54 cards, doubling the original size of the game!

Territory, which was already fun, is now so much better. The playtesters are loving the new optional rules and the snap-in cards. They love changing the rules and changing which cards are used between each game, keeping each game fresh and unique.

And all of this resulted from such a simple thing as wanting to add markers to make the game easier to track.

So Much New Stuff!

Last post was a few months ago. In the dark, scary, intervening silence since the last post, so much has been happening. And by that I mean games. Soooooo many games! Finally took the time to go back and pull out some of the playtester favorites from the last few decades. (Yeah, that's right, DECADES. I've been doing this a while.)

I'll put a short blurb for each game here. As usual, if you want a full description with ever-so-lovely pics, check out the page links below.

In Dark Omens, bad things are happening, harbingers of tragedies to come. Players play Omen cards on each other trying to build up their bad luck. When someone reaches 13 points of Omens, they take a Tragedy. When someone reaches 13 points worth of Tragedies, that person loses the game. At that point the game is over. The player with the lowest total of Tragedies is the winner. But there’s a catch: When one person reaches 13 points, if two or more players are tied for the lowest score, everyone loses. If you don’t have a clear winner, you all lose!

Dissemination is a highly strategic board game played with cards. Cards are elements, and each element has special abilities. You use your cards to capture opponents' cards. First player to capture 25 points worth of cards wins. Dissemination allows you to customize your strategy by building your own deck of cards before the game begins. There are two expansions that greatly increase the number of cards and abilities at your disposal.

In Framed, crimes have been committed. You aren't trying to solve the crimes. Oh no, that's no you at all. You're trying to plant evidence at the scenes of the crimes to frame your opponents. If you get framed for a crime you're out of the game. Last person left in the game wins.

In Graveyard Bash you are a necromancer controlling a team of undead. Use your undead to bash your opponents' undead creatures and to attack their deck, which is their Stash O' Stuff. When your deck is empty you are out of the game. Last person left in the game wins.

In Jade Talisman you are in an ancient, mystical temple filled with moving walls and magical talismans. Players rush around the board to collect these jade talismans, either by picking them up off the floor or by stealing them from your opponents (you're not a nice, polite explorer). Each talisman you own gives you a special power. When all the talismans have been collected, the person with the most talismans is the winner.

To purchase any of these games or for a free download of the rules to have a look, check out any of these game pages on The Game Crafter:
    Dark Omens

    Dissemination

    Framed

    Graveyard Bash

    Jade Talisman

And in upcoming news:

After getting out 5 new games and 2 expansions, what's upcoming is a freaking nap!

Card Game and Board Games, Oh My!

Been a long time since the last post. So, hallooooo to all you gamers out there, and sorry for the long hiatus.

Not posting doesn't mean I haven't been busy. I've been creating and testing 2 new games for you. Or 4 new games for you. Depends on how you count. You would think counting would be a simple thing. 2 games or 4, which is it? Do you have difficulty counting all the way to 4? Should you see a specialist?

No, it's nothing like that. Here's the deal. We have 2 new products for sale, but one of them is 3 games in 1 box. So...there's 2 new products, but 4 new games. There. Now that's clear, let's get on with the good stuff.

First is Kingdom of Kyrea. I've been wanting to do a trick taking game for a while. But I wanted something new, something with the Art-Free Games twist. And so we have a game where cards are played in tricks (each player plays 1 card, and 1 of those cards wins the trick). The catch here is that the winning card affects the kingdom in some way: Order vs. Chaos, Secular vs. Religious, Mundane vs. Magic. On top of that, each player belongs to a secret society that wants different things for the kingdom, so each player wants to manipulate the kingdom in different ways. So it's a trick taking game with secret agendas. Oh yeah. Check out the page link below to see the cards and get a more detailed description. If you've played any Art-Free Games before, you know that our games always include Optional Rules which allow you to play different versions of the game. Kingdom of Kyrea was unusual in the sheer volume of Optional Rules (they ended up requiring their own rule sheet). There are literally thousands of ways to alter this game.

Next we have the Strategy Board Game Bundle. Over the years I've designed many board games. For this release I was looking at three different 2-player strategy games. And I realized that there was no reason they couldn't all go out as one bundle. One board, one box, 3 games. The players would get 3 games for the price of 1. The games are all very different from each other, requiring different types of strategy and different types of thinking. Check out the page link below to see descriptions of the 3 games included in the bundle.

To purchase the games or for a free download of the rules to have a look, check out the Kingdom of Kyrea page or the Strategy Board Game Bundle page on The Game Crafter.

And in upcoming news:

All 3 games in the Strategy Board Game Bundle are 2 players only. We're currently testing 4 player versions of the game. If they work out, if they are fun, we'll be releasing a 4-player expansion that includes 2 new sets of pieces and rule additions.

Also working on Jade Talisman. This is an old board game that I designed decades ago. Imagine a board with movable walls. In your turn you move a piece and move a wall. Object is to pick up talismans that appear randomly around the board. Each talisman gives you a special ability. Once all 12 talismans have been picked up, whoever has the most wins. But this is not a game where you politely run around the board, picking stuff up, and never interacting with your opponents. No, that’s not this game at all. In Jade Talisman, you can either pick up talismans from the ground, or you can land on an opponent's piece and attempt to steal a talisman. It's a back-stabbing romp to see who can get the most loot.

It's Time to Brawl

Hey there, gamers. It's time for another new game! F.T.B. (Fantasy Tavern Brawl) is a comic game of brawling and drinking in a fantasy tavern. Have the Sultry Succubus team up with the Keeper of the Sacred Flask, knock a few heads, and knock back some mead. You brawl, you drink. What more do you need out of life?

While I do try to create mostly family-friendly games, given the adult nature of the game this one is intended for ages 18+.

For a full description of the game and the expansions, or for a free download of the rules to have a look, check out the F.T.B. page on The Game Crafter.

This game was odd for me. Normally I make a game first, then ideas for expansions come later, if at all. This game was different in that it had three fully-formed expansions before I was even done creating the deck for the base game. Ideas just kept falling out of my butt. I couldn't stop them. So, not only do you have a new game to check out, but you also have 3 expansions you can explore.

For those of you who enjoy cross-game cameos, this game has you covered. The freakin' useless pixie from A Funny Thing Happened is back, and it is just as useless as ever.  Mean Old Miss Haversham, Big Cindy, and Little Cindy from Inept Evil Genius all make an appearance in the Overpowered Characters expansion. We like putting little touches like that into our games, little Easter Eggs for our players to find.