Friday, February 20, 2015

Inventing a card game

If you asked me a few years back if I'd ever invent a card game, I'd have said, "No, that's not what I do." But sometimes things come at you from odd directions, and life gives you an opportunity you didn't foresee.

My wife, our friends, and I play a lot of cards. We hang out, drink some wine, eat tasty snacks and enjoy the company. We played a game that I won't mention the name of, but let's just say it's a very good game that is based upon bidding and taking tricks.

We played this game for months. But then, over time, we started to get bored. We tried other games, but they didn't seem to have that same friendly competition we were looking for. So we did what creative people do when they play games: We made up House Rules. Silly rules, like after the deal you cut and if the exposed card is a diamond you pass your hand and bid left, a heart right, clubs across, spades you keep it. We refined the rules. We jiggled them into what we thought were pretty darn good rules.

Then my friend, realizing what we were doing, said, "We should just invent our own card games." WHAT?!?!  For some reason that really struck a bell with me, so when my wife and I went home that night All or Nothing was born as I stayed up until the wee hours thinking about it. It wasn't born in the final design. Heck, it might still not be in the final design. But it was born and my friend came up with an idea for a game as well.  So here we are, after a few months of playtesting the game with a deck we made ourselves.  We've come a long way in a few months. We have a testing deck design and 12 decks ordered. We have plans for a Kickstarter and will be executing that in the next month or two. We are going to have public playtests.

Why?  Because if you like playing competitive games with your friends, this game is fun!  One card played well from your hand can cost two other players their goal. You'll find yourself celebrating as you manage to get rid of an ALL card you didn't want. Or moaning as that ALL card you counted on to take a trick is turned into garbage by your best friend. What a jerk, right? We haven't even gone into what you can do with the NOTHING cards.

It won't be long before this game is available on Kickstarter, and we're going to need your support to get it out the door. Please join us in creating a game revolution that will result in hours and hours of fun at your house. Your friends will ask you to bring the game to theirs. Don't be fooled. They're only asking so they can kick your butt.

Welcome to our page. Our news outlet. And, at least for a while, our web presence. Play nice on here, but once you have this game in your hands, you don't have to any more.

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