We Have The Videos!

We shot a bunch of footage at a local studio of game play and such that we thought we might use as part of a possible Kickstarter campaign. Below are links to a few of the edited videos. Enjoy!

All or Nothing Promo

All or Nothing Tutorial 1

All or Nothing Tutorial 2

All or Nothing Blooper Reel

The Rules

What follows are the rules of play for All or Nothing, a trick taking card game for people, young or old, in all walks and stages of life, who truly enjoy card games, camaraderie and friendly competition.

How to Play:

For 3 to 6 players. With 3 or 4 players, deal each player 10 cards. With 5 or 6 players, deal each player 8 cards. There will be cards left over with anything other than 6 players. Place those aside for the next dealer.

Players start with 100 points, the goal is to get to 0 points or to have the lowest score at the end of 10 hands.

The player to the left of the dealer bids first, then clockwise around the table. Bidding is simple: you bid All to take all of the tricks, or Nothing to take none of the tricks. The scorekeeper notes the bid on the provided score sheet.

Play Sequence:

The first player that bid is first to lead. That player plays any card from their hand. If the player is attempting to take all of the tricks, that card will likely be high. If that player bid Nothing, then that card will likely be low. Play continues clockwise, following the suit of the first suited card played, unless an A or N card is played These ALL or NOTHING cards (shown in second photo below) may be played at any time.

The ALL or NOTHING cards are special, and will be described in full below under card hierarchy. What's important now is that the highest card of the lead suit takes the trick. The person who took the trick leads next. This process is continued until all cards in the players hand are played, one per trick, completing that hand.

Scoring:

If a player bid NOTHING and took no tricks, that player gets 20 points subtracted from their score. For example, if you had a score of 100 and successfully bid NOTHING in hand 1, your score would then be 80. If a player bids ALL and takes every trick, that player gets 100 points subtracted from their score. If that player had 100 points or less at the start of the hand and reaches a score of 0, that player immediately wins the game.

If a player fails to make their bid, either ALL or NOTHING, they get 10 points added to their score for each trick they missed their bid by. So if you bid all and two tricks were taken by other players, you'd get 20 points added to your score. If you bid NOTHING and took 1 trick, you'd gain 10 points to your score. That is not how you win, for the record.

Card Hierarchy:

There are 48 cards in the ALL or NOTHING deck: 40 numbered cards, and 4 each of the ALL and NOTHING cards.

Cards come numbered 1 thru 10, in 4 suits. Larger numbers beat smaller numbers. Players must follow suit with the following exceptions:

• They play an ALL card from their hand.
• They play a NOTHING card from their hand.
• They play a FLIP card (that's a new one! More in a second.) from their hand.
• They have none of the suit led, and then may play any card they choose.

ALL cards start out high; the first one played is the highest unless it is FLIPPED.

NOTHING cards start out low; the first one played being higher than subsequent NOTHINGs, unless one of them is FLIPPED, in which case the FLIPPED one becomes highest.

FLIPPING:

You will notice some cards have yellow suits below the numbers instead of black or white. These are FLIP cards. They FLIP the associated ALL or NOTHING card to the opposite state. For example, the 1 of Spades (or 9 of clubs) will FLIP the NOTHING card (second photo below) to an ALL card. A 2 of Hearts (or 10 of diamonds) will FLIP the ALL card in that photo to a NOTHING. Notice there are 2 cards shown on each ALL or NOTHING. If the other FLIP card is played (the 9 of Clubs and 10 of Diamonds in these examples) the card will FLIP AGAIN to its original state. So if the 1 of Spades is played, the NOTHING becomes an ALL; it becomes a NOTHING again if the 9 of clubs is played.

Trust me, you want to pay attention to when FLIP cards are played if you have ALL or NOTHING cards in your hand. This is key to successfully making your bids.

That's it! Later you will be able to find optional play rules on www.allornothingcards.com that will provide for team play, harder bidding, and increased level of havoc. That's what this game is all about.

Welcome Reviewers!

Welcome Reviewers,

All or Nothing is a fast-paced, trick-taking game with many twists and turns. The 48-card game of four suits is appropriate for 3-6 players, singly or in teams, ages 8-108.

We are reaching out to avid gamers and game reviewers for their valuable feedback and support.

For insight into All or Nothing game play read the following blog entries (click below):

The Rules, Card Tricks, You'll Flip!!!, Score!, Suit Up!, Who We Are, and Score!!!(Sheet)

Please leave your contact information if you would like us to contact you when All or Nothing is available for purchase. We appreciate the time you have taken to visit the All or Nothing website.

With kind regards,

Debby and the rest of the team, Damon, Shannon and Jeff

Cars and Cards

One letter different, but worlds of frustration apart.

I love cards. I love the concept, the interplay of the rules, and the gatherings in friendship that cards creates.

I love cars too!  The fun of acceleration, the concentration in a hard corner, the sound of the engine, the smells of petroleum derivatives. I love everything about them. Except the $$$ involved.

My favorite car is sitting in my garage, taunting me with the lack of a water pump. This is no American car, with the $100 repair that a bad water pump would be on Chevy small block. This is a German car. And because of that, you can add a ZERO to pretty much any repair it seems. $984 to put a new water pump on my car.

I was scheduled for Monday to get it repaired. I cancelled that appointment. Why?  Because I have cards. I have cards to play, I have cards to Kickstart, and I have a commitment to my friends to get this game out the door.  That money, it seems to me at this point, is far better spent on cards than cars.

So thank you, cards, for giving me an alternative. Thank you for giving me something that is mostly joy with only occasional moments of frustration, as opposed to joy followed by a grinding noise then continuous frustration.

Thank you cards.

Failure

... is something we want to avoid.

Debby sent me a link to a few Kickstarters that didn't make it, specifically card games.

Things we noticed that might have impacted their lack of successs.

1. No video.  We think that it's critical that you not only meet the designers, but that you see the card game in action. There will be videos of our game.

2. Lack of information about how the game is played.  I suspect the designers of those games didn't want anyone to steal their ideas.  That is not something I worry about.  As an author I know a bit about copyright laws, and the fact is that as soon as you create original content, whether it's graphical or textual, it's protected by law. Our game will not be stolen, so you can bet we'll share with you how it works. Could someone come close to copying it?  Sure, and you'll never stop that sort of thing.  But we trust you, the consumer, to reward us for our efforts with your good faith.

3. No content. We want to make sure you have plenty of options as the Kickstarter becomes more successful.

Things we will have for you:

1. A downloadable .pdf scoresheet
2. An app to electronically score your games. We're not sure if this will be free at all levels of funding, but there will be a level at which it's provided to all supporters. 
3. A website to share ideas, optional rules, ideas for other games. We want to listen to you, our supporters, because our goal is long term success. 

I'll be the first to admit that I'm an idea guy, and my work comes in surges and starts. But that's why I'm teamed with people who balance that out. Debby is an avid researcher and is constantly sharing ideas that inspire me. Jeff does the same. My wife, bless her heart, she's a brilliant woman who can ferret out any bad gameplay. So we will bring you an excellent game.

We play what we create.  We're all demanding and critical people. If we don't like it, you'll never see it.  That is our promise.

Script

A script has been written with a short interview for the Kickstarter video.  We'll be making more content, but it's a step in the direction and help sets the tone for how we want this game to be seen.

Family friendly. Easily played by kids and parents.

Yet....

Competitive.  Also easily played by friends having a few beers and reveling in friendly competition.

I know when we, the developers play, we laugh and take quite a bit of joy in some of the unexpected outcomes, especially if it deprives someone of making an All bid. 

Will you like this game?  I think you will. It's friendly and competitive at the same time, creating memorable moments of comraderie as well as opportunities to gloat.

Optional rule #117:  Take a drink every time an All or Nothing card is flipped.

Been a while

I haven't posted a recent update because my family moved to a new house. If there is a more abhorrent process in our lives that doesn't involve the collapse of modern civilization, I don't know what it is. 

So quit whining and update what's going on with the game?

Okay.

Right now we're working on a script for our kickstarter video.  I'm not going to give away any details, but it involves a really cute actress.  Nobody famous... or not yet anyway.

The script writing isn't hard, because I'm funny and my daugh... er, the actress is funny too.  It should be a blast to do.

We've continued the testing process, taking the game out in public. It's been played at an author convention, a gaming convention... and by a mathematician who loves the game now.  That's a good sign.  When the math guys love your game, you've closed the holes.

We've started very early testing of our next game, which I'm not at liberty to disclose the name of yet. You'll get more SOON™.

What else... there is a lot of behind the scenes discussion right now on packaging, marketing, and getting this thing ready to fly.  We welcome suggestions from the public, and I believe that means you.  If you know a good card printer that prints nice black core cards, feel free to speak up for them and help out our project.  Same goes if you have any Kickstarter tips.  I'd love to see them in the comments below.

Oh, and if you're not familiar with this by now, I'm also an author.  My book is on sale for the next week for .99 on Amazon Kindle.  Offer ends June 18th. 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RY202VO?*Version*=1&*entries*=0