Expansions. So Many Expansions.

For those of you who have enjoyed Collapse, there are now new games you can play with that card deck. If you look in the Downloads section on The Game Crafter's Collapse page, you will see a link for Other Games With the Collapse Deck. These additional rules are not printed with the game, but you can download them for free to learn even more games to play with the Collapse deck.

And for those of you who have been laughing your way through A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Dungeon, there is so much news.

The Mother-of-All-Expansions expansion is now available. This is a set of five (yeah that's right, I said FIVE) new expansions for A Funny Thing and a larger box to hold the base game and all expansions. This new set includes Add-On cards (a whole new card type), pets, a town, more Monsters, and blank cards so you can add your own randomness to the game. Click HERE to see more details on The Game Crafter page.

And on a totally unimportant side note, here's a behind-the-scenes look at the naming process:

The pet expansion is officially called Perilous Pets, but it was almost called Pretty Pink Pets instead. This was the cause of some debate here at Art-Free Games.

One side loudly proclaimed, “You can’t call it the Pretty Pink Pets Expansion. That is way too girly!”

To which the other side responded, “Are you saying girls can’t be gamers?  That is so sexist!”

It was quite the heated argument. There was screaming. There was cussing. There were even some tears. It was bad.

And the sad thing is, Art-Free Games is a one-person operation, so it was just me in the room, yelling at myself. I imagine it was quite disturbing to see.

Perhaps I should cut back on the coffee.

Bring On The Horsemen

Four Horsemen is done and ready for your playing pleasure. This is the first board game from Art-Free Games, but it's not a new game by any means. We've been playing this one around the house for years. As other games come and go, this one has remained one of our favorites.

For more details, check out the Four Horsemen page on The Game Crafter (the printing company). Or if you're simply curious, you can use the download link on that page to get a free copy of the rules and see if the game sounds interesting to you.

Collapse and Other News

Hello, gamers. It's been a few months since there's been any news. But now it's News Time!

First off (and the biggest news of the day) a new game is ready for you. Collapse. While all the games published so far are fantasy in theme, this one is a generic, theme-free game. Themeless. Sans theme. (Why would you tell a game it needs a theme anyway? Can't you let the poor, thematically challenged game live its life in peace?)

Collapse is a simple pattern matching game. Cards have three attributes: color, shape, and number. You may play a card if it matches at least two attributes of the previous card. There are a few different ways to earn points. Play through the deck once. The person with the most points wins.

For more details, check out the Collapse page on The Game Crafter (the printing company). Or if you're simply curious, you can use the download link on that page to get a free copy of the rules and see if the game sounds interesting to you.

And in other news, there is a board game in the works: Four Horsemen. The Four Horsemen (Pestilence, Famine, War, and Death) have a lot of time on their hands while they wait for the Apocalypse to come around. To pass the time they have contests. In this game, you will take the part of one of the horsemen, running around the underworld collecting treasures. First player to get all 4 treasures wins. But it's not that easy. You also have a hand of cards that lets you screw with your opponents. So it's a stab-your-buddy-in-the-back board game. In the underworld. On horses.

We've been playing this one around the house for years. It has always been one of our favorites. Now it will be available to you. The game itself is complete. But it will take some time to get the components just right. So far I have been using The Game Crafter to print card games. This is my first board game, so it will take a while to test different types of boards and boxes. Once I do, I will be able to release Four Horsemen, and it will also open the door to other board games I have designed in the past.

It's Time for Solitaire Adventure

Solitaire Adventure is now available. Solitaire Adventure is a series of single-player adventure games. Each deck is a different adventure.

Woot!

There are two different Solitaire Adventure games available on The Game Crafter. Check out these links for details:

    Bok'Tyr Castle

    Druid's Reach

Time To Expand

A Funny Thing Happened in the Dungeon is now available. This is an expansion to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Dungeon.

For details of the game and expansion, check out the game pages on The Game Crafter:

    This is a link to the game.

    This is a link to the new expansion.

Enjoy the chaos!

Two Games Released!

The time has come. Huzzah!

"Huzzah"? Really? Who the heck says "huzzah"? Anyway, skipping over that little verbal oddity...

Art-Free Games has released its first two games: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Dungeon and Inept Evil Genius. Clicking on the game names will take you to their pages on The Game Crafter site. From there you can order the games or, if you're simply curious, you can use the download links on those pages to get a free copy of the rules and see if the game sounds interesting to you.

If you haven't read the blogs below, I'll summarize: The Game Crafter is a print-on-demand (POD) printer, meaning you're ordering directly from the printer and they don't print the game until you order it. If we were to go through a traditional printer we would have to order about 1,000 copies of the game in order to get it at prices low enough to sell it in stores. So even printing one game would cost multiple thousands of dollars. Going through a POD company allows independent game makers like us to be able to get multiple games to you.

So head on over to The Game Crafter and check them out.

And coming in a few days: A Funny Thing Happened in the Dungeon, the expansion to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Dungeon.

Delay And Expand

The Delay:
Got the first two games back from the printer. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Dungeon and Inept Evil Genius. There are issues with the cards in color, layout, and clarity. The cards look out of focus. (How can a physical card be out of focus? Can I just squint to fix it?) I know what the issues are and how to fix them. But they will need to be fixed before I can release the games. With that in mind, it's now looking like late February before the games are available instead of early February. Sorry for delay, but quality is more important than speed.

And to be clear, the issues with the cards are all in the way I put them together. These are the first games I have taken to print, so in a very real sense these were like a rough draft. Game design I know. Printing...well...I'm learning as I go. As for the printer, The Game Crafter web site has been fantastic. The quality of the cards, rules, and boxes they printed was superb. Once I fix the issue of the layouts, which was purely on my side, they will print a high-quality product.

The Expansion:
On the plus side, while I was waiting for the games to come from the printer I had an expansion.

"How does one have an expansion?" you ask, as well you should, because that is an excellent question.

This particular one happened while I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth. Which is surprising because you figure if a guy has an idea in the bathroom it's probably while he's on the Throne of Pondering. While that can happen, it wasn't the case this time. But I digress. Anyway, I was brushing my teeth and I was thinking of the slogan for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Dungeon which is, "It's quick. It's chaotic. It's almost entirely dungeon-free!"

And my next thought was, "If all the crazy stuff in this game happens on the way to the dungeon, what happens IN the dungeon?"

And just like that. *POOF* An expansion is born.

A Funny Thing Happened in the Dungeon has been designed and is working its way through play testing. This 54-card expansion adds a dungeon to the base game. You can delve into the dungeon to get Loot cards. Loot cards are much better than normal cards, but you have to brave the dangers of the dungeon to get them.

You can view details about the expansion in the Game List page to the right.

So...now there's an expansion for a game that you've never seen because it hasn't been released yet. Guess it's kinda hard for you to get excited about that just yet, having never seen the game. But soon you'll be able to play the game and you'll say to yourself, "Self, this game is a blast. I can't wait for the dungeon expansion to come out!" And yourself will agree with you, which is much better than when it argues with you in dark, grumbly voices.

Am I the only one that hears the dark, grumbly voices?

Hmm.

Two Games

Our first two games are coming along nicely (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Dungeon and Inept Evil Genius). I'm not going to discuss the games in detail here. You can see details in the Game List page to the right.

Today I'm going to talk about where we are in the production process.

Both games have been tested, revised, and retested (as is the way with games). And now the concept is ready for you, the Intrepid Game Explorer.

So the next step is to get everything ready to print. Most of that is doing the artwork. Yeah, I know Art-Free Games means we don't do art. But that's not what "artwork" means in this case. Each individual card must be turned into a picture file in order to go to the printer. 108 cards in the deck means 108 picture files. That's what I mean by artwork: converting the cards I have into PNG files.

Then there's all the text: Art-Free Games' page about the game, The Game Crafters' page (they're the printer), and the box. Lots of text on the box. And the box has to be converted to a picture file too.

Gotta get a UPC code. You know, that scannable bar-code thingie.

None of these steps is horribly difficult, mind you. It just takes some time to get it all together.

And that's where both games are right now. All of that has been done and sent to The Game Crafter. The game is basically ready to go. But it's not really ready until the final step: The Review. I have ordered my own copies from The Game Crafter. Once I review the copies and I know they are good to sell, then the games will be available to the public. Right now that's looking like it will be early February, unless I find issues in the prints.

So all you gamers just keep on gamin'.  You'll have some new things to play soon.

New Game Company, Old Game Designer

Hiya.  My name is Mark Parish and I've been designing games for decades.  I design hobby-shop style games.  Not the ones you find in Toy-R-Us or Walmart.  No.  I make the types of games you find in hobby shops and comic book stores.  You know.  Gamer Geek Fodder.  If you are a Gamer Geek, you know what I'm talkin' about.  If you're not, it's okay...we forgive you.

And what have I been doing with all these games I've created?  Well...nothing.  I just do it as a hobby and play them with friends.  It's not that I'm not interested in getting my games out there.  I am.  But two things have always kept me from publishing: large print runs and artwork.

In order to print games at a low enough price to make a profit, you have to do a large print run. Usually 1,000 copies.  Even at a low price per copy, 1,000 copies still costs about the same a semester of college tuition.  Ouch.

But in recent years there has been a surge of companies that do print on demand (POD), meaning the game is printed to order rather than printed in bulk ahead of time.  POD games costs more, since you're not getting the drastic 1,000-copy discount of a bulk print.  But it's a great way for designers to get their games out there and see what people like.  Doing it this way I can get dozens of games out to you, rather than just one.


The other obstacle has always been artwork.  I am a game designer, not an artist.  The best I can do is crayon stick figures, and they all have scoliosis.  For some reason no one wants a card game featuring deformed stick figures.  (I say that sarcastically, but a game featuring deformed stick figures would probably be hilarious.  If you wanna use the idea, go for it.)

But then I realized that some of the best games I've played recently have no artwork.  Artwork is pretty, and it makes us happy when it's there.  But ultimately whether or not you like a game is based on how fun it is to play.  In the end, it's not the artwork that matters.  It's the game.

And so I created ArtFreeGames.com today.  The goal is to make enjoyable games that prove you don't need art to have fun.