Today’s newsletter is Show and Tell, but I brought three things instead of one! That has to get me extra credit with Mrs. Frankfurter. After my last math test, I need it. Ho boy…
Today I officially begin my “Zine Quest,” after nearly a decade away from crowdfunding. Join me on my journey!
I just hit the launch button on ALL-CARDS, a 1-2 player strategic storytelling game you play with YOUR trading cards! It’s a perfect opportunity to give new life to your old trading cards and playing cards gathering dust in boxes. (I’ve been playing with United States of ALF cards. You might say America is even stranger than Melmac!!) For years, I’ve been backing rad games during Zine Quest, a month long celebration of game zines. After all these years, I finally launched a game zine of my own for Zine Quest. Woo!
My quest is off to a good start. Yesterday, I received this in my inbox…
Kickstarter selected ALL-CARDS as a “Project We Love!” That’s very exciting! Hundreds of projects submit for this badge, so I’m honored ALL-CARDS was selected. 💖
How do you play ALL-CARDS? I’m glad you asked.
1. Build a Deck. Start by building a deck with cards you have lying around the house. Pokemon, Tarot, Garbage Pail Kids, even greeting cards will work.
2. Choose Your Hero. After drawing a hand of cards, you’ll choose one to be your Central Character. You assign that character a story goal, like world domination or opening an Outback Steakhouse in the local mall. Meanwhile, your opponent has a Central Character whose goals are directly opposed to yours. Uh oh! Conflict!
3. Play Out the Story. All the cards in your deck are given special abilities. Use the special abilities of your cards to help your hero achieve their goal, or thwart the goals of your hero’s rival. As you play, you and your opponent are creating a story together.
4. Win Your Perfect Ending. After six scenes (rounds of play), you’ll tally up your hero’s achievements throughout the game. Whoever has the highest tally wins and gets to say how the story ends!
My wife Amanda and I shot and edited a 1 minute video for the Kickstarter last weekend. It was a lot of fun and took me back to my college film school days of shooting comedy sketches the day before a live show. Check it out!
I’d be thrilled if you gave ALL-CARDS a look today! You can back the project for as little as a dollar.
As an Equip Story reader, you know how much love, care, and thought I put into my games. I’m hoping to fund a quality print run for this wacky game I’ve spent the last year perfecting and give you a great game for your shelf.
Gwen Katz and I made another entry for the public domain game jam!
In Gaming Like It’s 1930, our task was to make a game based on work entering the public domain in 2026. Last year, we made the first fully licensed Marx Brothers game, a hotel simulator based on their first film The Cocoanuts. This year, we decided to create a scavenger hunt mystery for Nancy Drew called The House Hunter Mystery. It’s a point-and-click mystery game where you help Nancy Drew win a competition by solving riddles in a house. Don’t let your high school rival Eugene win! He sucks!
The reaction from players has been good so far. A nice mix of complements and 5 star reviews on Itch. I’ll write more about the creation of The House Hunter Mystery next month. If you play it, let me know if you managed to win and on what difficulty.
Here’s a look at my hologram ghost project in the flesh reflective acrylic surface!
I’m proud I was able to get to the finish line on a working, voice-activated Pepper’s Ghost video player. It’s still very much a prototype, but if nothing else happens with it, at least I can cross that idea off my creative project bucket list. Happy hauntings!
🎲 Your Turn: Did you back ALL-CARDS? Play Nancy Drew? Watch Hologram Ghost? Do you have something you want to showcase? I want to hear about it! Reply directly to this email or leave a comment with the orange button below.
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