What proportion of game ideas find their way to fruition? How many fledgling flickers are halted at ideation, at prototype zero, at first playtest—or are eventually lost altogether in the winding weeds of life's responsibilities? I am humbled by the number of factors that helped keep Keeps in play over the prior year and a half. To name a few: First and foremost, the steadfast dedication of my sister Elaina has not faltered. Even disregarding artistic salience, she is a force

It it possible for a game to be perfectly balanced, as all things should be? I think a good definition of balancing goes something like "Over many rounds, each player has an equal probability of winning under optimal play". The implication is that no one player has a preset advantage before the random setup. The game, then, is in figuring out just what that optimal play actually is—in a balanced game, the win would go to whoever plays the most optimally. One's skill in a game

Greetings, Elaina here! You may have heard that I fractured my right hand, AKA my drawing hand, but I'm pleased to report I'm back to two handed typing again, so it's time for a blog post. First, thank you everyone that shared feedback on last week's box designs! The truth is, I was having some creative block so I broke my hand as an excuse not to draw for the next two months. Turns out this excuse actually really helped me to think out of the box ... for the box design! I'

Do you prefer streets to be numbered or named? Would you rather live on 5th Street or Ocean Avenue? Which is more meaningful? Imagine a deck of 10,000 cards, numbered on one side but blank otherwise. With the right assignments, virtually every card game could be played with this deck. Map clubs/hearts/spades/diamonds to cards 1-13/14-26/27-39/30-52 and you have the standard French-suited playing cards, and every game that comes with them. You can even reduce most board games

Why are so many little games in big boxes? Even cards games with <50 cards. I can imagine a few reasons; better shelf presence, more imposing feel, to fit a rule/scoresheet or tokens. But the more I think on it, the less I understand. A big box does not make a big game. Is it compensating for something? If the rulebook is the size-limiter, then the gameplay isn't rich enough. Many arbitrary rules do not make up for low playability. Think about a deck of 52 playing cards—there

Glad Tidings All! Indeed, I am quite excited to deliver the first issue of the Keeps Weekly. Before we get into it, I want to thank each of you who signed up for this. I am no stranger to the swift disregard of bulk emails; it takes a true friend to be reading this right now. Elaina and I will do what we can to ensure this is a recurring letter that you are excited to unwrap instead of annoyed to receive. And I'll start by...starting already! PROGRESS UPDATE With the weeks

Way back when Keeps was but a collection of neural firings, I envisioned it a quiet, cognitive game. Boy was I wrong. What might be a useful system for defining types of player interaction in games? Perhaps someone might sit and work through the nitty gritty, might establish a taxonomy or set of metrics to dictate what "player interaction" entails (ok, it does sound kind of fun. A blog for another time). But you must recall my purpose in this pursuit and in life. The world ne

As people make the transition from beginner to seasoned Keeps veteran (though I am not sure even I have made it quite that far), they appear to undergo a kind of metamorphosis. And it is marked by distinct stages. A brand new player can be daunted by the fact that every card is unique. Just like any game, it can be frustrating not knowing what the optimal play is due to a lack of game knowledge. The good news is that joy of discovering the cards and their accompanying strateg

People keep asking me: "How did you come up with it?". I don't really know how to approach the question. I hope a story will suffice. For a long time, I had been meaning to sit and think up a novel card game for the standard 52-card deck. One night, at a friend's place for dinner, we got to the topic of running an internal boardgame-jam (yeah, that's the kind of friends I have). I recall the spontaneous base idea was that there should be different piles with different propert

This post is an excerpt from our Kickstarter campaign. If you like it, you can read the rest there! Early character designs. We decided to use animals to capture the personality (and therefore function) of the three non-mask characters. The Fool began and remained a crow. The count began an Ox and became a mountain goat, allowing for more ornate and less macho features. The friar, or vicar at the time, was more of a mystery. I explored a deer, then a lamb for vaguely religio

A moment for one of our hard-working interns, Lola. She spent long hours on the set of our first product video. And Atlas! Lucky to have talent of this caliber on the team 🙏

David and I have been siblings ever since he was born. We also have an older brother, Eric, who is a dedicated play tester and support we can always count on. Adventurous little children. I started making art more intently in middle school. I used to really like drawing dragons, then I discovered Mark Crilley videos and my life was changed when he showed me the way of the realistic eye. I went through many an era, eventually finding my way as a fine arts major in undergrad an