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Cheapass Games On Being Cheap And Good
Thanks to GameGirlAdvance for pointing to an OgreCave.com interview with James Ernest, the founder of noted low-price, high-fun board/card game makers Cheapass Games. As the interview notes, "With a mantra of 'Games: they cost too much, and they are at some level all the same', Cheapass virtually created the cheap games market, selling the boards and cards for their games packaged in white paper bags. Shortly after taking gamers by storm with Kill Doctor Lucky, Spree, and a number of humorous titles, James and Cheapass were being imitated right and left. What did it take to get where Cheapass is now, and how does the company plan to stay on top of the cheap games heap?" The interview also notes Cheapass' diversification into videogame publishing, putting out Digital Eel's titles, including Dr Blob's Organism.
I downloaded the demo of this a while ago enjoyed it for a couple of hours and forgot about it.
I'm sure that if I saw it in a shop for about 7 GBP / 10 USD I would have bought it and would have been happy with it.
Gaming needs a company like cheapass games putting out good or indifferent games by small indy development teams. And getting them in shops, these things should be impulse buys.
There's nothing like having some friends over, having some beer and playing Devil Bunny. And the best part, it costs $2.50.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
This reminds me of when Magic first appeared, before it went through its incredible poplular phase. It was cheap at $7-8 for a start box and maybe $2 for a booster pack. Cheap compared to video games (until rampant speculation made a Black Lotus a $300 card.) It was social as well, whether you were teaching someone to play or a trick you had discovered, discussing the artwork or working out a trade. And it was fun, playing with either one friend or many, or even in a tournament. It nice to see something that does not depend upon microchips being popular.
On that note, I attended one of the many Harry Potter release parties at my local Barnes & Noble on Friday. I just wanted to be able to say I had experiences the phenomenon. I sat with some friends at work and played chess for two and a half hours while everyone waited for 12 o'clock to roll around. It was great to see that many people excited about paper media. And it felt safe. There were young children running all over the place, having fun, and not worrying about being assaulted. It was very nice. Try not to be jaded about this, people. Rowlands was interviewed last week, and reguardless of the money, she truly loves what she is doing.
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
I own most of the Cheapass titles, and would seriously suggest the following (a * denotes a must have :) ):
Deadwood (with all 4 expansions)
Freeloader
*Kill Doctor Lucky
Spree!
Any X BRAWL decks, X being at least 1 more than the number of gamers in your group
*Change!
*Falling
Any X FightBall deck pairs, X being at least 2
Fight City
*Girl Genius: The Works
Give Me The Brain
Starbase Jeff
*Cube Farm
*Nexus
The Very Clever Pipe Game
Any X Button Men, X being as with BRAWL
*Diceland: Deep White Sea
The other 3 Diceland sets
Assuming X is 3 in all cases, this full list will set you back about $230, plus $25 for the bits pack. If you go for just the *s then for a mere $60 (plus bits) you will have a collection of 7 (or more, Change! is really 3 games) games that will last you through any trip or boring delay, and be more portable than a single Monopoly box.
Including the following choice selection, which I am sure we have all thought of before but never written down rules for:
CEILING FAN BASEBALL
For 2 or more players
Equipment:
One (1) piece of paper
One (1) ceiling fan
Some furniture
A basic understanding of the rules of baseball (without the complicated parts like the ground rule double and when to spit your tobacco)
Setup:
1) Wad up the paper into a ball.
2) Divide the players up into two teams.
3) Turn on the ceiling fan to maximum speed.
4) If you like to make this kind of thing official before starting (i.e., you don't trust your friends), determine exactly which pieces of furniture constitute which kinds of hits. (see below)
The Rules:
The team throwing the "ball" at the fan is on Offense. The specific person throwing is The Batter. A given at-bat goes like this:
The batter throws the ball at, or over and into, the ceiling fan...
* If the ball passes through the fan without being hit by the blades, the attempt is a strike.
* If the ball is nicked by the blades (i.e., you can hear it), but otherwise just drops through, it is a foul.
* If the ball is hit by the fan... it's a hit! The result depends on where the ball lands:
* If it lands on the floor, the batter is out. Pop fly, grounder to the shortstop, something like that.
* If it lands -- and stays on top of -- on a piece of furniture, then the result depends on the height and size of the surface, as per the following section (or whatever works for your players).
Scoring a hit:
Single -- Furniture which is about knee-high or lower with a sizable surface. Coffee table, sofa, easy chair, etc.
Double -- Doubles are scored on taller (waist-high) or smaller surfaces, often places like the top of the sofa's backrest or the top of the TV.
Triple -- High and/or slim surfaces such as the mantle of the fireplace, enclosed areas like one level of a bookshelf, or maybe a large-ish container like the trashcan.
Home Run! -- All those places that make people incredulous that the ball just landed there. Tops of lamps, inside hanging plant pots, the tippy-top of the tallest bookshelf. The kitchen sink. The floor two rooms away. That sort of thing.
The Rest:
Pretty much, it works like standard baseball from here on out. Each team has three outs before the next is up. Someone needs to keep track of where runners are located. Assume that runners advance the same number of bases as the batter when there's a hit (i.e., a runner on second advances home when the batter gets a double). Nine innings may or may not be the proper amount of innings -- I've found that outs tend to be common enough that games are quick and low-scoring, but I also only have one ceiling fan/room configuration worth of playtesting. Hey, what do you expect? It's a dumb game! I should have better things to do with my time!
Chris Floyd
chrisf@vr1.com
There is a series of games available at cheap-ass games that explores something everyone can relate to- the drudgery of food service, where the workers are literally zombies. By far my favorite is Give Me the Brain, in which you have to try to finish all of your tasks so you can go home. However, there's only one brain to go around all of the employees, and some tasks (though hardly all) require it to be completed. I'm sure you can get the gist of it from their product description.
Anyway, if you like shouting "Braiiinnnn" a lot, which I always do, this is a great party game. In addition to being fun and having relatively simple rules, this game is hilarious. If you can't make zombies funny, though, you're obviously not trying.
- WrexSoul
\/.
vvv
The problem with Cheapass games is that.. well.. they're rather cheapass. They're really just not that good as games.
Most cheapass games are strong on the humour and theme department, but somewhat weak on the actual gameplay. They're typically a fair amount of fun for two or three plays, but after that they get dull and are no longer interesting to play. They often suffer from poor balancing issues and players may not have any chance to win or have much effect on the game. Some of them, despite these flaws, are certainly worth playing, but I cringe at the thought of buying a cheapass game without playing it first, as I'll probably just end up throwing it out or giving it away.
The contention that these games are just as good as full production games like Medina or LÃwenhurz and so on is wrongheaded to say the least.
-josh