About
A fast card based gladiatorial combat game.
Meat Puppets was created as a fast paced game for two to six players. The goal was to develop an engaging, easy to play game that should take approximately 30 minutes (or less) to play.
Game Play
It is the dark-ages and the primary source of entertainment is gladiatorial combat. The evil king takes a perverse interest in the games, and has ordered the dark wizard to construct a mystical arena.
The lifeforce of each gladiator is gradually drained as they fight. The king bestows the gift of life on gladiators who are talented enough to survive the games.
At its most basic level, Meat Puppets is a color-matching game, but there’s some strategy that players must employ to successfully walk out of the arena.
Of course it’s not as simple as matching up colors. Each gladiator has a special skill, and you can equip armor or weaponry to augment your attacks or defense.
It seems simple, but countless hours have gone into play testing to create a well-balanced, easy to play game.
What's In The Game
The game consists of six gladiator cards, 86 action cards, and instructions contained in a plastic card case. You’ll need to supply tokens for health (pennies, peanuts, or whatever), otherwise all you need is two to six players.
I hate cheap cards, they don't shuffle or deal well. Meat Puppets will be printed on high quality stock with a linen finish.
Super Deluxe Game (limited to 99 copies)
The super deluxe version of the game replaces the plastic card case with an upscale case (either metal or wood), and includes health tokens so you don’t need to bring anything other than players to the game.
The box will also be signed and numbered on the bottom, maybe one day you'll have a valuable piece of history.
Why Kickstarter?
Although I am a talented digital artist and creative director, I need to rely on a character artist to bring this project to life. I've already commissioned him to do the character artwork that you've seen on this page, but there's still more to do.
I obviously also need to get the game printed and packaged, and I just don't have the resources to do this out of pocket.
Stretch Goals
$12,000 - Are you not entertained? - We’ll expand the deck to include two additional gladiators so you can play 2-8 players, and increase the size of the action card deck to make playing seamless.
Bonus Add-Ons
Health Tokens ($5) - I wanted to keep the cost of the deck and packaging low, so I'm not including health tokens in the base game. Add an additional $5 in your pledge and I'll include 60 plastic health tokens for the game (I'll increase the number of tokens to 80 if the $12,000 stretch goal is met).
Thanks
Thanks go to a number of people who have been instrumental in helping improve Meat Puppets with their suggestions and allowing me to torture them with each successive round of game testing: Benjamin Sweet, Justin Morgenthau, Brian Wiatr, Jonathan Zawrotny, and John de Raismes. Also my wife Cara Sweet who was supportive in my game-making pursuits.
In closing
Meat Puppets is a labor of love. KickStarter is my way of getting my game from hand drawn cards and computer sketches to a real product. I can’t do it without support from the KickStarter community. I’ve cut as much fat from the project as possible so that I can turn this into a real game. I hope you’ll love it as much as I do.
Thanks!
Risks and challenges
There are always risks in creating a physical product. The biggest risk is a delay in printing of the product. I have set a production date far enough in the future that should be very reasonable (my goal is to produce and ship the product BEFORE May, 2013).
Additional risks may include unforeseen costs in production of the product. Since this is a small project, any additional costs will be covered out of pocket.
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Funding period
- (45 days)