Author Archives: JW Gray

Crazier Eights Glossary

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Crazier Eights uses terminology that should be understood in a certain way. This glossary defines the terminology that is used.

ally – A player who is part of your team. If you or an allied player wins, then you both win. If either of you loses the game, you both lose the game.

card back – The back of the cards are all the same and no information about the card is provided on the back of the card.

color – There are four different colors of cards: yellow, red, blue, and green. Each color of card also has a different suit shown on the upper right-hand side of the card.

control – A card that is in play on the table is controlled by the player who played it unless another player gains control of it. Whoever controls a card does whatever is stated on it, but some cards have the same effect on all players. Continue reading →

What is Crazier Eights?

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front and back2Crazier Eights is a card game that I developed that has a fantasy theme, uses colorful cards, has many interesting card abilities, and features excellent artwork. It is actually more of a game system and multiple versions of the game have already been made for my personal use. The game is loosely based on Crazy Eights, a game using regular playing cards. In Crazy Eights, players take turns discarding cards and the player who has zero cards in hand wins. UNO is based on Crazy Eights. Continue reading →

Crazier Eights First Edition Spoiler (Updated 5/5/14)

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first editionUpdate (8/4/15): This spoiler is a out of date. Go here to see the current spoiler.

One great thing about Crazier Eights is that there can be multiple versions of the game that have a different variety of cards. I have four main versions I have been working on. I feel that Series 1 is now at the point that it could be worth publishing. I will present all the cards below. You can take a look at let me know if you think anything should be improved.

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The Rules of Permanents

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I have recently been thinking about how permanents are one of the more complex parts of the game. For example, someone played the game who thought you could destroy a permanent card that’s in a player’s hand. You are only supposed to be able to destroy a permanent that’s in play on the table (and is no longer in a player’s hand for that reason). I am now thinking it might be a good idea to rephrase some of the cards to help make it easier to understand how permanents work.

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Kickstarter Options

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I plan on trying out kickstarter to see if I can fund manufacturing Crazier Eights, and there are different options. I will make sure that people who pledge enough money get the product, but there are still some interesting options:

  1. I could manufacture the game with a major manufacturer (such as admagic) and mass produce the game, but it could take 3-4 months for people to get the product, I would have to convert the images to CMYK, and I would have to mail everyone the product on my own. The motivation for using this option is that the costs are lower, so I could make sure people who pledge $19 get the item (a 52 card deck), and higher quantities would come at a discount.
  2. I could manufacture the game with The Gamecrafter (a print on demand company), but the product would be more expensive. On the bright side everyone could get the product in two or three weeks, no color conversion would be necessary, and they have a bulk order fulfillment program that would save me a lot of time (and money). I could make sure anyone who pledge $24 get one copy of the item (a 52 card deck), and higher quantities would come at a discount.
  3. I could manufacture the game with The Gamecrafter and make sure anyone who pledges $29 gets one copy of the item, and twice as many cards would be included in every box (104 cards), which is enough for a six player game.

Even if the game is manufactured with The Gamecrafter, I hope to do a second print run with a company like AdMagic. That would likely require sufficient funding, though.

Edit: Looks like the Gamecrafter also offers free promotion for the game if you use them. More information on Gamecrafter Crowdfunding can be found here.

Which of these three options would you prefer?

Wording/Templating

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One issue when making a game is how to word card text in a consistent way. Magic: the Gathering has a card that says, “Target player draws three cards.” Some people find that confusing. What’s a target?

I used the target template for early versions of Crazier Eights, but I decided that it was more confusing than it needed to be. Now I say things like “A player of your choice draws three cards.” However, another option is to simplify things a bit more. The card could just say “A player draws three cards.” The “of your choice” way of phrasing things might not be necessary and can make the wording a little less elegant. Which way of phrasing cards do you prefer?

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