Gremlins, Inc. (video game) Windows, Mac, Linux

ABOUT THIS GAME

Gremlins, Inc. is an intense strategy board game in a steampunk world of corrupt capitalist gremlins who compete for money, political power and prestige. Steal resources, extort bribes, manipulate elections, lay traps, arrest other players: in this game, you have to be mean to win!

HOW DO YOU PLAY THIS GAME?

Each player has a hand of 6 cards to move around the playing field and gain resources that are then spent to earn score points. You play for score ("whoever reaches 30 first") or for time ("whoever has the most score after 30 min") or for rounds ("whoever has the most score after 100 rounds are up").

CARDS + STRATEGY?

There are different types of cards in the game (permanent, regular, secret & criminal) and as each card can be used either to move or for action, you need to develop both short-term & long-term strategies for making the most out of where you are, and what you have in your hand. Normally you spend half of your game time accumulating things, and another half attacking other players (stealing, arresting, making them pay a fine, initiating player conflicts, etc.).

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO PLAY ONE SESSION?

The dynamics of the sessions differs significantly between duels, where it's pure cut-throat, and three-player (or more) sessions, where normally everyone attacks the current score/money leader first, which allows for some daring strategies to be developed in the shadow of someone getting arrested out of envy. A typical ranked duel is 20-40 minutes. An intense ranked 5-player game can be up to one hour (the game has a built-in timer to make sure nobody stalls for time).

FEATURES

• This is an intense strategy game: make decisions at every round! Plan your moves, and then adjust to the actions of the other players and new cards drawn. The sessions are for 2 to 6 players, from cut-throat duels to no-holds-barred massive fights (from 20 min to 2 hours).

• The game offers a balanced resource system that allows for many comebacks even after you're fleeced or arrested (or both). With score, money, votes, malice, income and bribes players can claw back to the top.

• The design of the playing field allows for a variety of strategies: from ranking up in the Jail to growing income through the Bank to making deals with the devil in the Inferno, and more. With every session, you can try another road to victory.

• In this game, you have to be mean to win: not letting the others to score is as important as scoring yourself. The only true moment of unity in a multiplayer session is when everybody's united against the player who's about to win the game.

• 164 cards in the main deck, 30 events in the deck of Misfortunes as well as 6 special Chaos Cards offer a wealth of opportunities to earn and steal resources, set traps, arrest, initiate player conflicts, and climb up the political ladder to become the Governor.

• Welcome to the world of corrupt capitalist gremlins: the game features all-original steampunk artwork that we created during the 25+ months of development.

IF YOU LIKE NUMBERS:

• 164 cards in the main deck: permanent, regular, secret and criminal, with hand-drawn steampunk illustrations!

• 30 telegrams of Misfortune in the Misfortune deck: send and receive events that may completely disrupt another player's plans!;

• 6 Chaos Cards: an optional feature that changes the dynamics of the session;

• 11 locations: the Office, the Plant, the Dump, the Marketplace, the Inferno, the Jail, the Casino, the Court, the Treasure, the Bank and the Astral Plane;

• 7 spot types: Danger, Gamble, Police, Income, Bribe, Misfortune and Tribune;

• 27 months of development from concept to product – designed by Alexey Bokulev, the creator of Eador.Genesis

FINALLY, WHO ARE THE GREMLINS?

You think that’s just a pocket watch in your hand, a watch that’s a bit late because you keep forgetting to wind it up? No, no and no – you couldn’t be further from the truth! What you carry around is a whole gremlin town packed into this tiny mechanism: a town with its own bank, its own casino… and even its own jail! Gremlins are the microscopic creatures that inhabit any mechanism that they can possibly infiltrate. If a watch or a telescope malfunctions, then it’s probably due to gremlins who took up a residence there.

More than anything in life, gremlins value money, political power and prestige: prestige that one can claim after completing some sort of a grandiose engineering project. Aside from working on their own projects, gremlins mostly spend their time preventing other gremlins from building something even more grandiose. This they achieve through bribing officials and lying to the electorate, as well through stealing from their competitors - and outright arresting them.

A DISCLAIMER (JUST IN CASE)

We felt it important to note that Gremlins, Inc. is not a free-to-play game. You buy the game once, and this is all the money that we ask for the product. Also, this is not a CCG or TCG: you do not need to buy boosters or packs, the game offers the same deck to every player, and everyone's chances are equal.