Now, one thing was VERY clear right off of the bat when James. He's a very energetic, enthusiastic, caring and passionate person with everything he does. While we were talking about his game, you could tell that he had put a lot of love and heart into his game. This is really clear in his awesome family bluffing game.
So sit back, grab a nice down home glass of iced tea and wash that dirt off of your hands from a hard days work and lets check out Barnyard Roundup!
As always, here's an excerpt:
"A family bluffing card game, aimed at parents and adults that are bored playing old typical games. Fun for both adults and kids, Barnyard Roundup is a game that doesn’t feel like a “task” to play for the adults and is on a level a kid would enjoy."
As you now know, this is a family game with a farm theme and uses a bluffing mechanic.
To start off, you select a first player. Then shuffle all the animal cards being sure to place the bonus cards for sets and animals in the center of the table.
Then you take the proper amount of tokens ("Excuse Me" and "Robber") for the amount of players. In this example we're going to use 3 players although the game plays best with 4+. Don't get me wrong, it's a BLAST with 3, at least for us it is, but I feel this game REALLY shines at the 4+ player mark because of the choices of interaction between different players. In this game the phrase "The more, the merrier" rings true.
So as I said, 3 players means we're going to take 3 "Excuse Me" tokens as well as 3 "Robber" tokens. You'll also want to be sure to have the "Scarecrow" token at the ready but we're not going to use it just yet.
With those 6 tokens you place them face down and shuffle them around. Then each player pics one token and keeps it to themselves so that the other players can not see them. Now you'll take the remaining 3 tokens, add in the scarecrow face down as well and shuffle them all around keeping them in an order so you can freely pick up any one you might choose when the time comes.
Next players are dealt 6 face down cards each which is their hand.
Now you're read to play the game!
Players will take turns trying to bluff their way to victory by taking cards of the same animal(if they choose more than one) and telling another player that "These ARE" or "These are NOT" said animal.
If the player they picked answers correctly, they get the cards! Answer incorrectly and you get to KEEP the cards which are worth their face value in points at the end of the game.
The game goes on like this until the draw deck is depleted. Once the LAST card is drawn the game stops and players add up their points making sure to take cards for the most TYPE of any animal over all the players as well as any SETS of the animals.
Now I mentioned tokens in the setup, the tokens themselves have some pretty cool abilities to them. These can be played either BEFORE or AFTER the bluffing phase as decided by the player.
For instance, the "Excuse Me" token allows another player to make them
self the target of your bluff effectively eliminating your original
target.
The "Robber" token allows another player to choose a target player and
name an animal. If that player has any of that specific animal they get
them all! But you have to be careful here because if they DON'T have any
of that animal but DO have any crows in their hand you get all of those
instead!
And lastly, the "Scarecrow" token is a VERY useful one to draw. When you
draw this one, you IMMEDIATELY reveal the token and effectively "scare"
up to 3 crows from you to another player of your choice! Since crows
are worth negative points, this is VERY nice when you draw into it.
Once a token is used you simple put it face down and shuffle it with the rest on the table.
On to my opinion:
Game Art: The game art is WONDERFUL. It's very playful and has a story book feel to it. It's a pleasure to look at while playing the game or while the box is sitting on your shelf or table.
Gameplay: The gameplay is a simple bluffing mechanic. But don't let this give you an early opinion before you play! It's great to see your loved ones whether it be kids or adults try to bluff their way into keeping the cards. It's also a great way to teach your kids to read a persons actions and gestures to help determine their intent.
Game Quality: Now this is one thing that I love. When a dev such as James goes the extra mile to provide a review/demo copy of a game in it's NEARLY final form. It shows a real knack for taking control as well as showing that most of the work is done other than producing the game for players.
The quality of this one is of a game you would expect to find on a store shelf!
So, should you buy/back this game? YES! There's nothing not to love with this one. It works great with adults as well as children and it's nothing but a fun time waiting to happen! If you're looking for a good way to unwind and have some straight up fun with your kids... BUY IT, BACK IT, SUPPORT IT! (unless you hate having fun :P )
This is the FIRST GAME EVER to earn my KYBG Family Seal of Approval!
Looks like I'll have to design a seal now, lol!
Once the game goes live on kickstarter I'll post a link in this space. Until then, feel free to join the Druid City Games Facebook group HERE!
As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples! :)
-Tim
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