Monday, July 1, 2013

Introducing Pigpen by Kevin Kulp

The following was written by Kevin Kulp, a friend and local designer that I've had the pleasure of working together with on his game Pigpen. My role was on the development side with Island Officials and I'll post my thoughts on that process as we go... but for now, here's an introduction by Kevin!

What happens when you put a bunch of hungry pigs in the middle of a bunch of farmers?

INTRODUCING PIGPEN!
Pigpen is a card game of frantic, family fun.  Players take on the role of a farmer trying to pen some pigs.  But farmers don't have it easy, they first have to build pens.  You can choose the wood fencing or the more sturdy brick walls to form the pen that will contain the pigs.  They also need some enticement such as feed or a farmer can go for broke and build a pen for two with the slop tray.  Once a farmer has a pen with some feed together, a pig will walk right into the nice cozy home.  

Sounds easy, doesn't it?  You would think that...

Facing you down on the other side of the table, are your rival farmers who want pigs for themselves.  They will saw your wooden fences, dynamite your brick wall and stop at nothing to make sure you are out of the pig market.

If you can make it to the end with cute pigs in complete pens, they get judged against the table of rival farmers to see who was the best farmer for that game!

So roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty and get ready to jump into the quick and crazy world of Pigpen!

DESIGNER VIEW
Pigpen was born while walking around the fair city of Philadelphia, waiting for an IGDA meeting to start, one Saturday afternoon.  As a game design student who had come to the conclusion he wanted to enter the world of board games, I knew I wanted to design a family card game.  But for some reason that type of game had alluded me for a long time.  Walking around the city thinking about the idea of a quick family card game, I thought back to a game I had just played at the time called There's a Moose in My House.  I knew I wanted that kind of silliness and that simple of a goal, putting Moose in other players house, for my game.Thinking back to my childhood, growing up around working and non-working farms, the idea of doing something with farm animals came to mind.  It was there that the idea of penning pigs came to be.  With that simple goal in mind, I headed to my local CVS, picked up some note cards and by the end of the next day I had a working game together that I played with my own children.

BONUS TRIVIA
The original name of Pigpen was Pen the Pigs.


Thanks Kevin! Looking forward to helping launch Pigpen and seeing more of these updates.