Ambush!
November 2019 - May 2021
Co-created with Masato Lin, Brendan Tighe, and Tongwei Dai
Team Leader, Lead Designer, Kickstarter
Card Game, Kickstarter Campaign
Ambush! combines the strategy and card specialization of fantasy card games such as Magic: The Gathering with the fast, fun gameplay of Egyptian Rat Slap.
We've printed and sold over 60 copies of Ambush!, and are looking forward to being included in Indiecade 2022, where we have been nominated for the "Anywhere and Everywhere" Boardgame category.
Players use a variety of cards, each of which has its own special effects, against their opponents to damage their castle and weaken their forces. Every card that's used is placed on the "battlefield" in the center of the play area, and the reveal of an Ambush! card at just the right time turns this play area into a frenzy as players rush to pick up all the previously played cards.
Central to my design philosophy was the balancing of complexity with efficiency. The fast-paced nature of the game required that card effects be simple and easy for new players to grasp quickly. However, I still wanted to reward players who were more experienced or who took the time to strategize when they were able to. To accommodate this, Ambush! places most of its complexity on the interactions that cards have with each other and the battlefield, allowing the card effects themselves to remain short and easily understood.
