THE NEWSLETTER OF THE SQUIRMISH EMAIL CLUB | VOLUME 1 NUMBER 1
Hiya, Pal!
Thanks for joining the Squirmish Email Club! I’m Steven Stwalley, the game designer and cartoonist behind Squirmish, The Card Game of Brawling Beasties. It has been a while since I have sent anything out to this list. How have you been? Still hanging out at the same bus stop? Did you ever finish that enormous pile of mashed potatoes you were working on? Is that rash doing any better? Well, I hope all is well with you.
I’m going to start sending news out this way on a more regular basis, so tell your pals! Or, if this sounds awful, unsubscribe! I do hope you’ll stay with me, though, as I enjoy your refined digital company, your wit, and the many impressive ways in which you can imitate the sounds of flatulence.
I have a lot of wondrous Squirmish updates to share with you. Like this:
Squirmish: The Videogame of Brawling Beasties is Coming to Steam in May 2024!
The first and most exciting update is that the Squirmish Videogame is almost ready to be released! It will be out this May on Steam. It is designed for single player or two-player PVP play. There are a bunch of new characters of varying degrees of brain-smartses for you to do battle against.
My pal Jeff Faust and I have been working on the videogame adaptation for a number of years now, and I think anyone who likes the tabletop game is going to get a big, fat, hairy kick out of it. In addition to being able to play Squirmish in the way in which you have become accustomed, the videogame also introduces a number of new and interesting play-styles to try out.
You may be even more excited to hear that you do not necessarily have to wait until May to check it out. We are currently looking for a few good playtesters for the Squirmish videogame. Experience the hilarity of unique bugs that (hopefully) won’t make it to the final version! You can sign up to join the playtest by clicking on the button that says “Request Access” under “Join the Squirmish Playtest” on the Squirmish Steam page.
Also, you may want to consider wishlisting the game on Steam so you get a reminder there when it gets released. Do that by clicking the button that says “Add to My Wishlist” on the Squirmish Steam page.
Note that, for those of you who do not play videogames on Steam but do elsewhere, we hope to eventually port it to a number of other platforms. Personally, I can’t wait to play it on my toaster.
Squirmish 3.0 Print Edition…
and Expansions!
The Videogame is not all the big news, though! I’m excited to share that the Squirmish tabletop game is about to get a new edition… and some new expansions… in the very near future!
I recently got the rights back from Gamewright so I can self-publish Squirmish again. This will allow me to expand and build on the game however I see fit, which I am very excited to do. I actually have made hundreds of Squirmish cards at this point… I’m looking forward to getting more of them out into the world.
The first thing I will be publishing is a new edition (3.0) of the basic 70-card game you are already familiar with. It will contain the same cards you already know… so it is pretty non-essential for those of you who own the Gamewright edition. There will be some changes… not all of which are good:
There will be a revised rule book (which will also be downloadable for free).
The errors on the cards have been corrected (like the really glaring one on Old Man Eggplant).
The Gamewright-edition googly-eye damage counters will be replaced with the tiddlywink damage counters from Squirmish 1.0.
The cards will be slightly smaller. I am using an excellent print-on-demand service called The Gamecrafter to make the games… but one limitation of print-on-demand is that stuff needs to be built to default specs. So the new cards will be 2.5 inches square instead of 3 and 1/8 inches square.
The backs of the new cards obviously will not have the Gamewright logo, since they are no longer the publisher. Otherwise, they look pretty much the same.
The new set will only come with one green die, and it will just have pips instead of numbers.
I realize the card changes will be annoying-as-holy-howling-heck to some folks who already have a set of these cards. The new cards are compatible with the Gamewright set if you don’t mind intermingling two different size cards with slightly different backs… but that is kind of like shuffling salami and swiss cheese. To try and minimize this annoyance, I will also be offering a no-frills basic card set version that is nothing but the cards at a considerably lower cost than buying the whole 3.0 set (so you can get the cards without the cost of the box, rules, die and tiddlywink damage counters).
Simultaneous to the release of the new 3.0 set, I will also be releasing the first of many planned expansion booster packs… The Biscuit Sisters Vs. The Gravy Brothers set (which will include 24 cards).
Squirmish Discord Server
Squirmish now has a Discord Server! Come and talk with your fellow card-brawlers about the ins, outs and intricacies of the game of Squirmish. Debate the merits of The Wee Admiral of the Sea! Discuss advanced strategies! Post fan art! Share your Killgor the Conqueror fan fic! Report game bugs! I hope to hang out with you there!
Squirmish Art Process
I thought some of you may enjoy seeing some production art in these emails. I still do most of my initial work on paper like some weird Victorian, if you can believe that. I have a pretty esoteric and probably overly-complicated process for creating most of my Squirmish art. It usually goes like this:
1: I scribble on paper. Then I let the scribbles inform some rough pencils that I draw. Then I tighten the pencils just enough to feel comfortable for the inking.
2. I ink on paper, usually using a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, the single greatest drawing tool ever invented.
3. I do a 600 DPI greyscale scan the black and white art.
4. I convert the scan to vector art in Adobe Illustrator,
5. I paste that vector art into Adobe Animate and clean it up. Then I create three layers. The top layer I leave as black and white line art. The middle layer I color with flat color. The bottom layer I take the shape of all the lines and filled color and make all black to block any potential gaps in the artwork. On the color layer, I generally expand the shape of the color fills by 2 pixels to nest the edges of the color under the lines on the top layer.
6. Once I’m happy with the flat coloring in Adobe Animate, I export the three layers as three separate .svg files.
7. I import my .svg files into three layers in an Adobe Photoshop document. The nice thing about this is that it leaves all my color and line art as vector art, which is infinitely scalable if I ever want to change the size for different purposes.
8. Then I start toning in Photoshop using a stylus on a Huion Kamvas Drawing Tablet. I usually start with the darks. I create a layer between the color and line art and work with black, usually at around 25% opacity. Once I’m happy with the toning, I usually convert the layer to a multiply layer.
9. Then I start with the lights, adding another layer on top of the darks layer. I usually draw with white at around 25% opacity, and then usually apply a blending mode (often overlay at the end.
10. Next, I usually another layer on top of that for highlights. For that I use white at 100% opacity.
11. I sometimes add other layers of other colors, lights and tones to get it looking snappy.
12. After that, I generally add a simple background behind everything with shadows and light of its own.
Here is some rough art on paper I used in creating the Squirmish Email Club header at the top of this email.
Most of this drawing was too quick and embarrassingly cruddy to be usable, but I did use a very digitally-edited version of the banner for the email header.
I took some more time drawing these reprobates that ended up being used in the final header above.
Anyhow, thanks again for playing Squirmish and for subscribing! I’ll talk to you soon. Until then, I recommend trying some lotion on the rash. It can’t hurt.
We enlisted the help of Carl the Steam Wishlist Fairy to automatically add Squirmish to your Steam wishlist so you will know when it becomes available to download and play… but that did not work out so well. Please help Carl out by going to the Squirmish Steam Store and clicking “Add to Your Wishlist.”
Carl means well.
Squirmish: The Videogame of Brawling Beasties is a hilarious turn-based card-battling game based on the critically-acclaimed tabletop game of the same name. Battle bizarre and ridiculous cards in both single-player and online PVP multiplayer modes. Rumble against a horde of ridiculous opponents created just for the videogame, such as Tutufly, Picklepuss and Beatknock. Easy to learn how to play… but the strange strategies and interactions of the wildly-varying cards create a unique, unpredictable and infinitely-playable game!
“Since there are so many different characters and different things that you can do… I mean, that deck is fat with characters… so you’re going to replay this quite often.” – Wood 4 Sheep Games
Just in time for Halloween, Squirmish has been reviewed at dadsuggests.com as one of “The Best Monster Board Games for the Family!” Read it here.
“Squirmish is a very original card-battle game with the most incredibly imaginative monsters. I can’t stress enough how funny the creatures are in this game. From their pictures, to their descriptions, to their powers – it’s all so creative and hilarious.” -Ryan Billingsley at dadsuggests.com
The other day I was feeling overwhelmed and helpless reading about coronavirus.
In one article I ran across (I can’t find it now, unfortunately) a mother mentioned that there were no good resources she knew of for teaching kids not to touch their faces to avoid getting sick. Well, that seemed like a problem I could take a crack at helping with.
Over the last week, I put together a free print-and-play game on the subject, appropriately named “DON’T TOUCH YOUR FACE!” It makes the surprisingly difficult task of not touching your face into a fun, competitive challenge. I hope it gives some families out there some help and some laughs in these difficult times of itchy noses that must stay itchy.
“Squirmish je elegantní karetní řežba, při které všichni bojují se všemi a při tom mohou využívat řadu bláznivých schopností. Právě humor a lehkost je tím nejvýraznějším, čím dokáže novinka bodovat a to opravdu úspěšně.”
Google translate claims this means:
“Squirmish is an elegant card game where everyone struggles with everyone and can use a variety of crazy skills. It is the humor and lightness that is the most striking, so the new one can score and it is really successful.”
Elegantní!
Then there is:
“Po řadě partií můžeme svědomitě prohlásit, že je pro nás tahle hra ohromným překvapením. Ze všech stran z ní totiž čiší hratelnost, kterou vlastně nelze vysvětlit jednotlivými částmi. Povedlo se je totiž poskládat tak dobře, že si prostě budete partie jednoduše užívat. A nevadí vůbec, jestli je hra náhodná nebo chaotická. To se děje především zásluhou řady schopností.”
Which google translate claims means:
“After a number of games, we can make a conscious statement that this game is a great surprise for us. From all sides, it’s a gameplay that can not be explained by individual parts. It has been so easy to put together that you simply enjoy the game. And it does not matter if the game is accidental or chaotic. This is mainly due to a number of capabilities.”
Ohromným překvapením!
And don’t miss:
“Squirmish je nádherně bláznivou karetní hrou, kterou se vám chce hrát pořád dokola. To proto, že je od začátku do konce plná akce a hráči jsou do bitvy neustále zapojení. K tomu ještě přidejte vynikající grafické provedení a dostanete lahůdku, která se stane oblíbencem všech. Squirmish by se rozhodně měla stát adeptem pro lokalizaci, protože nám svojí bláznivostí připomíná extrémně úspěšného Munchkina. Tak snad její přijetí u hráčů bude podobně výtečné.”
Which google translate interprets as:
“Squirmish is a gorgeously crazy card game you want to play around all the time. This is because there is full action from start to finish and players are constantly involved in the battle. Add a great graphic design and get a treat that will become the favorite of all. Squirmish should definitely become an adept for localization because of our crazy reminders of an extremely successful Munchkin. So her admission to the players will be similarly excellent.”
