Bugsnax: The Card Game

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- The Curator

Bugsnax: The Card Game
Designer	Kevin Zuhn
Release	October 2024
Source
Product Details
Function	Card Game
Price	$5 - $25 (tier dependent)
Material	Cardboard / print

Bugsnax: The Card Game is an upcoming competitive card game created by Young Horses. It is set to be released and distributed in October 2024, following the reaching of its Kickstarter goal on April 2, 2024.

The release of a card game introduces a new form of media promotion beyond the existing merchandise focused to promote the video game. As the complete game is provided upon purchase in order to play it, it differs from other franchise card games that aim for collecting.

The setting is the pre-arrival of the Journalist, during the settlement of the expedition, before Lizbert went missing. Lizbert and the Snaxsquatch feature as separate entities - Lizbert functioning as a playable deck and the Snaxsquatch functioning as a wild card.

Lizbert knew her expedition team needed to keep being well-fed and thus organized an event for them to encourage them to catch Bugsnax. The winner would gain the title of Snakmaster General and would supposedly win them "respect and admiration" of the other expeditionees.

Content

The Card Game is set to release in October 2024. The Kickstarter states that their provided promotional material may not be the end product. As of August 2024, the following subjects are shown to be featured.

Promotional video

Kickstarter

The Card Game was crowdfunded through Kickstarter on April 1, 2024, strategically on April Fools' Day.

The backing ended on a total of $72,604, a little above 484% of the initially pledged goal of US$ 15,000, with a total of 2200 backers. As Kickstarter only allows payment with credit cards, everyone outside of the United States and those who are denied application for a creditcard. Ironically, Young Horses did include a package specifically aimed at those 'overseas'.

• Kickstarter info
• Update #1
• Update #2
• Update #3
• Twitter

Story

Welcome to Snaktooth Island! In this strange and far away paradise live the most incredible creatures: Bugsnax! What are Bugsnax? Well, they’re kinda bug, kinda snack, and all delicious. You and your Grumpus friends have come to the island for the sole purpose of catching and devouring these skittering little morsels. Just don’t think too hard about what it is you’re eating… Based on the hit video game, Bugsnax: The Card Game is a bite-sized race to eat your fill! Take on the role of your favorite Grumpus and use their unique ability cards, along with your tricky traps, to outwit the other players and overcome the Bugsnax defenses. Be the first to chow down on 6 points worth of Bugsnax, and you’ll be crowned the Snakmaster General! Play in standard mode for a casual burst of bug-catching fun, or tackle advanced mode for a longer and more strategic experience. Between 13 Grumpuses and 40 Bugsnax, there are a ton of play styles to try and unique situations to overcome. However you like to play, Bugsnax: The Card Game is a treat!

Each copy of Bugsnax: The Card Game includes an instruction manual, 6 base decks, and 10 advanced decks. Cards are standard poker size (2.5"x3.5") and printed with a matte finish. The art showcased in this campaign is nearly final, but small changes may happen between campaign and printing. Standard Decks Standard decks are great for a beginner player! • Standard Trap Deck (28 cards) • Standard Snax deck (22 cards) • Standard Grump Decks (4 decks, 32 cards total) Chandlo • Snorpy • Filbo • Shelda Advanced Decks Advanced decks are for more intrepid adventurers. • Advanced Snax Deck (18 cards) • Advanced & Expert Grump Decks (9 decks, 76 cards total) Triffany • Lizbert • Cromdo • Eggabell • Beffica • Floofty • Gramble • Wiggle Instruction Manual It's a manual. It tells you how to play. This is a test print on printer paper, not a final manual. You can check out the full rules here.

Bugsnax: The Card Game is a competitive light strategy game for 2-6 players. A standard game takes 20-30 minutes, while an advanced game takes closer to 60 minutes. The game is appropriate for all ages, but we've found ages 7+ to have the easiest time playing. You can always read our instruction manual to see if your kids would enjoy the game! Here’s a quick look at how to play: The goal of the game is simple: be the first to eat 6 points worth of Bugsnax! To set up the game, shuffle up the Bugsnax and put four face-up in the center, forming the field! Each player chooses one Grumpus they want to play as, then they draw 3 trap cards and 1 Grumpus card to create their starting hand. Players then take turns starting with whoever most recently ate in real life! It’s your turn! On your turn you have 3 actions. You can spend an action to PLAY a card from your hand, DRAW a trap card, or EAT one of your Bugsnax! These actions can be stacked, so one turn could involve playing 3 Trap cards. It could be playing one card, drawing one card, and eating one Bugsnak. It could look like drawing 3 cards. It’s up to you! PLAY a card from your hand To catch a Bugsnak, you need to play Trap cards against them. Every Bugsnak has a Difficulty, and every Trap has a Power value. If the total power of Traps you’ve played meets or beats the Snak’s difficulty, you catch it, and put it in your hand! Don’t forget to put a new Bugsnak card on the field to bring the total back up to 4. Some Bugsnax are tricky and have extra abilities, like FLYING which lets the Bugsnak ignore all Traps with less than 3 Power. But not to worry, Traps can also have abilities, like the Lunchpad, which causes your Traps to ignore FLYING. In addition to Traps, you can also PLAY Grumpus cards (more on that later). DRAW a Trap card If you don’t have enough Traps to capture a Bugsnak on your turn, you can DRAW a Trap card. There’s no limit to the size of your hand, so you can draw as many Traps as you have actions to spend! EAT a Bugsnak Bugsnax aren’t worth any points just sitting in your hand. If you’ve got a Bugsnak captured, you can EAT it, discarding it to add its Point Value to your score. (Please don’t eat the actual cards, no matter HOW delicious they look…) Every time you EAT, you also draw another Grumpus card! Grumpus cards give you powerful effects based on your chosen character, and each Grumpus has their own unique playstyle. For example: Chandlo is straightforward and direct, with cards like Chandlo Slam that can stun all the Bugsnax on the field, making them easier to catch. Snorpy, meanwhile, is good at drawing cards and setting up for a big play later. Some Grumpus cards even stay on the field as attachments, attaching to yourself, to other players, or to Bugsnax! Filbo can give himself a persistent boost, while Shelda can make a Bugsnak very unappealing to catch. Beyond the basic gameplay of playing Traps and eating Snax, there are tons of strategies to explore and interactions to discover!

We are only accepting US domestic orders in order to ensure accurate shipping costs and minimize risk for our backers, but International customers will be able to purchase physical copies through an online storefront about a month after Kickstarter pledges begin to ship. Once the campaign closes, inventory will be ordered to cover all campaign orders plus additional stock for purchase with International shipping. Campaign backers should begin to receive orders in October 2024, with post-campaign orders shipping soon after! Shipping for domestic orders will be $10 for a copy of the game. If backers would like to order multiple copies during the campaign, they can add additional copies to their pledge at checkout. Shipping is +$5 per additional copy of the game. If you want to order a LOT of copies, maybe just email us.

Learn More About Us Bugsnax Website Young Horses Website Our Tiktok • Our Twitter • Our Instagram • Our Youtube • Our Facebook • Our Bsky Buy Our Games BUGSNAX Bugsnax on Steam Bugsnax on Epic Games Bugsnax on Xbox Bugsnax on Playstation Bugsnax on Switch Bugsnax on iOS OCTODAD Octodad on Steam Octodad on Xbox Octodad on Playstation Octodad on Switch Octodad on iOS Octodad on Android Octodad on gog Buy Bugsnax Merch Bugsnax plushies, apparel, and physical copies of the video game Bugsnax Soundtrack Vinyl

Art Anneliese Mak - Card + Box Illustration - Dropout Dimension 20, Hitpoint Press Justine Raymond - Card + Box Layout - Bugsnax, Among Us, SpellBreak Sydney Daugherty - Kickstarter Trailer Editing & Animation Experts Heather Periard - Production Logistics, Expert Advice Anya Combs - Expert Advice Young Horses Kevin Zuhn - Designer John Murphy - Logistics, Playtester Phil Tibitoski - CEO Bria Davis - Community Director Seth Parker - Trailer Sound Design Kevin Geisler - Product Photography Special Thanks The rest of the Young Horses team The 2nd Friday Playtest Group Daroch and Agnes Max Mittelman popagenda.

FUNDED! And PROJECTS WE LOVE! WOW!!
OctodadCreator, April 1, 2024

Hey Buddy! We're funded! Already!! And Kickstarter loves our project!
Thank you to everyone who showed up within a few hours to fund this project. We were nervous and excited to try something new, and it sounds like you're all pretty excited too!

We're going to be sharing more cards from the game and fun insights over the rest of the month, but to start we thought it would be fun to show off some of the prototype sketches of the cards at the bottom of this update.
We also wanted to take a minute to answer a few questions we're seeing.
Is this real?
YES!
Why did you announce a project on April Fools Day?
We thought it would be nice to do a joke that is real and fun for our fans.
I'm international, why are you only shipping to the US?
Good question! We will be shipping internationally once the campaign ends. We wanted to launch a campaign to make sure people actually wanted the card game and to test the waters on fulfilling a physical product without going overboard. So the Kickstarter is just the beginning. Once the campaign ends we're going to work on getting orders up for international fans to purchase copies.

In the meantime, you can back at a $1 or $5 tier to stay in the loop. We will be posting.. a lot.. when international orders are available. We promise.

Announcing: a Retail Tier!
OctodadCreator, April 1, 2024

Popping back in to say thank you to our now 1,118 backers for your support and to announce we have added a retail tier after receiving a number of requests!

This won't impact an average fan, but if you run a local games/books/cool stuff store, you can now buy 6 copies of the game for retail! The tier is $75 and shipping is $25.

If you frequent this kind of establishment and want to see Bugsnax sold locally, you can now direct people to that tier! If you just want to own 6 copies of the card game, we won't stop you either.

Here's some card art for the LizEgg fans in the crowd.

xoxo The Horses

Only a Few Days Left. Here's What's Next! OctodadCreator, April 25, 2024 File:Kickstarter Card Game It's More Likely Than You Think.png

With only a few days left in the campaign, we wanted to take a moment to thank everyone and outline our next steps once the campaign closes. Assuming we don’t encounter unforeseen acts of the universe, you’ll find our plan for what comes next below.

The quick version;

• Surveys sent in the next 2ish weeks after the campaign closes, fill them out by May 24th
  
• Digital rewards coming this summer
  
• Physical rewards shipping in early October
  
• International + domestic orders opening early October
  

The detailed version;
Our campaign ends on April 30, and then Young Horses has an on-site gathering the rest of the week. We plan to send out BackerKit surveys roughly 2 weeks after the campaign ends, and then you, our lovely audience, will have 2 weeks to fill out your surveys. Surveys must be completed by May 24th, and then we will begin the process of sending out digital rewards.

Your survey is where you give us essential information: where do we send your game, what type of key do you need, etc. You’ll also be able to buy additional copies of the game if you’d like.

Digital rewards like the printable copy of the game will be delivered via BackerKit once we have all our survey data, and physical copies of the game will go into production around this time. Those games need to be made, shipped across the sea, and arrive here in the US at a warehouse before they can be shipped to you. We expect orders to start shipping to backers in early October.

Once orders start shipping, we will open a separate store for purchasing the game with worldwide shipping! It isn’t a pre-order site, so any order will be processed and shipped as it comes in!

This has been a wonderful experience, and we’re excited to get these games in your hands this year. Thanks again for all your support.

FAQs

Where internationally are you shipping?
Pretty much everywhere the United States will let us, there are a few countries we cannot ship to you can find listed here: USPS link
Where are you shipping from?
The United States, even for international orders. Full details about pricing/ duties/ shipping for your individual country will be available when the card game is up for purchase later this year.
Will you be in [big box retailer]?
Maybe!! We don’t know yet. This depends on interest in the game and more businessy conversations we’re looking into. Right now, no, but if you want to see us in local bookstores or at tabletop cafes in your area, tell them about us! Anyone interested in retail quantities can reach out via support@younghorsesgames.com
Can I buy the game on Amazon? When?
Maybe! We’re also looking into this. If we do decide to put the game up on Amazon, it will be after backers receive their copies later this year, so stay tuned! We will definitely post an update here and on our socials if anything big like that happens.

Bugsnax: The Card Game

Join your favorite Grumpuses in Bugsnax: The Card Game! An easy-to-play card game based on the hit video game. From April 1st 2024 until April 30rd 2024, lasting one month. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/younghorsesgames/bugsnax-the-card-game

“	WOWIE we're already over 50% funded on @Kickstarter! Thank you to everyone who has backed already. While you're here, we wanted to shout out all the lovely people who helped us make the card game. First off: @MaxMittelman for returning to be the voice of our beloved Filbo. Our absolutely banger art team is @jmarieray, @AnnelieseMak and @ectogammat. They were incredible in illustrating, designing, and animating the cards and trailer! Thanks to @AnyaynA and @peariyard for all of their wisdom and advice. They're the reason the Kickstarter exists and the card game can happen at all. Of course thank you to the Horses who worked on this passion project. @KevinZuhn for designing.. a whole card game. @seth1389 for the audio design of the trailer. @johmmmmmm for logistics support. @luthyr for product photography. And the illustrious @PTibz for everything else I've been your host @thevoidencore, and we're so grateful to everyone who loves our silly little games, even when we launch them on April Fools.. April Foals? Is that anything? You're all honorary April Foals to me	”
	— YoungHorses on Twitter "Bugsnax Card Game LIVE on Kickstarter!"

Card Types

• Grumpus
• Bugsnax
• Traps

Grumpus cards come in decks called Grumpus Decks, each with four different cards that can be DRAWn every time you EAT. These cards do all sorts of things and can be PLAYed as an action (except free actions). The effects vary from helping yourself catch bugsnax to stoping other players.

Bugsnax cards are drawn from the field, which belongs to no one. You can catch bugsnax with trap cards, as long as the traps played add up to the bugsnax's Difficulty and follow the bugsnax's ability. You can EAT these cards.

Trap cards can be DRAWn if you dont have enough traps to catch a bugsnax on your turn. They can also be DRAWn with grumpus cards. These cards catch you the bugsnax.

Bugsnax Tags

Tags determine what a Bugsnak can do and how it evades your traps. The ones listed below are not mentioned in the manual and are special.

• Whirlwind: "All other snak on the field have flying" This one is limited to Flapjackarak and Waffstackarak.
• Cryptid: "When Snaxsquatch enters the field, each player discards a card at random. At the end of the turn, discard Snaxsquatch and draw a new snak to replace it." This one only appears once and is limited to the Snaxsquatch.

Manual

Gallery