Pinocchio going to print

The game I plan to publish in 2025 under the Cili Padi Games label is Pinocchio, my fourth game (not counting the second Malaysian edition of Dancing Queen). The art is done, and it is going to the manufacturer to schedule production. Pinocchio is a simple card game. The main components are just 14 cards. Other cards in the box are supporting components, for score keeping and for player reference. The box will be about the size of a standard deck of poker cards. Pocket-sized. It will be a tuck box. 

Cards in Pinocchio are numbered from 0 to 20. Two of 0, 1, 2,  3, 5, and 6, and one of 10 and 20. The easiest way to describe the game is it is like Liar's Dice. In fact an earlier working name for the game was Liar's Deck. It is even simpler than Liar's Dice. In Asia, Liar's Dice is often played as a drinking game. You can play Pinocchio as one too, but please drink responsibly. 

In Pinocchio, a round starts with one card being revealed, and the start player drawing a card. He looks at it and then placed it face-down before him. He then announces what it is. He may lie. From the next player onwards, a turn works like this. You only have two options. Challenge the previous player, or draw a card. Challenging the previous player is not actually about calling him a liar. It is about saying that the total of all cards drawn (including the revealed card and all players' cards) has now exceeded 21. Once you challenge, everyone reveals his cards. If the total is indeed more than 21, the previous player takes a penalty. Otherwise, you do. Very simple. The difficulty is in guessing whether the total has exceeded 21, because you can't be sure whether everyone has been truthful. 

If you decide to draw, you announce it first before actually drawing a card. This is to give an opportunity to everyone else to issue a double challenge. A double challenge works the same way. It is called a double challenge because the penalty is doubled. 

The game mechanism is simple. I chose to publish this game because it is something non-gamers can easily learn to play, and are able to quickly find the fun. The games I am publishing seem to be getting simpler. My first game Dancing Queen is a short game, but it is by no means simple. It is a filler for gamers. It is difficult for non-gamers to learn by themselves. Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs is much simpler, perhaps even more so than my third game Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Ali Baba and Pinocchio have one thing in common. In Ali Baba you don't want the total to exceed 11. In Pinocchio you don't want the total to exceed 21. However in Ali Baba all cards chosen are revealed. In Pinocchio the players announce the values without revealing the cards. The cards are only revealed when a challenge is issued. 

Donkeys are your "points". When you get a penalty, you get a donkey. Reach four donkeys and you lose, and the game ends. The player with the fewest donkeys wins. 

Card back

I am to release Pinocchio on or before 11 July 2025, which is the Asian Board Games Festival (Malaysia) that will be held in Penang. Come give it a go!