Pilgrim Poker - almost here!

I am expecting my next game from Cili Padi Games, Pilgrim Poker, to be released at the Asian Board Games Festival in Penang, 7 - 9 Aug 2026. I am very excited about this project. This is the first time I am using a Chinese story as my theme. 

This is the box cover. Certainly a bold concept from my artist Edwin. I did have some concerns when he first showed me the concept art. I was worried that if we were to make the box look like a traditional string-bound book, the front would need to be rather plain, and there would be a lot of information which I'd normally want to put on the front that I couldn't include. Eventually we proceeded with the concept, and I'm keen to see how this is received. 

This is the first time we are putting some art on the sides. We want to showcase the artwork inside the game. 

The start player card is double sided, with a day side and a night side. I put Buddha on the start player card. I think this is most appropriate. 

The start player card is double-sided to help you keep track of how many rounds you have played. Whenever it makes a full circuit around the table, you flip it to the other side. This means everyone has been start player once now. 

Of the three action cards in the game - Raise, Side Bet and Change Card - Change Card is the one which potentially upends everything. So I put the Goddess of Mercy (Guan Yin) on it. Modern day Guan Yin enjoys Chinese TV series on her smartphone (probably a Huawei). She treats herself to a good headset. 

In Pilgrim Poker making a Side Bet is an act of aggression. Who else more fitting but Red Boy (Hong Haier). He plays with fire, so his graffiti can sprays fire. 

This is the card back for the number cards

Card back for the action cards

The prototype looks very different

Pilgrim Poker has come a long way. This was originally called Saikoyu, and I started working on this in August 2021. Saikoyu is "psycho you" made to sound like a Japanese game. My idea was inspired by Hanabi, in which players can't see their own cards but they can see everyone else's. I worked on it for a while, but I couldn't quite get it to a stage where I felt it was publishable. So I set it aside and moved on to work on other projects. It was in 2025 that I picked it up again. The most important thing that helped me resume working on this game was introducing the tried and true poker mechanism. Poker has stood the test of time, and there is good reason for that. Also it is something many people are familiar with. This makes the game easier to learn and to understand. I then added the action cards, and that completed the game. 

This will be my final teaser post for Pilgrim Poker. The next time I post about it, I should be showing you the final product. Stay tuned!