Today, GameSkinny sat down with founder of Starcap Games, LLC, Pat Roughan, to talk about their new tabletop indie card game, Now Everyone Get the F%$# Out. The company is running a Kickstarter to help cover the costs of making and shipping the games. Pat Roughan spoke to us about how he got into game design, his inspirations for the game, future plans for the company, and more.
SwordandSorcery: How did you get into game design?
Pat Roughan: I loved games for most of my life, but it wasn’t until high school that I realized that real people actually make games, that they don’t just pop up out of nothing. A quick four years at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an internship with MassDigi’s Summer Internship Program, and plenty of hobbyist game development got me right on track to being one of those people.
SS: What is the point of your game, and how do you play?
PR: Each player is a college student trying to study for a final. They each start with a dice set to 4, representing the four drunk partiers in their dorm room who refuse to leave. In order to move these Persons around, players can play up to two cards from their five card hand a turn. The card types in the game are Actions, Instant Actions, and Items. Actions have an effect that change the game state, like moving Persons or drawing cards, then are discarded. Instant Actions can be played at any time, and can be used to counter or affect played cards. Items are placed in a player’s room, the area in front of each player. All Items have a Fun rating from 1 to 5. Whichever player has the most Fun in their room is the Party Animal, and gains a Person after each turn. The lowest Fun player is the Nerd, and loses a Person after each turn. Whichever player successfully gets to zero Persons first wins.
The full rules can be found here. We also have a video that explains how to play:
SS: I have heard a little about the backstory to Now Everyone Get the F%$# Out. How did you decide a “college partying game” was the route to go, and can you tell us a little about the story and how it inspired various aspects of the game?
PR: The name, and the entire game concept, is based on a true story during my college years. I was the jerk housemate who threw a house party while my roommate had a final to study for. In order to break up the party, she shouted “Now everyone get the F%$# OUT!” The party quickly dispersed, but I was struck with inspiration. I tried to explain that what just happened was totally game material, but my friends replied with “Dude, you’re drunk and stupid.” Ignoring those comments, I made a prototype game, but quickly forgot about it. Years later, in the spring of 2015, I found the original prototype. Still believing the game had something great to it, I resumed development. Now, years after that inspiring night, I have created a full game, still retaining the inspirational quote as its title. The event itself inspired the concept, but it was four years of college partying and hearing other people’s stories that really inspired the cards. Almost every item and image in the game relates to a real story that I or a friend of mine experienced in our college years.
SS: Has it been easy to form your own indie game business? Why or why not?
PR: Hah, it’s not easy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun or worth it. I’m very lucky to have a full-time job to support me while I create Starcap, so I don’t have to worry about whether F%$# Out will give me enough income to pay my next rent or anything. I do hope to one day have Starcap be my main source of income, and I’m working hard toward it, but it’s a very challenging undertaking.
SS: Do you have any advice to potential game designers out there?
PR: MAKE GAMES. You’re not a game developer if you’re not developing games. Thinking about poem concepts doesn’t make you a poet, making rough outlines of books doesn’t make you a novelist, and jotting down game ideas doesn’t make you a game dev. Sit down and make things, it’s the proven way to improve and become the game dev you want to be.
SS: And finally, any hints about what we can expect to see in the future from Starcap Games, LLC?
PR: Other than the strange outlier The EcoKids and the Paper Pests (a single-player middle school educational game), Starcap Games is a studio with a focus on the multiplayer experience. There are several ideas for what game to focus on next, but you wonderful readers will have to wait and see which one gets thrown into full-time development.
Rewards from the Kickstarter can be expected to ship in April 2016.
For additional reading, check out the Facebook and Tumblr pages for Now Everyone Get the F%$# Out!
