Sly Foxes card game

We all want to be treated nicely. And we do (most of the time) treat our friends nicely. But… when we play board games together, often your or the other players’ competitive side is in the spotlight. With mean tactics and strategy you try to outsmart and beat the rest of the gang. That’s what inspired us to create Sly Foxes – playing board games with friends.

You know that moment when you have an idea and think about it while brushing your teeth? Then you rush to find a notebook and write it down before it vanishes.

After many scribbles, notes and calculations (because inventing a game often includes a lot of combinations) we started slowly materializing the game by cutting cardboard and playing with the cards all by ourselves.

sly foxes logo animation

 


Then came the time to create the first prototype and the moment of truth – play the game with real people. After watching initial reactions and listening to feedback you iterate and then iterate again. Feedback was more than great and that gave us enthusiasm and energy to continue working on Sly Foxes.

Sly Foxes participated in several board game festivals, specially organised events in board game clubs and other open air public events. A total of 200+ people from 6 countries tried the game before the crowdfunding campaign. That way I managed to:

  • validate the idea
  • test different variations
  • fine tune the rules
  • build a fan base
sly foxes prototype

 


Success story

The board game industry is blooming at the moment. There are more and more new title every year and a plethora of party games out there. So how to be a successful in such a saturated market?

There are Exploding Kittens, Unstable Unicorns… just because people are crazy about cats and unicorns. The games are good for their target audience, even if they are not brilliant, and often such type of games are the first ones people would try when introduced to the hobby. That’s why the theme of the game needs to be catchy and the visual language and mechanics should make people have fun.

Sly Foxes combines cute illustrations and animals people generally like, with fun phrases, that are kid friendly too. It can be played by 2 to 8 people and has different modes, including team vs team play. It’s easy to learn and fairly simple so people can quickly get on playing it and start building their strategy. After getting the whole game right, I managed to build fan base, good partnerships and sold 1000+ copies in my home country, Bulgaria. Selling that many copies within 18 months with little marketing resources is actually considered a great success for a niche market. That naturally led to developing an expansion set and there is work in progress on a tile laying board game.

Learn more on Sly Foxes official website.

Sly Foxes card game