A fast party game about quick thinking and deduction, finding the poisoned food, then smashing it before anyone else.
Cookie Smasher
Smash the poisoned food faster than anyone else to prevent the king’s assassination!
Background
Fun facts:
- I initially included Tomato and Potato in the list of fruits and vegetables. Those, however, only came to medieval Europe a few centuries later, when they sailed the seas and colonized America.
- The medieval diet was much less diverse than that of today, which is to be expected. It did provide a challenge, though, when creating this game. I had to … bend the timeline a bit to get enough unique (and recognizable) food.
Below is a list of “wrong” foods.
- Rice wasn’t available in Europe during the middle ages.
- Though they were able to make bread and grain-based products, some crucial ingredients for cookies (as we know them today) were missing.
- Coffee is a bit dodgy, but it’s generally assumed this arrived in Europa around the very end of the middle ages.
- They probably had broccoli long ago, but evidence is scarce.
Then why is the game called Cookie Smasher? I am also the author of the Wildebyte books, in which the main character gets stuck in the world of (video) games. One of the earliest recurring characters I invented was “Cookie Clicker”.
As I wrote a scene with them, my brain thought: “couldn’t I do something similar as a board game?” I instantly got flashbacks to playing Halli Galli as a kid, and so this game was born.
Before I knew it, the idea of cookies was entrenched in the rules and illustrations. Getting rid of it felt boring and hurt my soul. The name also stayed because it’s a good description of the game: you smash the right card to win, and Cookies are the right card very often. (As they are automatically “poisoned” when nothing else is.)
(Unless you play the later, more advanced card sets. Here’s a quick strategy tip for those reading this: eggs is the most probable card to be poisoned, while pear and cinnamon are the least probable. I asked the computer to simulate a million games, that’s how I know for sure.)
Credits
The fonts used are Palette Mosaic and Pettingill CF. The first is available on Google Fonts, the second is from Chuck’s Fonts. Both are free for commercial use.
The website and rules use a slightly different font (Old Standard). It is more “regular” and readable, especially on longer paragraphs.
The art was partially generated using AI (specifically DALL-E 3). Everything else (idea, code, design, parts of illustrations) is mine.
Support
You can hire me! Maybe you need a special board game or video game for a birthday or educational purpose? I'm also open to inquiries about physically publishing my games. I am a registered freelance artist from the Netherlands and you can contact me professionally through my portfolio.
If unsure, visit my Online Store. It contains everything I ever made. Though it focuses on playful education and activities for children/family, first and foremost.
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