Use drugs and therapy to treat your psyche in this beautifully illustrated card game for 2-8 players.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Excuses, Excuses
about 6 years ago
– Fri, Feb 02, 2018 at 07:46:24 PM
Hey. Thanks for being so patient. It’s our first time producing a game, and we’re taking a while to get there, which is very unlike other first-time experiences, but we’re equally grateful for your participation and enthusiasm.
So what’s the scoop?
We’ve been finalizing our box design and coordinating with our manufacturer. When we started this project, we honestly never thought we’d hit all (any?) of our stretch goals, but now that we have, we are...
1. feeling very confident at family gatherings
2. frantically redesigning our artwork to accommodate the magnetic box template and add foil details and all the other stuff we promised.
So, without further Apu, check out your brand new baby:
Look how busy we’ve been!
March is basically tomorrow. Where’s my game?!
Let’s just rip the bandaid off. Your game will not be delivered by March. We’re very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very sorry about this.
We could go into details about Chinese New Year, the difficulties of our redesign, or finding a shipping partner, but we doubt you actually care about our excuses. And we don’t blame you.
What we will say is that we’re looking at a late spring/early summer date.
And the backer survey??
That will be arriving in your inbox by Presidents’ Day! For those who don’t live in the US, Presidents’ Day is on February 19 and celebrates the day when George Washington and Abraham Lincoln rise from their holes in the ground and if they see their shadows, we have six more weeks of winter.
Did we think about blowing off this whole game thing and using the money to buy a really nice fish tank? Of course. Will we? Nah, cleaning fish tanks is icky.
And what about our merch ideas?
We love them! And you’ll be seeing them on your backer survey.
We also wanna give a shout-out to the person who requested we include this in our merch, “A clump of my enemy's hair, dyed with blood and whiskey and braided into a functional, yet fashionable lanyard keychain. Or a snuggly stuffed skeleton for babies.”
A New Year with New Stuff
over 6 years ago
– Wed, Jan 03, 2018 at 11:24:58 PM
Happy 2018, humans!
Can you believe it’s only been 2018 years since the year 0???
You’ll be pleased to know that we’ve been busy! Yes, while you all were drinking eggnog and dancing to top 40, we were also doing those things. Now, we’re working like the plague to make up for lost time! Can your fingers fall off from drawing too much? Yes, David, they can.
What we’ve done
Finalized design for bonus cards (see previous update)
Finalized french translation copy
Finalized the game specs and cost with a manufacturer
Finalized a deal with a pledge manager
Wrote this update
We will be including opportunities to purchase additional games and/or some totally rad merchandise in your upcoming pledge manager email. With that said, help us think of some merch!
The Ides of Merch
Click here to take our very brief survey about what merch items you’d like to see come out of our Pillbox hole.
New Cards in the Deck!!
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 11:23:50 PM
You voted, we provided. Please welcome the final designs for High Tolerance and Misdiagnosis!
One is good for you. One is bad for them.
To recap their effects: High Tolerance allows you to remove a drug from another player’s Psyche—we recommend doing this and then giving them an episode of that newly untreated disease for an extra burn—and Misdiagnosis allows you to swap out a disease from your hand with one in your Psyche (it’s great for replacing something very serious, like Madness, with something more benign, like Impotence). It’s important to note that Misdiagnosis only takes one move to perform, despite it using more than one card.
We’d also like to point out that these cards are an optional feature of the game. Use them as you would a spice—adding as many as you’d like for your optimal gameplay experience.
What we’re working on now
Tailoring the box design to fit the new magnet box
Completing the foreign language print and plays
Designing merch! Yes, you’ll be able to purchase some totally rad merchandise in the not-too-distant future. The option for merch purch will come in your pledge manager email
In the meantime, we encourage you to do the waiting dance…
Recommended by psychiatrists on TV
The End and The Beginning
over 6 years ago
– Thu, Dec 07, 2017 at 10:28:47 PM
We asked for $12k. We got 2776 backers and $81,426.
In 2016, I had worked out a system. A single sheet of paper can hold four card designs. Cut along the lines and use a glue stick to affix the paper to an index card for sturdiness. It took hours to complete a single deck, and I went through many drafts. If someone were to peek into my life at that moment, they would have seen a grown man in a hoodie, hunched over cut-up pieces of paper with words like “Depression” and “Gambling Addiction” written on them, my laptop open to an assortment of medical websites, my fingers sticking together from the purple glue designed for children.
But it was fun—just like all of this has been. From glue sticks to Photoshop to Final Cut. All of the people who decided to sacrifice their time and energy to help, did it for the joy of doing it. It’s been exhilarating to watch Ben draw the embodiment of anxiety in skeleton form, or listen to Jen and Kat’s witty banter as they explain the game on Twist at the PAX unplugged convention. The day we waited nervously for them to call us into the studio for the Jenny McCarthy show. The day the first prototypes came back from the printers and Ben had to come by and help me carry them. Reading articles like this one https://gigazine.net/news/20171201-side-effects/ and seeing the fantastic video reviews. The hundreds of times we played in bars and restaurants and on friends’ coffee tables. Late nights arguing over marketing materials. Adjusting the rules. Adjusting the sizes. Adjusting our schedules to put in more effort—on something that maybe no one would ever want.
It’s a reminder that finding happiness in your work is so much better than working until you find happiness. This has been a great experience, and we’ve loved every minute of it, but thank you so much to everyone who backed. Because you are continuing the work.
OK, so what now?
Our pledge manager will reach out to you and you’ll have the opportunity to provide your address and contact info. You can also upgrade your pledge if you’d like. Shipping details will be provided.
In subsequent updates, we’ll be releasing the foreign-language print and plays—so keep your eyes out for them.
We’ll also keep you updated on things like shipping and expected arrival dates.
If you have any questions, you can always email us at [email protected]
The Answer to the Seventy-Five Thousand Dollar Question
over 6 years ago
– Wed, Dec 06, 2017 at 12:12:42 AM
560 of you voted.
But there…
can only be…
one…
stretch goal (my only regret is that all this time I could have been calling them “stretch holes”)
Ba BOOM!
Try to understand... he's a magnet man
Yup, if we hit $75k, we will upgrade the vessel that holds your cards to a magnet-latching box. We find that a nicely-done, magnet-latch box vomits class. Plus, it perfectly compliments your premium-quality cards resting comfortably beneath your box lid festooned in golden foil. We promise, you’ll wake up every morning, take one look at your Side Effects, and bleed through your eyes in excitement!
But enough about me. Let’s take a look at some of the other things you would have preferred…
Winner of the Meh Award
glow in the dark box
People felt extremely just kinda whatever with this one.
Sense and Sting-ability
bees in a box
158 people thought the BEST idea was to fill every 10th box with bees. Fortunately, this question got the most Grumpy Cats: 261
And now for some of your “incredible” “suggestions”...
"Glow in the dark bees!"
You took two good ideas and made them into one phenomenal idea. Bravo.
"Scratch and sniff cards"
it's beginning to smell a lot like madness
Not sure why anyone would want to smell impotence, but I like that you’re thinking outside the realm of possibilities.
"Make like 10 starting people that have an illness like Sid the sad kid or funny names like that and they with an illness that needs to be cured"
You got it, man!
Most favorite gif
Seriously, guys, we love you all so much! We love how involved you’ve become in this campaign! We got two days left, shout it from the mountaintops! Tell your case worker! Back us before December 7.
