The game is called Donut. It’s creator is 46-year-old Stephen Sams, of Greta.
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Cards are cool, but this is the digital era. Do people still want to play cards?
Stephen thinks so. He gave the example of the card game Exploding Kittens, which raised $8.8 million through crowdfunding on Kickstarter.
The game’s initial funding goal was $10,000, but it attracted 219,382 backers after promising “kittens, explosions, laser beams and sometimes goats”.
“Now they have a company and an app. It’s massive,” Stephen said.
“The game Cards Against Humanity is another one.
“Card games are coming back.”
Stephen reckons people want to play “face-to-face” around a table for social reasons.
A Kickstarter campaign for 1000 exclusive and limited-edition boxes of Donut ends on August 31.
Stephen created the game with the help of his 14-year-old artist-designer daughter Heather and family friend Steve Dawson, a graphic designer and digital artist.
Stephen has been testing and making alterations to the game for years.
“I’d been playing the game with guys at work on the night shift for about 12 years,” said Stephen, who works at Bidvest at Sandgate.
“If the guys didn’t like something, it was taken out. It was built like that.”
So what you’re saying is you’ve been playing cards on the job? “That’s correct,” Stephen replied, before adding that he meant during his lunch break.
“When we finish work we stay back and play the game because the guys love it.”
So what’s the go with the donuts?
“The donuts are the cards – if you’ve got too many cards you’re eliminated because you’re too full,” he said.
He said the game was “chaotic, crazy, brilliant and fantastic”.
“I’m not just saying this because it’s mine. I wouldn’t bother playing it if I didn’t love it.”
Do you ever eat real donuts while you’re playing the game?
“No it’s just cards,” Stephen said.
Truth Be Told
Topics reported recently that we’d sent a few container loads of truth serum to the Baird government.
The aim was to get the government to give us the gospel over its secret deal to benefit Port Botany over Newcastle.
The government had been keeping mum on the details, despite Herald scribe Ian Kirkwood obtaining a copy of a confidential document that dished the dirt on the deal.
The document revealed how the government protected Botany from container competition. Botany got a monopoly and Newcastle got a kick in the guts.
Nevertheless, Topics is delighted to report that the truth serum worked.
Herald scribe Michael McGowan reported on Thursday that Upper House leader Duncan Gay admitted in parliament that the government had indeed agreed to put restrictions on containers at the Port of Newcastle to benefit Port Botany.
This made it unprofitable to develop a container terminal at the Port of Newcastle, Canberra analyst Greg Cameron says.
This is not good, but it’s good to know that the truth serum did its job.
Thing is, we also sent some to the Department of Defence over the Williamtown contamination scandal. But we’re not sure it’s working on them.
We’ve also just sent a semi-trailer full of the serum to the royal commission into child sexual abuse in Newcastle.
Taste of the Sea
Fancy a seaweed beer? No. Why not? Live a little. Head up to Port Stephens on Saturday and you can try one.
Murray’s Craft Brewing Co created the beer for the Love Sea Food festival, which runs in Port Stephens in August to celebrate “the region’s rich abundance of fresh seafood”.
“This is the first time we’ve made a seaweed beer, so we wanted to be a little cautious in how we used it,” brewer Sean Costigan said.
“After all, people want to get hints of seaweed, not feel like they just had a mouthful of seawater.”
The beer, named Murray’s Sea Monster, was made with dried wakame and nori seaweed. It goes down like a brown ale.
