Quick Review - Fry Thief By Laid Back Games - Kickstarter Preview

Fry Thief
Designed By: Patrick Rauland
Published By: Laid Back Games
2p | 10m | 12+

Quick Review - Fry Thief by Laid Back Games - Kickstarter Preview
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Do you like fries (or chips if you're from across the pond)?  Of course you do!  How about salads?  Maybe, but probably not as much as fries.  If you're trying to eat healthy though, then a salad is the way to go, because you can steal fries from your friends, and we all know that food eaten off of someone else's plate doesn't have any calories.  That's a fact* of science!  (*I may not understand the meaning of the word fact.)

If you like to live vicariously through someone else's food you may enjoy Fry Thief, a new, fast playing, asymmetrical card game for two players all about stealing (and eating) fries off of your friend's plate.  The game plays in about 10 minutes and is small enough to carry in your pocket, perfect for getting a few plays in over lunch.

Fry Thief will be available on Kickstarter starting February 5, 2019.  You'll be able to pick up a copy for only $15!

Yummy, yummy fries!

Overview:

In Fry Thief each player takes a plate card and chooses a role.  The fry player starts with all twelve of the fries on their plate and the salad player starts with an empty plate.  The goal of each player is to eat more fries than the other.  The salad player has to steal fries before they can be eaten, though.  Players also have opportunities to dip fries in ketchup to double their points.  When all the fries are gone, whoever has the most points is the winner!

Try to eat as many fries as you can, before your opponent eats theirs!

Fry Thief is super easy to teach and about as easy to play.  Once players decide on their roles and give all the fries to the fry player three cards are dealt to each player.  The salad player goes first and then layer alternate turns from that point on.  On your turn you do three things: 1) Draw a card.  2) Play 1 or more cards OR Draw another card.  3) Draw or discard to your hand size - discard down to four cards if you have more, or draw up to two if you have less than two.  Shuffle the discards any time you need to draw a card and the deck is empty.  That's it!  Easy peasy!

There are only 16 cards in Fry Thief (maybe a few more if some stretch goals are hit).  Some are red cards that can be played by either player and some are split green and yellow cards.  These can also be played by any player, but each player must play the card for the effect on their side of the card.  The salad player gets the green side and the fry player gets yellow.  Most cards have an immediate effect, like Steal 2 Fries, Eat 1.  Some cards remain in play until their effect is triggered, like the Fork, which lets the salad player steal extra fries the next time they play a steal card.

16 cards make up the core of this game.

The salad player has a few more cards that let them steal fries while the fry player has a few more that let them eat fries.  This creates a tug-of-war scenario were fries are constantly moving back and forth, and eventually getting eaten.  Once eaten, fries are placed in a score pile.  A few cards let you add ketchup to a fry.  Sometimes you get to eat the fry right after dipping it, other times the fry remains in play as a more valuable fry that can be stolen back and forth until someone manages to eat it.  Ketchup covered fries are worth two points, so they can let a player catch up (see what I did there?) if they fall behind.  The game is balanced slightly in favor of the fry player, so if there's a tie the salad player gets the win (because they got free food, and free food tastes better).

Fun for all ages!

In addition to the 16 (or more) cards, the game also includes 12 wooden french fries and 6 wooden ketchup discs (maybe upgraded to splats or ketchup bottles as stretch goals).  Each player also has a play mat with a plate on it.  A rules sheet rounds out the components in the base game.  I know Patrick, the designer, is also testing some additional player powers with several characters, and I believe at least four will be in the base game as well (maybe more with stretch goals).  Those are still being tested and balanced at the time of this review.

Ketchup and fries!

Final Thoughts:

I first played Fry Thief as an early prototype at Protospiel Milwaukee in April, 2018.  I thought it was fun, but still needed some work to make the cards interesting and balanced.  I played again at Protospiel Madison in early December 2018 and was pleased to see that the game had matured quite a bit.  The game was much more interesting and tactical, cards were more balanced, and the game had artwork and components that were close to final.  I had quite a bit of fun playing and was fortunate enough to bring a copy home for this review.

A very early version of Fry Thief at Protospiel Milwaukee in April, 2018.

Playing Fry Thief at Protospiel Milwaukee in December 2018 with the designer Patrick Rauland.

After playing about a dozen games, I've found that Fry Thief still holds up.  Right now it feels like it's balanced a bit too much in favor of the fry player (although I've won games playing both roles), however I've been talking with Patrick, the designer, and a few cards are still being tweaked in order to shift the balance a bit more in favor of the salad player.  The salad player really has an uphill battle, having to steal the fries first.  Given the right combination of cards at the start of the game the fry player can eat two or three fries on the first turn.  This removes a good portion of the potential points from the game very early on, making it even harder for the salad player to gain an advantage.  However, a few cards have been changed since I got my copy, tempering the fry player's strength a bit, and giving the salad player a few more opportunities to make bigger plays.  I think this will really keep the game exciting and balanced.

I've won every game I've played so far...  Just saying...  =)

Fry Thief plays in about 10 minutes, and it's pretty small, so you can take it out just about anywhere.  It has a small table presence, so it doesn't take up much room at all.  It's perfect for playing at lunch at your favorite fast food joint or local diner.  I've had a blast playing it, and my sons have even pulled it out to play on their own a few times (something they only occasionally do with my review games).  If you enjoy fast, tactical fillers, Fry Thief will be an excellent addition to your collection.  It's always a blast to play!

Be sure to check out Fry Thief on Kickstarter on February 5.  It's a great game that you can get for only $15!

Preliminary Rating: 7/10

Rating Scale

This review is of a prototype game.  Components and rules are not final and are subject to change.



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GJJG Game Reviews are independent, unpaid reviews of games I, George Jaros, have played with my family and friends. Some of these games I own, some are owned by friends, some are borrowed, and some are print and play versions of games. Where applicable I will indicate if games have been played with kids or adults or a mix (Family Play). I won't go into extensive detail about how to play the game (there are plenty of other sources for that information and I'll occasionally link to those other sources), but I will give my impressions of the game and how my friends and family reacted to the game. Quick Reviews will only get a single rating of 1-10 (low-high) based on my first impressions of the game during my first few times playing. Hopefully I'll get more chances to play the game and will be able to give it a full review soon.

Teeter Totter

There is an odd balancing act specific to game stores in which customer satisfaction vies with retailer profitability. This is unlike other retailer relationships because game trade retailers often see product as a function of service. Most game trade retailers know nothing about retail and a tremendous amount about event management. They are party planners with gift shops for the most part. When Wizards of the Coast marketing asks us about our customers, they say players, because to them, we are in the business of "butts in seats."

This model is a teeter totter, in which retailer profitability decreases as we give in to perverse pressures demanding customer satisfaction. A great store will have strong customer satisfaction and profitability, and we're not talking about that. This is a model of a broken store and in many cases a broken community, where selling things profitably and running events is simply not enough for the customer base. They demand more, be it even lower prices or free or close to free events. Let's take a look at each side.

On the retailer profitability side, the downward pressures on top result in decisions leading to higher profitability. Rising costs often result in higher prices or at least holding the line on prices. Labor, for example, is rising in many states with increased minimum wage and the decrease in Magic margins results in many stores increasing box prices and event prices (you would hope). These things are seen as greed to customers, thus the same activity in green for retailers is seen differently, in red, by customers. If you ever hear a customer talking about prices over MSRP, it's likely they are comparing online.

On the bottom of that retailer model are reasons why profitability declines because of retailer decisions, often with the goal of increasing customer satisfaction. There is a certain level of holding the line or even reducing costs to attempt to delight customers. Most weekly Magic events, I guarantee you, are poor margin events designed more as customer appreciation than profitable endeavors. That these weekly events have been declining in many markets means even this is not enough. Our Friday Night Magic is in the 25% range and even that decrease in margin isn't enough to attract large crowds anymore. I know there are areas of my store where I keep prices low to attract customers, such as card supplies. Some of these customers I know only buy supplies from me and buy their main game online, so I want something from them.

Also on the bottom tier are the monastic sycophants, the retailers who claim they are there to serve the community, like some monk choosing a vow of poverty, so some 20 year old dude can have a place to play Magic the Gathering. We are about the people man! I know I won't be insulting them because they're off on a Magic blog learning about some new mechanic and could care less about business.

On the customer side, on the top, we have pressures that push down profitability in exchange for customer satisfaction. Unrealistic expectations are what we get with the likes of Amazon, which has a net profit margin of around 2%, when it makes any money at all. Take your current personal income and divide it by three and ask yourself if you would still go to work today. That's how much you're asking retailers to earn in their business, selling games and running events for customers.

Customers come in truly believing and spouting their truth that the Amazon price is the price. Retailers may not set their prices at this unrealistic level, but the pressure means they're certainly not likely to exceed it. Thus happiness is decreased and retailers look for other ways to make customers happy, like low margin Magic events and a store clogged with D&D customers who buy their books on Amazon at wholesale. Retailers are increasingly looking for ways to turn their retail environments into service environments due to this pressure and many of my retailer friends can't move to this model quick enough.

Retailers call most behaviors related to unrealistic expectations entitlement, but as capitalists we see this for what it is. A large, multinational corporation is using retail as a loss leader to dominate market share while propping it up with outside services all backed by Wall Street against Main Street. Brilliant! Unbeatable! Customers on that march care nothing about the realities of rising wages and decreasing margins. When your store closes as you accept their entitlement, they'll rattle the door once or twice and drive across town. Your store closing will be the topic of conversation at the pauper event, for at least five minutes. For the entitled, the struggle about income inequality, higher wages and a strong middle class is a personal challenge, not something out there.

It took a couple minutes to think of examples in which customers improve store profitability through their actions, but they exist. Only 20% of our customers use our very expensive game space, but when I polled customers, 80% of them buy in our store because we support the gaming community by having space. I was blunt in these conversations and many said they wouldn't shop if we didn't have it, even though it didn't benefit them directly. Community support is a very real, and irritatingly intangible force, keeping stores in business. It lives in a strange psychological limbo where "word of mouth" and the shifting demands of tween girls resides.

Blind loyalty is on the dark side of community support. These customers will support a store because Bob is really trying. Loyalists spread their money around to every store in town because they want a vibrant, diverse community, rather than voting with their wallet for the best store. As store owners, we're in this death match of competition, working hard to delight customers in the face of rising costs, yet there are customers who won't reward our efforts, embracing a kind of game store socialism. The blind loyalists are a small crowd that can't be cracked, although I certainly try.

Obscure Collection [Complete + MULTi5 Languages] For PC [4.9 GB] Highly Compressed Repack

Obscure Collection - is a franchise created by Hydravision, now Mighty Rocket Studios and is a new edition of ObsCure and ObsCure II published via Steam by Mighty Rocket Studios on March 10, 2014. Download now.

Featuring: The Obscure Collection is a new edition of ObsCure and ObsCure II published via Steam. They added unlockable achievements for both games. For some time now, Leafmore High School has been the setting for unexplained disappearances. In this survival horror game, you take control of a group of 5 American students. With your friends, you try to unravel the mysterious happenings at this unremarkable-looking school and discover the game that has become a classic in the survival horror video game genre.

..:: Purchase the game here and support the developers ::..

1. FEATURES OF THE GAME

• Freaky Adventure and Action with a teen horror-movie scenario plus Surrounded by numerous terrifying monster.
• Every student in the group has a Special ability & all weapons can be used: baseball bats, handguns & shotguns.
• Experience the horrors and as you try to unravel the mysterious happenings at this unremarkable-looking school.
• Discover the Game that has become a Classic in the Survival horror Game genre. Survive and Brave the horrors.
• Play alone or with friends in co-op on the same screen. Soundtrack by Award-winning composer Olivier Derivière.

Game is updated to portable version

Included Games

▪ Obscure and Obscure II video game - Steam-Rip release.

2. GAMEPLAY AND SCREENSHOTS

3. DOWNLOAD GAME:

♢ Click or choose only one button below to download this game.
♢ You need μTorrent program to download torrent files, download here.
♢ View detailed instructions for downloading and installing the game here.
♢ Use 7-Zip to extract RAR, ZIP and ISO files. Install PowerISO to mount DAA files.

OBSCURE COLLECTION [COMPLETE + MULTi5 LANGUAGES] - DOWNLOAD LINKS

      

PASSWORD FOR THE GAME

Unlock with password: pcgamesrealm

4. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THIS GAME

➤ Download the game by clicking on the button link provided above.

➤ Download the game and turn off your Antivirus and Windows Defender to avoid file corruption.

➤ When the download process is finished, locate or go to that file.

➤ Extract the downloaded file by using 7-Zip, and run the installer as admin then install the game on your PC.

➤ Once the installation is complete, run the game's exe as admin and you can now play the game.

➤ Congratulations! You can now play this game for free on your PC.

➤ Note: If you like this video game, please buy it and support the developers of this game.

Turn off or temporarily disable your Antivirus or Windows Defender to avoid false positive detections.

5. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
(Your PC must at least have the equivalent or higher specs in order to run this game.)

• Operating System: Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10
• Processor: Pentium III or Athlon processor with 1GHz speed or better
• Memory: at least 1GB System RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 5GB free HDD Space
• Video Card: 32 MB 3D video card NVIDIA GeForce 3 Ti/ATI Radeon 8500 or better

Supported Language: English, French, German, Spanish and Italian language are available and supported.

If you have any questions or encountered broken links, please do not hesitate to comment below. :D