Daring Dustbunnies

The latest design from the Hopwood Games stable.

So a few months ago I playtested a game about moths being drawn towards a candle. One thing lead to another and, after a brief consideration of logs disappearing into a toilet, the moths tuned into balls of fluff and the candle turned into a vacuum cleaner. The Fluffballs became controlled by magical borrower-type creatures that live under the sofa in a rag tag tribe.

These are the Dustbunnies. They love nothing more than magically animating those Fluffballs and sending them hurtling across the carpet. The best and most skillful bunny will be the one that can makes their Fluffball skirt the very edge of danger and get closest to the vacuum without being sucked up the tube!

The game is intended to be fun but there are lashings of tactics as well. If you enjoy making brilliant and airtight plans of action only to see them come crashing down, or snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, or even smugly watching as a player sends their own Fluffball up the tube whilst still trying to keep it's identity a secret, this game is for you.

The gameplay revolves around playing cards to move Fluffballs along a track of carpet, each part of which features a randomised set of actions (take a card, play an extra card etc..). Landing on an empty space means you take the action, which is not always welcome. The Fluffball whose fate you are linked to is a secret (unless you get found out) and one of your aims is to move it to a high scoring card near the Vacuum of Doom without giving away that it is yours. The other aim is to avoid being the Fluffball that gets sucked up the Vacuum.

Throw in unique character abilities and magical charms that can be powered up with static, each with it's own special power, and you have a game that is tense, tactical and different every time.

I will be demonstrating the game at the UK Games Expo in June on stand J25. Come along for a five minute demo and I'll be donating 10p for each demo I do.

(Art by Lloyd Ash Pyne)