Release! (2014)

Release! is a light card game about software and the people who make it. The game is simple: manage cooperation and competition with other players across five releases to score the most points. Each round of Release! is played the same way, but the scoring rules change as you reveal new tools and methods. Your team needs to continuously respond to these strategic shifts in order to produce the best release possible.

Release's core mechanics are modeled after classic trick trump games. Rounds, or releases, are played by each player contributing a card to a trick, generally the highest card thrown takes the trick. This continues until the players are out of cards, at which point in time they score the release.

Scoring rules are where it gets tricky. Every release the players will reveal a new scoring methodology. These scoring rules award or subtract points for taking; various combinations of cards, lump sums of suits, or a specific number of tricks. This means that some rounds you want may want to lose as many tricks as possible, win as many as possible, or fish for specific cards.

The face cards lend further complexity, these cards all have special bonus powers that do things like: affect their rank, steal previously won cards, award instant points, and much more.

The game itself is themed to evoke certain trends of software development. Themeing elements include naming conventions, fun copy, and the face cards are all modeled after famous 'faces' of the development community.