September 15, 2019 – Carlsbad, CA – It all started with this question, “What’s the best part of your favorite tabletop game?” and this answer, “Duh, it’s when you get to attack your opponent” which then led to this follow up, “So what would be the most totally awful and disgusting way to attack your opponent and still be funny?” We came up with our answer but we needed to visualize it so we made a few sketches (That’s me being attacked, a self portrait. Not bad, right? ) …

Then we asked a few illustrators to take a shot. Here’s what we got back …

Ummm No! So we tried 2 more illustrators and got these humdingers …

We almost gave up all hope. But luckily we kept looking until we found the most awesome illustrator who gave us this rendition …

Pure terror on the human and pure joy on the octopus. And not only that, the octopus is stealing the man’s glasses. Perfect! It’s super funny and accurately reflects what the game would be about. From there we made a rule; all of our cards had to be as funny as this one. For example, have you ever thought about what hamsters are thinking when they run out of sunflower seeds? Of course they’re mad. That’s like lobster and steak to them. What if your pet hamsters were actually little mobsters (with shades) and could sneak out of the cage and give you some “pay back”.  We came up with this scene and featured it on our Ambush Card and our box!

and that’s how Shady Pets got started! We hope you enjoy the game!

— Brian Rauch, Game Designer & CEO