@crabfragment
Tabletop game design studio of James Ernest (designer of Tak, and classic Cheapass Games such as Kill Doctor Lucky and Unexploded Cow). Website: https://crabfragmentlabs.com/ Feed managed by co-owner Carol Monahan.🦀
We are spending this next week getting ready for the GAMA trade show in Louisville, starting March 1st.
This is our best opportunity all year to meet in person with our game designer and publisher friends! 🦀 😁
#GAMA #GAMATradeShow
We are spending this next week getting ready for the GAMA trade show in Louisville, starting March 1st.
This is our best opportunity all year to meet in person with our game designer and publisher friends! 🦀 😁
#GAMA #GAMATradeShow
Head and shoulders image of a white haired man with a white goatee looking off into the distance to the right. Some buildings and a bit of water are visible behind him. Ryan Dancey, former COO of Alderac Entertainment Group.
Text from a LinkedIn post which says: Ryan Dancey Author Chief Operating Officer at Alderac Entertainment Group I have zero reason to believe that an AI couldn't "come up with Tiny Towns or Flip Seven or Cubitos". I can prompt any of several AIs RIGHT NOW and get ideas for games as good as those. The gaming industry doesn't exist because humans create otherwise unobtainable ideas. It exists because many many previous games exist, feed into the minds of designers, who produce new variants on those themes. People then apply risk capital against those ideas to see if there's a product market fit. Sometimes there is, and sometimes there is not. (In fact, much more often than not). Extremely occasionally (twice in my lifetime: D&D and Magic: the Gathering) a human has produced an all new form of gaming entertainment. Those moments are so rare and incandescent that they echo across decades. Game publishing isn't an industry of unique special ideas. It's an industry about execution, marketing, and attention to detail. All things AIs are great at.
Ryan Dancey, a more than 30-year veteran of the tabletop gaming industry, has lost his COO job at publisher AEG a day after saying AI could generate game ideas as good as his company’s titles Tiny Towns and Cubitos:
boardgamewire.com/index.php/20...
For even more Cheapass Games and Crab Fragment-y goodness, sign up on our Patreon - we have multiple levels, from free up to "we'll mail you a game every month or two"!
patreon.com/crabfragment
For even more Cheapass Games and Crab Fragment-y goodness, sign up on our Patreon - we have multiple levels, from free up to "we'll mail you a game every month or two"!
patreon.com/crabfragment
New newsletter time!
Make sure we're not getting shunted to your spam folder (add carol - @ - crabfragmentlabs.com to your contact list). And if you haven't subscribed yet, go to the site and look in the footer!
crabfragmentlabs.com/campaigns/vi...
Watch the video! 😊 🦀
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdVs...
Then pick up our new Cheapass Game, Meat on Swords - with or without the custom coasters! - at our shop:
crabfragmentlabs.com/shop/p/meat-...
Stamp Showdown is live on #Kickstarter now, and has crossed the funding threshhold!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/sto...
Check out this thorough review of Stamp Showdown on #BGG:
😊
boardgamegeek.com/thread/36536...
Read our latest newsletter here!
Our new Cheapass Games title, Meat on Swords, is back in stock. See what happens when our classic zombies are running a Brazilian steakhouse. 🥩🥓🍖🥓😊
crabfragmentlabs.com/campaigns/vi...
Now live! A game by James Ernest, coming out from our friends at Four Suit Studio:
😊
www.kickstarter.com/projects/sto...
A photo of the original classic boxed set of Tak: A Beautiful Game, by James Ernest and Patrick Rothfuss, published by James Ernest Games, an imprint of Crab Fragment LLC/Cheapass Games. We're really just a design studio now, and it's killing us that there isn't a retail edition out there currently. Our previous licensee encountered business turmoil, not low sales. Email carol -at- crabfragmentlabs.com for information!
We are seeking a new publisher to make a retail-shelf edition of Tak.
We are also officially licensing to folks who want to make & sell boutique editions.
Get in touch!
See alt-text for more details.
We brought in a modest batch of decks to start, and I shipped the last 2 out this afternoon!
Nice that they’re print-on-demand. 😁
www.drivethrucards.com/en/product/5...
Coming soon: Stamp Showdown, new game by James, from Four Suit Studio.
Sign up here to get notified when the campaign goes live!
♣️ ♦️ ♥️ ♠️
www.kickstarter.com/projects/sto...
We've got a new newsletter up - and a new Cheapass Game title available!
Meat on Swords decks are currently for sale at DriveThruCards, while we await our next shipment - our first batch sold out in one day. 😁 We do have coaster sets available!
crabfragmentlabs.com/campaigns/vi...
Timeline cleanse: the kindest town in North America is at it again.
A little teaser for a James-designed game. 😁
Sign-up for updates here: foursuitstudio.com/stamp-showdo...
Read James' latest blog post, in which he attempts to sum up a very busy year!
😅 🦀 😁
crabfragmentlabs.com/blog-1/2025-...
Suited cards played around the table featuring gorgeous art of zombies skewering various meats
I messed about with the new Cheapass game Meat on Swords. Like some of James Ernest’s best design work it’s delightfully simplistic, made exciting through push your luck mechanics that are always happy to give you enough rope to hang yourself.
Glad I jumped on the @crabfragment.bsky.social Patreon!
James Ernest has recapped his PAX Unplugged.
Check out the video, featuring many industry friends!
😁 🦀 😁
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNyt...
Have a Very Merry December! 😊
All the seasonal best to you, from your friends at Cheapass Games and Crab Fragment Labs!
🦀 ♟ 🦀 ♟ 🦀
crabfragmentlabs.com/campaigns/vi...
Old Cheapass games Ben Hurt and Huzzah, lying on some baize, partially unboxed (enveloped?)
Huzzah cards wrapped together with old computer magazine strip
Time capsules! Old computer mag strips, from unwrapped Cheapass cards
Games night - and nothing quite like opening a brand new (20 year old!)
Cheapass games, taping boards and releasing Death Machine-cut cards from their time-capsule-like strips of old magazines! Only a few left to cross the pond for my collection… until the new ones hit! @crabfragment.bsky.social
Here's our Holiday Update!
Free to read on our Patreon:
www.patreon.com/posts/holida...?
We just backed Bolted! A Frankenstein-Style Game of Creative Necromancy on @kickstarter.com, by our good friend @davidmalki.com!
Check it out:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/mal...
A handcrafted game of Linos, comprised of a dozen 2x1x1 rectangular pieces in dark and light wood, along with a 6-sided die, and coins for keeping score.
Happy Small Business Saturday!
We still have one Linos set left (pronounced "lin-Ohsh") from the most recent batch. We also have a variety of Tablero and Tak/Prudh boards, as well as Tak books, coins and piece-sets.
And as always, lots of .pdf and POD games!
crabfragmentlabs.com/shop
🦀 😊 🦀
PuzzCulture included some of our games in their gift guide!
Have a scroll. 😊
🎄 🦀 🎄
puzzculture.com/2025/11/25/p...
We met with James Ernest (@crabfragment.bsky.social) at Tabletop Oahu, and were able to play some of his fantastic games. We spoke about our recent partnership with local schools in Hawaii, providing them with pupumu to play Konane!
You can check out his vlog here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPG2...
Here’s our Crab Fragment Labs Patreon, which supports us in creating an amazing array of tabletop board games.
🦀
Keep up with the latest from designer James Ernest (the creator of Cheapass Games, including Kill Doctor Lucky and Tak).
🦀
www.patreon.com/crabfragment
