Introducing Pandante!

The Pandante kickstarter is up! Head on over there when you're ready.

We've all heard about gambling Pandas, but I didn't realize how much fun their games were until I saw them myself. They play this game called Pandante that's sort of like Human Poker, but it's a lot more about lying. You lie about what's in your hand and you lie about which abilities you have access too. (There's only a few abilities and they're pretty simple.)

(That picture shows beta cards rather than the final ones, but the kids expressions are too great to not show you!)

Everyone pretty much knows that tons of lying is going on, so that adds quite a bit of fun factor. And there's not much folding in Pandante, at least not nearly as much as in Human Poker. There's also no Panda elimination. I found that all of that has great synergy because it means everyone is participating most of the time, so that's more opportunities to lie about stuff (and laugh about it). That said, it's also playable as a really serious gambling game for real money. I really liked that it could be a really social game as well as a highly competitive one, so I decided to bring it over from the Pandalands for everyone here.

There's two versions of the game. The basic version is the kind component quality you'd expect from a good card game. The thing is, the Pandas are sticklers for poker chips, but only the best kind. So the luxury version of the game is all about custom, high quality poker chips. The chips are so good that you might want to play Human Poker with them too, so the Luxury version also comes with a special poker deck that matches the style of the rest of the game.

All the graphic design was done by the acclaimed European designer Hectóre Blivand. He only works on high fashion products, and I love the beautifully minimal look he created. It's classy.

Head on over to the kickstarter page for lots more pics, video, and info about the game and components!