Sheep & Wolves, and the game nights around it

The challenge

In 2023 there was no regular board game night in my area, and most people who came had never played a modern tabletop game. The barrier was not interest. It was the first ten minutes: long rulebooks, strangers at the table and nobody to explain.

What I built

• A game night format, run mostly with Hasoub, that has grown to more than 40 nights with 10 to 60 players each. Players range from school kids to people in their seventies, and most regulars are in their twenties.
• A fast teaching method that makes complex games playable within minutes and removes the entry barrier for new players.
• Structured icebreakers at the start of each night, and one shared closing game where everyone talks and everyone listens.

Listening to players

After about a year I ran a survey. Together with what I saw at the tables, it showed that people came for a social, thoughtful, screen-free space, not only for the games. That is why the icebreakers and the closing game became fixed parts of every night. They turned a group of players into a community that keeps coming back.

Designing Sheep & Wolves

Sheep & Wolves: The Last Survivor is a fast, competitive card game for 2 to 10 players. Each player protects a flock while wolves wait in the forest. Action cards let you defend, sabotage and outwit each other until one flock survives.

1. Research and a market check.
2. Several prototypes and playtest rounds, with changes after each round.
3. A rulebook that went through its own versions and tests until new players could learn from it alone.
4. Launch in 2024, more than 300 copies sold, and game nights dedicated to the game.

What others can reuse

The rulebook, the teaching method and the structure of the night (icebreakers, main tables, a shared closing game) all work without me in the room.