Swipe it! Take what's yours... is a card game developed by American creator Earl Johnson III of Los Angeles, California, and was published on December 20, 2014 by EJ3Games, a gaming company also founded by Johnson. The game's name refers to the fact that players in the game are trying to "Swipe" or steal as many cards from each other as possible. It is recognized by Boardgamegeek as a "party and family" card game.
Contents
History
Earl Johnson III, a piano instructor in California, grew up playing games of many varieties, including computer games, video games, sports, board games, and card games. He came up with the idea for Swipe it! on a whim during a social gathering. A standard deck of playing cards was dealt one card at a time to each player. The number cards (now known as the "Power Cards") were the means of gaining points, and the face cards (now known as the "Swipe Cards") activated the number cards, allowing them to make an attack when combined with each other. The game was played solely by his family and friends for 18 months.
Kickstarter
On October 15, 2014, Johnson launched a 30-day campaign on Kickstarter in order to raise enough money to mass produce the game. The campaign was successful, raising more than $3,000 to manufacture the game in bulk. Since then, Swipe it! has been sold in board game shops across the U.S. and online.
Rules
The Swipe it! deck of cards consists of the "Power Cards" numbered 1-10, in four colors (red, blue, purple, green), and two shapes (X's and O's), and the "Swipe Cards" in three colors (black, silver, gold) . A player must combine one of each type of cards (a Power card combined with a Swipe Card) in order to make an attack.
At the start of a round a random Power Card is revealed and placed in the center of the playing field and is now called the "Master Card". This determines the ways of earning a "Master Point". For example, if the card is Blue, 10, X, then the player who has acquired the most blue cards wins a Master Color point, the player with the most 10 cards a Master Number point, and the player with the most X cards a Master Shape point. The player with the highest totaled sum added from all acquired cards wins a Master Total point. Rounds continue until a single player has reached 5 or more points.