Out Foxed!

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Designer Salvo Guastella first came about the idea for Fox on the Run during a contest where a board game had to be created in one hour; Salvo took inspiration from one of his favourite Italian comics and won the contest. Over time, he refined the rules, added some extra characters and then eventually changed the theme to the one we see now.

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We now have am asymmetrical game with two factions. The foxes and the guardians. The foxes need to rescue each other, the guardians need to stop them and capture.

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Let's get flipping. 

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The game is a lovely little two to four player tile flipping game where you play as either the two foxes Indigo and Scarlet, or Zev and Puffer, a wolf and badger trying to capture them.

All tiles start flipped over. When you move to them you flip them up revealing an arrow or arrows in various directions. Once a few tiles are flipped, if you move to one you can follow the arrows for a much longer journey. Each player has special powers, either moving diagonally, the ability to rotate or swap nearby tiles or flip over an extra tile.

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To win, the foxes need to get their blue fox on the red/pink foxes’ space but not next to the badger. The badger and wolf need to get the wolf on the space of the blue fox.

This becomes a delightful puzzle with some interesting moves that I enjoyed with my wife in a two player game and with my children in a three player. The game scales nicely and has no change in game length with two, three or four players, and games usually last between five and twenty minutes depending on how well each side plays.

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Portable Print and Plays

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This makes the game a perfect family adventure into print-and-play. The artwork is vibrant, the gameplay smooth and the rules simple to grasp. But there is enough there for a fun adult game. It has something of Santorini in this way.

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It’s a quick and simple set up and as you can see in the pictures, a small and very portable game. Perfect for taking out with your family to restaurants.
 

Fox on the Run is live on Kickstarter now and we recently sat own with designer Salvo Guastella to talk about his background in the industry and how this awesome game came about. 

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What got you into playing games?

 

Like everyone else, I started playing games when I was a child. I've always been fascinated by fantasy worlds, monsters and adventures. I was initially more into videogames, but soon I realised the incredible beauty of boardgames and the feeling of playing around a table with other people.

 

And then what got you into developing your own?

 

I can't really remember when that started. I know for sure I use to "design" games already when I was a child, to play with my friends. Growing up I gradually refined my work methodologies, until 2015 when I started designing my first real boardgame with a friend.

 

How did fox on the run come about?

 

Fox on the Run was born under another name during a contest. The goal was to create a game idea in one hour taking inspiration from comics or cartoons. I took inspiration from one of my favourite Italian comics and won the contest! During the following months I refined the rules and added some extra characters. In 2018 I completely changed the theme and the title to the current ones. 

 

Describe fox on the run? What makes it fun?

 

Fox on the Run is an asymmetrical game with two factions: Foxes and Guardians. Each faction has different winning conditions and is made up of 2 characters (expanded to 3 with the extra characters).

 

The game itself consists in moving your character on the game board and use your unique special ability to alter the available paths, until one of the two factions achieves its winning condition.

 

I find Fox on the Run very elegant in its simplicity. Among all my other projects, it shines for being easy to learn but, at the same time, allowing enough space for complexity and replayability. One of the funniest aspects in my opinion

is when players start discussing and planning their moves in advance, trying to anticipate their opponents. Also, I particularly like the different feeling Foxes players get compared to Guardians players, which I think it makes the overall experience even more intense.

 

If you could play your game with any game developer who would it be and why? 

 

I would be really interested in playing the game with the Italian game designer Spartaco Albertarelli and get his opinion about it. He has been in the game industry for more than 30 years, and designed dozens of famous board games. I met him a couple years ago at a board game fair in Italy and had an interesting conversation about one of his latest games.

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Thanks for talking with us Salvo, I would urge everyone to go check out their kickstarter now.