This is the overview page of the Swiftsmash Saga.

Click any of the links below to visit a specific game. They are roughly sorted based on simplicity.

These games all have the same core mechanic (the “Swiftsmash Mechanic”). First, players simultaneously reveal cards. You must quickly read them, follow ever-changing rules and think ahead to find the one card you must smash. Beat the others and you win. Be too slow, or smash the wrong one, and you’ll regret it.

Besides that shared mechanic, these games are completely different. They don’t even share fonts, visual styles or any other mechanics.

This series started with Cookie Smasher. As explained in that game’s credits, the idea occurred to me as I wrote one of my Wildebyte Arcades books. It has a character called Cookie Clicker, who obviously originates from the video game of the same name. And my brain thought: could you make a boardgame like Cookie Clicker?

This slowly evolved into an expanded version that worked much better: “it’s not about tapping something (often), it’s about tapping the right thing before anyone else.”

This automatically led to all sorts of rules that change what is good and what is bad during the game. Simple rules and cards that force you to think on your feet and quickly deduce what you actually want to smash. As usual with me, once I’ve found a simple core mechanic, I find 5 completely different ways to execute it. (This goes to show just how little it matters if you have the same idea as someone else, because it’s all in the execution.)

Also as usual, I could only find the simpler versions after making the more complicated ones. You have to actually make something and see all its pitfalls and opportunities to realize “wait, if we just change X and Y, we don’t even need these 5 rules or text on the cards!”

Hopefully these party games entertain people around the world, no matter which one you choose.

Because all games are completely unique in their gameplay, there are no shared images or fonts. For detailed credits, you’ll have to check out the page for a specific game.

Some minor graphics were generated using image AI. (Mostly background textures that you hardly notice are there, but really help things look more polished.) Everything else—code, assets, ideas, illustrations, general design—is all mine.