This is part two of my posts about LinCon 2026, a gaming convention in Linköping that I attended with my kids. In this post I deep dive into running Draw Stranger, Petroglyph, and Gotlandia at LinCon.
Draw Stranger
Draw Stranger is a two player card game that simulates a gunfighter duel in the Old West. I needed the game to get to a point where someone could teach themselves how to play just from reading the rules. I have taught Draw Stranger to a lot of people since I created it last summer. It’s easy to teach in person but it has been hard to explain how to play the game in writing. I’m very happy that the latest version of the game and rules passed this stage. Which means that I can now proceed with ordering a small print run and offer Draw Stranger for sale after a few minor updates.
Game designer Erik Anderson Sundén volunteered to do a blind test at LinCon. He got a copy of the 17-card game and a print of the rules when I met him Friday morning. We then met up Friday evening when Erik taught the game and played with his son while I watched. I kept quiet, except for two clarifications.
It was fun watching and fun seeing them ‘getting’ the game. Draw Stranger has a neat learning curve. First time you play it feels random as you don’t know all the cards and just try out playing your hand to see what happens. Then as you learn how the game works and what the different cards do, it changes to a game of skill and bluff. Then it becomes truly fun! The game only takes five minutes but you will want to play again and again.
Erik lost the first game to his son, bringing a knife to a gunfight. He realised how he could have played instead and then said the magic words: "Wanna play again?" Erik got two non trivial hands and it was fun to see him process what they meant and how he should play them. I could see he took longer time to decide, then reached a decision and made a good play.
Another duel took place Saturday morning. I had demoed Petroglyph when a friend who had been watching asked to play Draw Stranger. I pitched them against each other and they got drawn in to playing three games in a row with the winner taking home a play test copy of the game.
Next year I will do a tournament in Draw Stranger at LinCon. At high noon of course. Stay tuned for a release announcement of the game and get your copy so you can practice and win.
Petroglyph
Petroglyph is my latest game and also a game that moved from idea to final print and first sale in less than one month. It’s the classic game Memory but with a twist. You have a deck of 17 cards in four different colours. You lay out 16 in a four by four tableau face down. Then players take turns turning over cards to find matching sets of petroglyphs. Red and yellow sets are two cards, blue sets are three cards. These sets score from 3 to 10 points. Green sets can be anywhere between one and six cards — so it’s push your luck: If you find all six green cards in one go you will score 31 points and win the game. If you turn over cards of different colours — here is the twist — you may shuffle the cards in one row or one column. This makes all the difference.
I made my first sale of Petroglyph at Himmelsta near Norrköping on our way down. Himmelsta is a national heritage site of more than 1600 Bronze Age petroglyphs. When the ice cap over Scandinavia melted and the land rose, people settled here where the water flows into the sea. The same streams that powered the machines that made Norrköping an early industrial centre of Sweden.
We had driven by Norrköping many times on our way south not knowing that right next to the freeway there is a truly amazing field of petroglyphs ready to be explored. This time we stopped. The area is open to the public and marked with signs and walkways. Many petroglyphs are highlighted with paint while others remain to be discovered as you make your way around what was once rocky islets in a large lake.
We reached a spectacular spot with a chariot, a ship loaded with wool and grain, and many carvings of horn instruments. A nearby visitor pointed and explained to his group that these were ‘viking rock carvings’. I couldn’t stop myself from pointing out that these carvings pre-dates the vikings with two thousand years. These were made by viking ancestors. I then filled in as tour guide and highlighted the special carvings to be found in exactly this place. Nudged by my daughter, I mentioned that I knew this because I had just created a game about rock carvings. I then demoed the game and the tourist — a visitor from Bosnia Hercegovina — got a unique souvenir to remember his visit and our meeting.
I demoed Petroglyph at LinCon Friday and Saturday morning, handed out test prints for free and sold another two copies. The game is easy to teach, easy to learn, and people happily pick up a copy and pay what I ask.
On our way home we stopped at the local museum in Norrköping. While they don’t have a large section about rock carvings, they do have a museum shop and they do organise guided tours of Himmelsta. So I demoed Petroglyph to two nice ladies at the counter, gave them a copy for the person in charge, and encouraged them to get back to me about selling Petroglyph. So now I am a travelling sales man.
Gotlandia
Gotlandia is my game of Medieval Gotland 1100-1400. You compete to become the greatest Gute of them all by building and decorating magnificent churches in a victory point race. You have deck building, worker placement, and area control — lots of good euro game mechanics that both help the theme come alive and make for a friendly race of indirect competition through engine building and a race to claim the shared resources.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I worked on Gotlandia for several years. A few months ago I reached the point where I decided that the design is complete. Gotlandia does what it does very well. It’s a game for 2-4 players and a complete game takes 3 hours plus teach.
Two groups played Gotlandia at LInCon. Seven players had a blast. I got to play in one of the games and enjoyed it. Two players walked home with a pin proclaiming them to be the Greatest Gute. I had booked a four hour time slot and both groups completed in three and a half hours. I truncated the third century of the game so we had time to also to teach the game.
Even if Gotland has one million visitors each year, Gotlandia has limited potential for a commercial release. It has a lot of components and is a game for a select audience. They will enjoy it a lot. But the price tag on a box may end up in the high end. Maybe through crowdfunding or with a grant from a kind sponsor, it will happen. But for now I just enjoy touring with the game and inviting people to play. Next opportunity will be a Medeltidsveckan in Visby on Gotland in August.
Read also Part One and Part Three.