June 2, 2022

The Game Plan

A friendly team

Friendly Pixel began in late 2019, and after a couple years recruiting the right crew for the job, we now have a team of seven developers with experience across massive multiplayer AAA titles, handcrafted games for educational environments, and classic board game design.

We have a bunch of different backgrounds, but we found that we have a lot in common when it comes to our favorite games and how they’re designed. And after talking a lot about the kind of games we want to make together, our goal as a team became pretty simple: make the best, most innovative, and satisfying digital version of the party & board game experience we know and love.

That’s the idea in a nutshell, anyway – but let’s crack it open and tell you a bit more.

From couch to computer

We’ve always loved games that make the most of playing together with a bunch of friends, whether it’s board games, party games, or good ol’ couch co-op. And between the rising popularity of accessible, fun-sized games like Among Us or Fall Guys, and the explosion of tabletop gaming in recent years, we’re convinced that there’s a big appetite out there for more of that especially social kind of multiplayer game.

At the same time, digital versions of party & board games often feel like they haven’t adapted very well to the medium – which is a shame, since there’s so much a virtual space allows you to do!

So after playing everything from the big hits to the niche apps, and thinking long and hard about what we think makes a great social game, we’d like to take a swing or two ourselves.

So what makes a good party or board game?

We want every Friendly Pixel game to have a few things in common with our favorite party & board games we’ve played over the years:

• They’re inherently social and interactive (gotta play them with other people, and play the people you’re with!)


• They’re best when played with an group of folks you’re familiar with, but can also quickly turn strangers into friends
• They have a diverse, but well-defined set of actions that don’t require twitch reflexes, hand-eye coordination, or other forms of digital dexterity (so you don’t have to be a pro to play)


• They’re at home in the Goldilocks zone: not too complex, not too simple, just the right amount of strategy and decision-making.


• They get right into the fun from the get-go, without a bunch of time spent onboarding.

In addition to those design principles, we also have some goals for the platform itself – the place where you’ll be playing these games. We think there’s no reason online tabletop games can’t be as engaging, dynamic, and beautifully detailed as their physical counterparts, while also improving on design and fixing certain pitfalls by developing them in a digital environment:

• Eliminate the complicated, time-consuming set up present in many board games


• Incorporate tech (like video and voice) directly into the game design in ways that can’t be done in-person (such as split audio channels for private conversations)
• Add satisfying and thematic animations, audio, and UI to level up the overall experience (and make otherwise visually boring or opaque games exciting and crisp)


• Connect individual game sessions to a broader, compelling progression system (something usually only found in legacy games)


• And of course – help people play together, even when they’re apart, in a game where socializing is the whole point (not an add-on or afterthought)

The eventual goal is to establish the perfect gathering place for game night, complete with a variety of games to choose from and a progression system featuring collectible avatars, emotes, and more. Oh! And the platform will be available on web browser, mobile, and as a standalone PC download, so you can play on whatever device best fits your mitts. Speaking of getting hands on – let’s talk about how you can see for yourself how it all comes together with our first game: Trust No Bunny.

Everybunny has a secret...

Trust No Bunny is a 5 to 8 player social deduction mission game for fans of Werewolf, Secret Hitler, The Resistance: Avalon, Town of Salem, or Among Us (to name a few). It's designed and live balanced by Stephen Case, a university lecturer and founder of Tanuki Games in Japan, and Chris Cantrell, the lead producer and designer of Mechs vs Minions, one of BoardGameGeek’s top 60 ranked games since its release in 2016.

They've both put a ton of thought into what makes social deduction & hidden role games great, and they've created some cool new tech-based mechanics – like those split audio channels we mentioned above – that add a whole new level to the social deduction genre.

While there are still some bells and whistles to add, we’re chuffed to announce that Trust No Bunny is entering early access on June 15! We can’t wait to hear what you think about it.

We're just getting started

But we aren’t stopping with this first release of Trust No Bunny – not even close. We’ll keep on updating it, of course, adding more content like new Items and Mutations for those scheming Werebunnies – but we’ll also develop more games, as fresh takes on the kinds of social gaming experiences that have brought us together with our own friends and family.

So if you like the sound of that – hop in. It’s going to be one heck of a ride, but there’s room for everyone.

Thanks for reading.