A card game called Squirmish that I’ve been working on for the last year and a half is currently on Kickstarter (ending June 12th). Please check it out! I’d love to hear what you think about it. It is a 2-4 player beast-battling card game for ages 7+, and it takes about 30 minutes to play.

Here is the video for the kickstarter:

Here is what the reviewers are saying about it:

“Overall, I’ve had fun with Squirmish both with my kids and with adult players. I think it’s a lot of fun for families. The dice-based abilities mean that there’s still a good amount of chance involved, which gives less-experienced players a chance to take on more-experienced players, so gamers who want something with pure strategy may not like it quite as much. And don’t forget to shout your battle cries as you enter the fray!” – Jonathan H. Liu on Geekdad.

“I get several requests for Kickstarter previews every week. Recently, I was sent a request for coverage for a game called Squirmish that was designed by a gentleman named Steven Stwalley. My heart sunk a little bit when I saw the words “card” and “combat” in his elevator pitch, but that all went away when I looked over the art assets he gave me. Squirmish’s art is juvenile, obnoxious, and maybe even a little gross. In other words? I loved it.” – Stephen Duetzmann at Engaged Family Gaming.

“It’s a really good game! I like the fighting.” – Ty (age 9) of Board Gaming at Home.

“Ty’s age, absolutely brilliant game. If there’s one downside, it’s the sheer variety.” – Russell of Board Gaming at Home.

“I like all the little characters that have been made up… they’re great fun.” – Kelly of Board Gaming at Home.

“Want battling beasties that you don’t have to find in blind packs? Want the world’s best collection of creature designs, names, and battle cries (that provide +1 damage if shouted aloud during your turn) that I have ever seen? Want a kid’s card game you’ll actually want to play with your kid? Back this very modest Kickstarter and get the whole 108-card pack (plus stretch goals)! Highly recommended.” -Zander Cannon (Eisner-award-winning cartoonist behind Kaijumax, Heck, and Top 10)

The initial deck is 54 cards… it goes up to 108 cards if we hit $15,000.

Thanks for listening! Please tell your friends!

Below are a couple of recent Strip Mall comics, my collaborative webcomic with my good friend Ben Zmith about the denizens of a strip mall. We’re almost up to 50 episodes (out of a projected 150 or so).

I’ve had a very busy few months with lots of freelance and personal projects. I’ve finished illustrating a kids’ book, built a bunch of HTML 5 banners, made a few videos, and designed a couple websites and a bunch of logos… and that is just the client work.

The biggest personal project was probably putting together my animation reel  and portfolio website (just digging through the last 15 years of work for what I wanted to use in them was a pretty huge project). Back in October, I did an illustration a day for the online events #drawloween and #inktober, which you can see here. I designed a few t-shirts that were up for voting on Threadless (none of them made the final cut… maybe next time!). I’ve also been working furiously finishing up a top-secret game project that I’ve been developing for the last year or so, which I really can’t wait to get out into the world.

I recently moved into an awesome studio space in the Thorp Building in NE Minneapolis (now known as World Monster Headquarters, the most terrifying cartooning studio in Minneapolis) joining my talented friends Zander Cannon, Lupi McGinty, Dan Olson, Dan Murphy, Ryan Dow, Carlos Merino, Ted Anderson and Robert Algeo. We are one of the few establishments in NE Minneapolis that is not a brewery.

Hope the new year brings much success, luck and inspiration to you!

I now have a portfolio site, which can be viewed here.

Among other things, it features my new animation reel, which you can see below.

Steven Stwalley’s Demo Reel

I’ve been working for the last couple of years on two projects with my Monkey’s Paw collaborator Ben Zmith (AKA Dell Dracula). The first one, Strip Mall, is now being posted every Wednesday as an online webcomic here. You can subscribe to it here.

We’re also going to be releasing it as a series of mini-comics… we published the first one a while ago, and will be reprinting it soon along with a second issue.

The other project is probably called Cyclops Monkey Rampage… and will most likely be online soon as well.

I’ve also been working on a collaborative comic with my pal Maxeem Konrardy called BUG MEN… that will be a more traditional comic book series rather than a series of comic strips. We’re still discussing the best way to present it online… it will be in print sometime in the next couple years.

Beyond all of that, I’ve been very busy creating and play-testing a card game to amuse myself and my daughters. I haven’t determined how to bring that into the world yet, but I think I will be pursuing some crowd-funding option for it. Wish me luck!