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55-478: Asmodee was founded in 1995 by Marc Nunès, with the idea to not only develop their own board games but to reach out to other smaller publishers of board games and offer to publish and distribute for them, primarily in France. One of the company's early successes was Jungle Speed , which they acquired in 1998 and promoted heavily to various toy stores and retail outlets in France, selling over 4 million copies. In 2003,

110-429: A Metacritic score of 76/100. IGN gave it an 8.0, citing it as a truly addictive multiplayer title, but not worth getting for single player. GamesRadar gave the game 6/10, saying it is not much fun alone. Wiiloveit.com awarded it with a 26/30, claiming it was a "strong multiplayer title for the system" with "very few flaws to speak of". Card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as

165-448: A deck or pack of playing cards which are identical in size and shape. Each card has two sides, the face and the back . Normally the backs of the cards are indistinguishable. The faces of the cards may all be unique, or there can be duplicates. The composition of a deck is known to each player. In some cases several decks are shuffled together to form a single pack or shoe . Modern card games usually have bespoke decks, often with

220-524: A Rabbid-shaped sack, which also includes a bonus figurine that is implemented into the game. The key difference is that, after the totem has been grabbed, any player may then grab the Rabbid and give one of the cards in their discard pile to the other player. A variety of common but unofficial house rules exist for the original Jungle Speed game. A Jungle Speed video game developed by Canadian studio Next Level Games and published by Playful Entertainment

275-418: A descendant of Noddy , and Whist , a development of English Trump or Ruff ('ruff' then meaning 'rob') in which four players were dealt 12 cards each and the dealer 'robbed' from the remaining stock of 4 cards. Piquet was a two-player, trick-taking game that originated in France, probably in the 16th century and was initially played with 36 cards before, around 1690, the pack reduced to the 32 cards that gives

330-557: A move if possible or desired, and then discard a card to a discard pile . Almost all the games of this group are in the rummy family, but Golf is a non-rummy example. As the name might suggest, players exchange hand cards with a common pool of cards on the table. Examples include Schwimmen , Kemps , James Bond and Whisky Poker. They originated in the old European games of Thirty-One and Commerce . A very old round game played in different forms in different countries. Players are dealt just one card and may try and swap it with

385-455: A neighbor to avoid having the lowest card or, sometimes, certain penalty cards. The old French game is Coucou and its later English cousin is Ranter Go Round , also called Chase the Ace and Screw Your Neighbour. A family of such games played with special cards includes Italian Cucù , Scandinavian Gnav , Austrian Hexenspiel and German Vogelspiel . Games involving collecting sets of cards,

440-554: A new sequence. This concept spread to other 17th and 18th century games including Poque , Comete , Emprunt , Manille , Nain Jaune and Lindor , all except Emprunt being still played in some form today. It was the 17th century that saw the second of the two great innovations being introduced into trick-taking games: the concept of bidding. This first emerged in the Spanish game of Ombre , an evolution of Triomphe that "in its time,

495-406: A player commits one of the following errors, or Fouls , they must take all the cards currently in play (the discard piles of all the other players plus all the cards in the pot) and place them at the bottom of their deck. The winner is the first player to get rid of all their cards and have them passed onto other players or the pot. Asmodee released a new edition in 2011 with an updated design for

550-494: A vast amount of cards, and can include number or action cards. This type of game is generally regarded as part of the board game hobby. Games using playing cards exploit the fact that cards are individually identifiable from one side only, so that each player knows only the cards they hold and not those held by anyone else. For this reason card games are often characterized as games of chance or "imperfect information"—as distinct from games of strategy or perfect information , where

605-474: Is François Rabelais , whose fictional character Gargantua played no less than 30 card games, many of which are recognisable. They include: Aluette , Bête , Cent, Coquimbert , Coucou , Flush or Flux, Gé (Pairs), Gleek , Lansquenet , Piquet , Post and Pair , Primero , Ronfa , Triomphe , Sequence, Speculation , Tarot and Trente-et-Un ; possibly Rams , Mouche and Brandeln as well. Girolamo Cardano also provides invaluable information including

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660-410: Is also popular. Most patience or card solitaire games are designed to be played by one player, but some are designed for two or more players to compete. Patience games originated in northern Europe and were designed for a single player, hence its subsequent North American name of solitaire. Most games begin with a specific layout of cards, called a tableau , and the object is then either to construct

715-633: Is considered one of the national card games of Italy. Cassino is the only fishing game to be widely played in English-speaking countries. Zwicker has been described as a "simpler and jollier version of Cassino", played in Germany. Tablanet (tablić) is a fishing-style game popular in Balkans . The object of a matching (or sometimes "melding") game is to acquire particular groups of matching cards before an opponent can do so. In Rummy , this

770-413: Is done through drawing and discarding, and the groups are called melds. Mahjong is a very similar game played with tiles instead of cards. Non-Rummy examples of match-type games generally fall into the "fishing" genre and include the children's games Go Fish and Old Maid . In games of the war group, also called "catch and collect games" or "accumulating games", the object is to acquire all cards in

825-483: Is first mentioned in a French translation of a 1440 sermon by the Italian, Saint Bernadine , the name actually referring to two different card games: one like Pontoon and one like Commerce . In the 16th century printed documents replace handwritten sources and card games become a popular topic with preachers, autobiographists and writers in general. A key source of the games in vogue in France and Europe at that time

880-408: Is the game of President , which is probably derived from an Asian game. Card exchange games form another large category in which players exchange a card or cards from their hands with table cards or with other players with the aim, typically, of collecting specific cards or card combinations. Games of the rummy family are the best known. In these games players draw a card from stock , make

935-570: The Piquet pack its name. Reversis is a reverse game in which players avoid taking tricks and appears to be an Italian invention that came to France around 1600 and spread rapidly to other countries in Europe. In the mid-17th century, a certain game named after Cardinal Mazarin , prime minister to King Louis XIV , became very popular at the French royal court. Called Hoc Mazarin , it had three phases,

990-719: The 18th century and is mentioned several times, for example, in Jane Austen 's Pride and Prejudice . The first rules of any game in the German language were those for Rümpffen published in 1608 and later expanded in several subsequent editions. In addition, the first German games compendium, Palamedes Redivivus appeared in 1678, containing the rules for Hoick ( Hoc ), Ombre, Picquet (sic), Rümpffen and Thurnspiel. The evolution of card games continued apace, with notable national games emerging like Briscola and Tressette (Italy), Schafkopf (Bavaria), Jass (Switzerland), Mariage ,

1045-500: The UK, in 2010. In January 2014, Asmodee was acquired by the French private equity firm Eurazeo for €143 million . Under Eurazeo's ownership, Asmodée became more active in its acquisitions of other board game publishers and developers. Asmodee currently distributes games under the imprints Descartes Editeur and Eurogames , acquired when they purchased Descartes. However, they have not used these imprints for any original publications since

1100-522: The actual cards. In point-trick games, the number of tricks is immaterial; what counts is the value, in points, of the cards captured. Many common Anglo-American games fall into the category of plain-trick games . The usual objective is to take the most tricks, but variations taking all tricks, making as few tricks (or penalty cards) as possible or taking an exact number of tricks. Bridge , Whist and Spades are popular examples. Hearts , Black Lady and Black Maria are examples of reverse games in which

1155-472: The aim is to avoid certain cards. Plain-trick games may be divided into the following 11 groups: Point-trick games are all European or of European origin and include the Tarot card games . Individual cards have specific point values and the objective is usually to amass the majority of points by taking tricks, especially those with higher value cards. There are around nine main groups: In beating games

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1210-462: The ancestor of Austria's Schnapsen and Germany's Sixty-Six , and Tapp Tarock , the progenitor of most modern central European Tarot games . Whist spread to the continent becoming very popular in the north and west. In France, Comet appeared, a game that later evolved into Nain Jaune and the Victorian game of Pope Joan . Card games may be classified in different ways: by their objective, by

1265-440: The best known of which is Happy Families . Highly successful is its German equivalent, Quartett, which may be played with a Skat pack , but is much more commonly played with proprietary packs. Games involving passing cards to your neighbors. The classic game is Old Maid which may, however, be derived from German Black Peter and related to the French game of Vieux Garçon . Pig , with its variations of Donkey and Spoons ,

1320-584: The book publisher Aconyte in 2020 to publish tie-in works. In October 2020, Asmodee announced that they sold British-based board game, puzzle and book publishing company The Lagoon Group to American game company University Games and placed Lagoon under their UK-based subsidiary University Games UK. The company acquired Board Game Arena , a digital tabletop simulator, in February 2021, for which they plan to adapt their games to add to its available library. In September 2021, PAI Partners announced that Asmodee

1375-409: The cards and, in some markets, a plastic totem for added safety. The expansions are made to be used with this edition of the game. The expanded version adds several new symbol variations, as well as new effect cards: A special version of the game released in France, based on Ubisoft 's Rabbids ( The Lapins Crétins ) series of video games . The game features designs based on the game and comes in

1430-456: The children's game Slapjack . Complexity is added by some visual similarities between some of the symbols, as well as additional rules. Cards are shuffled and dealt to each player face down, ensuring that all players have an equal number of cards in their stacks. A wooden (or rubber) cylinder called a Totem is placed in the center of the table, equidistant from all players. Any remaining cards that cannot be distributed equitably are placed under

1485-569: The company obtained the rights to publish the French version of the Pokémon Trading Card Game , which further helped in their sales outreach. Around 2007, Nunès directed Asmodee towards the European and international market. The company gained a 40% investment from Montefiore Investment, which helped them acquire additional small publishers. Acquisitions during this period include Esdevium, the largest hobby games distributor in

1540-514: The current position is fully visible to all players throughout the game. Many games that are not generally placed in the family of card games do in fact use cards for some aspect of their play. Some games that are placed in the card game genre involve a board. The distinction is that the play in a card game chiefly depends on the use of the cards by players (the board is a guide for scorekeeping or for card placement), while board games (the principal non-card game genre to use cards) generally focus on

1595-399: The deck. Examples include most War type games, and games involving slapping a discard pile such as Slapjack . Egyptian Ratscrew has both of these features. Climbing games are an Oriental family in which the idea is to play a higher card or combination of cards that the one just played. Alternatively a player must pass or may choose to pass even if able to beat. The sole Western example

1650-518: The earliest rules of Trappola . Among the most popular were the games of Flusso and Primiera, which originated in Italy and spread throughout Europe, becoming known in England as Flush and Primero . In Britain the earliest known European fishing game was recorded in 1522. Another first was Losing Loadum , noted by Florio in 1591, which is the earliest known English point-trick game . In Scotland,

1705-400: The equipment used (e.g. number of cards and type of suits), by country of origin or by mechanism (how the game is played). Parlett and McLeod predominantly group cards games by mechanism of which there are five categories: outplay, card exchange, hand comparison, layout and a miscellaneous category that includes combat and compendium games. These are described in the following sections. Easily

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1760-462: The far more interesting games of Costly Colours and Cribbage . Players play in turn and add the values of the cards as they go. The aim is to reach or avoid certain totals and also to score for certain combinations. In fishing games, cards from the hand are played against cards in a layout on the table, capturing table cards if they match. Fishing games are popular in many nations, including China, where there are many diverse fishing games. Scopa

1815-409: The final one of which evolved into a much simpler game called Manille that was renamed Comète on the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1682. In Comète the aim is to be first to shed all one's hand cards to sequences laid out in rows on the table. However, there are certain cards known as ' stops ' or hocs : cards that end a sequence and give the one who played it the advantage of being able to start

1870-423: The first sets of rules, those for Piquet appearing in 1632 and Reversis in 1634. The first French games compendium, La Maison Académique , appeared in 1654 and it was followed in 1674 by Charles Cotton 's The Compleat Gamester , although an earlier manuscript of games by Francis Willughby was written sometime between 1665 and 1670. Cotton records the first rules for the classic English games of Cribbage ,

1925-527: The first time they entered the Nordic and Dutch game business Two years later Enigma was fully absorbed into Asmodee and annoucued that they rebranded the company to Asmodee Nordic. Eurazeo began searching for a potential buyer for Asmodee in early 2018, and announced in July 2018 that it was selling the company to another French private equity firm, PAI Partners at a price of about €1.2 billion . Asmodee launched

1980-769: The formation of Fantasy Flight Interactive, a division of the merged companies to bring more of Fantasy Flight's physical board games to digital implementations. Among the games, developed by the studio were The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game and The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth . However, as part of company-wide layoffs, the Fantasy Flight Interactive division was closed down in January 2020 and

2035-450: The game of Mawe , testified in the 1550s, evolved from a country game into one played at the royal Scottish court, becoming a favorite of James VI . The ancestor of Cribbage – a game called Noddy – is mentioned for the first time in 1589, "Noddy" being the Knave turned for trump at the start of play. The 17th century saw an upsurge in the number of new games being reported as well as

2090-482: The game progresses. When a player plays a card that matches the symbol of another player's top card, the two players must duel to grab the totem in the center as quickly as possible. The loser of the duel takes both players' played cards (their discard pile plus the card currently in play), as well as any cards in the pot, and places them at the bottom of his deck. The loser of the round plays the next card. There are also three special effect cards that come into play. If

2145-430: The idea is to beat the card just played if possible, otherwise it must be picked up, either alone or together with other cards, and added to the hand. In many beating games the objective is to shed all one's cards, in which case they are also "shedding games". Well known examples include Crazy Eights , Mau Mau , Durak , and Skitgubbe . This is a small group whose ancestor is Noddy , now extinct, but which generated

2200-409: The largest category of games in which players have a hand of cards and must play them out to the table. Play ends when players have played all their cards. Trick-taking games are the largest category of outplay games. Players typically receive an equal number of cards and a trick involves each player playing a card face up to the table – the rules of play dictating what cards may be played and who wins

2255-410: The latter being the game played by the aforementioned card cheats. All three are recorded during the 15th century, along with Karnöffel , first mentioned in 1426 and which is still played in several forms today, including Bruus , Knüffeln , Kaiserspiel and Styrivolt . Since the arrival of trick-taking games in Europe in the late 14th century, there have only been two major innovations. The first

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2310-433: The mobile version of The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game was never released. Following the closure of Fantasy Flight Interactive, by February 2020, Asmodee announced that it was opening up its library of board games to be made into digital versions through licensing options to any developer. On 11 February 2021, Asmodee announced acquisition of digital multiplayer board game platform, Board Game Arena. Asmodee Digital

2365-749: The notable exceptions of the British Isles , the Iberian Peninsula , and the Balkans . However, we do not know the rules of the early Tarot games; the earliest detailed description in any language being those published by the Abbé de Marolles in Nevers in 1637. The concept of trumps was sufficiently powerful that it was soon transferred to games played with far cheaper ordinary packs of cards, as opposed to expensive Tarot cards. The first of these

2420-428: The players' positions on the board, and use the cards for some secondary purpose. Despite the presence of playing cards in Europe being recorded from around 1370, it is not until 1408 that the first card game is described in a document about the exploits of two card sharps ; although it is evidently very simple, the game is not named. In fact the earliest games to be mentioned by name are Gleek , Ronfa and Condemnade,

2475-508: The primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker ). A small number of card games played with traditional decks have formally standardized rules with international tournaments being held, but most are folk games whose rules may vary by region, culture, location or from circle to circle. Traditional card games are played with

2530-722: The purchase. In August 2014, Asmodee agreed to a merger with American board game publishers Days of Wonder . Later that year, they also merged with Fantasy Flight Games . In January 2016, Asmodee acquired the English language rights to the Catan games from Mayfair Games , creating a new company Catan Studio, Inc. Also on the 27th in that same month, Asmodee announced that they had acquired Nordic/Dutch-based European board games and cards developer Bergsala Enigma which it will be rebranded to its original name Enigma Distribution, thrust Asmodee expanded their operations into Eastern Europe and

2585-470: The software libraries that Days of Wonder had crafted for their digital version of Ticket to Ride . As of January 2017, the company had published digital versions of Mysterium and Potion Explosion in addition to existing titles published by their acquired companies. Philippe Dao, the chief marketing officer for Asmodee Digital, stated that they anticipated to have 20 more games out by the end of 2017. In October 2017, Asmodee and Fantasy Flight announced

2640-475: The totem in an area known as the Pot . Players take turns playing the top card from their stacks in a clockwise rotation. Each player does this by flipping their card over in the direction of their opponents, so that their opponents get the first glance at their card to avoid unfair advantage. The card is then quickly placed in front of the player's pile. Thus players form discard piles in front of their piles of cards as

2695-406: The trick. There are two main types of trick-taking game with different objectives. Both are based on the play of multiple tricks , in each of which each player plays a single card from their hand, and based on the values of played cards one player wins or "takes" the trick. In plain-trick games the aim is to win a number of tricks, a specific trick or as many tricks as possible, without regard to

2750-506: Was Triomphe , the name simply being the French equivalent of the Italian trionfi . Although not testified before 1538, its first rules were written by a Spaniard who left his native country for Milan in 1509 never to return; thus the game may date to the late 15th century. Others games that may well date to the 15th century are Pochen – the game of Bocken or Boeckels being attested in Strasbourg in 1441 – and Thirty-One , which

2805-586: Was rebranded as Twin Sails Interactive in August 2022. Games published by Asmodée include: Jungle Speed Jungle Speed is a card game created by Thomas Vuarchex and Pierric Yakovenko in 1991. First self-published and now published by Asmodee Editions, it is played with non-standard playing cards . An expansion and all-in set have been published. The game revolves around matching cards with identical symbols, and it has some similarities to

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2860-539: Was released on Nintendo Wii 's WiiWare service in North America on January 12, 2009, and in the PAL regions on March 13, 2009. The game is playable with up to 8 players, with two players able to share a Wii Remote/Nunchuk combo. The game adds several new elements, such as optional effects that makes it difficult for players to see the cards. The Wii version of the game has received fairly positive reviews, garnering

2915-568: Was the introduction of trump cards with the power to beat all cards in other suits. Such cards were initially called trionfi and first appeared with the advent of Tarot cards in which there is a separate, permanent trump suit comprising a number of picture cards. The first known example of such cards was ordered by the Duke of Milan around 1420 and included 16 trumps with images of Greek and Roman gods. Thus games played with Tarot cards appeared very early on and spread to most parts of Europe with

2970-537: Was the most successful card game ever invented." Ombre's origins are unclear and obfuscated by the existence of a game called Homme or Bête in France, ombre and homme being respectively Spanish and French for 'man'. In Ombre, the player who won the bidding became the "Man" and played alone against the other two. The game spread rapidly across Europe, spawning variants for different numbers of players and known as Quadrille , Quintille, Médiateur and Solo . Quadrille went on to become highly fashionable in England during

3025-681: Was up for sale for 2 billion euros. Embracer Group in December 2021 launched a takeover bid for €2.75 billion, which would make it a ninth operating group within Embracer. During this announcement, they also revealed acquiring the online retail site Miniature Market sometime in 2021. Embracer Group officially completed its takeover of Asmodee on 8 March 2022. In addition to its physical publishing rights, Asmodee began developing video games based on their board game properties for personal computers and mobile gaming . Many of these games were built atop

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