Gustavo Barreto - Hidra Games

CONCEPT AND GENRE

Petisco* is‒quite literally‒a family game with a dark humor
twist. It’s about a household of redneck farmers going
through a quarrelsome process to choose a new pet out
from their livestock... or cook it for dinner.

Or, as we like to put it, Petisco is a funny game of

bluffing, bickering and bacon.

You might think of Petisco as Lifeboats meets Babe,

meets The Beverly Hillbillies.

“Petisco” means “appetizer” in Portuguese. It also includes the English word “pet”, which is quite popular in
Brazil as an endearing term for household animals.
 GAME PLAY
Players are members of a redneck family who take turns
moving their favorite animals up and down the farm, trying
to place them in the choicest locations and
score more Victory Points.
They can also invest in an animal’s Cuteness or Tastiness, to
make it look either more lovable or more appetizing during a
family vote. Supercute animals are more likely to be selected as
the family’s new pet, while tasty-looking beasts are
more likely to be the main course.
The game ends when the farmers finally pick up a pet; then the
player who scores the most Victory Points is the winner.
 FEATURES
Critter cars and Location cards, Farmer cards
featuring funny artwork with variable powers

Component images are for illustrative purposes only.

 FEATURES
Favorites Roster cards Voting cards, Action cards,
and scoring sheets tokens and dice

Component images are for illustrative purposes only.

 SETTING
Listen up, Taffy. I ain’t lettin’ no ‘un hurt ye,
ol’ boy. My folks are only eatin’ you up
if they can catch me first.
And ye know I’m fast as lightnin’.
Bubba’s family, his beau, his in-laws, and
some local busybodies are about to go where
so many redneck farmers have gone before–
the seething depths of vicious bickering, the
fuming chasms of generational strife, all over
a bunch of animals that may easily get a
comfortable cushion in the living room or end
up in a roasting pan in the oven.
 TARGET AUDIENCE

Mostly teens and young adults, although Petisco

might engage slightly younger or older
audiences, specially if they are keen to
a little dark humor.
Its light rules and friendly learning curve are ideal
for casual gamers; however, its particular take on
the Commodity Speculation mechanic might
appeal to core gamers as well.
 PLATFORM AND MARKET

Petisco is well-suited for both specialty game

stores and the mass market.

Petisco is heavily language-dependent, however,

and players withdraw a huge amount of fun from
language-dependent puns enabled by its game
mechanics. Any prospects for publishing and
distributing this game abroad will have to take in
account the need to localize wordplay.
 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
As a non-expert game, Petisco might end up competing with a
considerable number of games with similar themes, target
audiences and/or mechanics, such as Tiki Topple, Gloom,
3 Kings or Exploding Kittens.
We believe Petisco has a twofold edge:
1. Unique juxtaposition of themes such as farm animals and dark
humor; playing against type can be a nice surprise from a
consumer’s point of view.
2. A consistent array of intertwining mechanics that enables fun,
comic circumstances and encourages players to add their
own puns and tirades to every game; this greatly enhances
both gaming experience and replayability.
 TEAM
Design & development by Gustavo Barreto.
Enthusiastic game designer at Hidra Games, and a
lawyer in his spare time, he’s had some of his
board games published in Brazil: Aero (with
Alessandro de Oliveira, Hidra, 2011), Don Capollo
(Devir/Hidra, 2013), and Tinco (with A. de Oliveira,
Devir/Hidra/Funbox, 2015).

Artwork by Geanes Holland. Brazilian artist and

illustrator, he used to pencil the comic book Miami
Vice for Lion Forge.
 TEAM
Graphic design by Luis Francisco. Renowned Brazilian
designer, he’s also a board game aficionado and author in his
own right. His elegant designs can be seen in The Bloody Inn
(Pearl Games, 2015), Coup Deluxe Edition (Indie Boards &
Cards, 2014), and Pot de Vin (Mandala/ThunderGryph, 2017),
among others.

Additional graphic design by Cris Viana (Estúdio Chaleira).

She has cut her teeth designing books and covers for a
number of publishers, including Devir Brasil, and now she’s
venturing through lettering and calligraphy, board games,
and authorial work. <estudiochaleira.com.br>

Writing by MC Zanini (Zombie Dodo Studio). Veteran

translator, former RPG editor at Devir Brasil, and freelance
writer for American publisher John Wick Presents. <
www.zombiedodo.com.br>
 SPECS
Petisco is a fun family game with
a twist of dark humor in which
players try to place their favorite
animals in the choicest farm
locations to score more Victory
Points. Players must also do
what it takes to swing the
results of a vote in their favor,
Number of players: 3-5
Ages: 14+
Setup time: under 5 min
Game length: 40 min
Components
Two-piece box (~ 125 x 35 x 175 mm)
96 cards (63 x 88 mm)
● 11 farmers

● 6 locations
so their animals won’t end up ● 16 critters

on the dinner table and at least ● 32 favorites rosters

● 21 voting cards
one of their critters gets ● 10 action cards

selected as a pet. 2 four-sided dice

Main mechanics: Area Movement,
Commodity Speculation, Variable
Player Powers, Voting.
58 tokens
1 pad of scoring sheets
16-page rulebook
Optional playmat (~ 55 x 40 mm)
 SYNOPSIS OF PLAY
● Players assemble their Farm as a six-column by four-row grid,
with each Farm Location (Bog, Pigsty, Hencoop, Pen, Stable,
House) at the top of a column, and four rows of Critter cards
from Bog to Pen. They also gather other components, such as
1 Favorites Roster card, 2 Action cards (Swapping and
Begging), 1 Pet It! card, a variable number of Pot It! cards, and
3 Meddling tokens.
● As an optional rule, each player may choose a Farmer card with

a special power.
● Play proceeds clockwise, and players take turns performing

one out of three possible actions: move up a Critter card

towards the House; have a Critter leap over a crowded
Location; give a Pat token to a Critter and raise its Cuteness;
give a Treat token to a Critter and raise its Tastiness.
 SYNOPSIS OF PLAY
● Whenever a Critter enters the House, there’s a Vote. Each player
secretly chooses either a Pet It! or Pot It! card, then reveal it. If there’s
at least on Pot It! vote, the Critter is roast, and its card is removed from
the game.
● If all cast votes are Pet It! cards, the Critter is selected as the family’s
new pet, and the game is over.
● During a Vote, players may use Swapping cards to try and switch the
doomed animal with another one; or they may use Begging cards to
save the Critter from the pot and send it back to the Bog.
● At the end of the game, players score Victory Points according to the
Farm Location where their Favorite animals ended up, the number of
Treat tokens on their Favorite Critter cards, plus a bonus if the family’s
pet happens to be the beast on the top of their rosters. The winner is
the player with the most Victory Points.
 PROTOTYPE STATUS
● Game design and artwork are done. Graphic
design is in progress. Text and complete rules
in Portuguese are currently under way.

● Cards, tokens and quick start rules are

immediately available for downloading and
playtesting at <Petisco Playtest>. Component
images are for illustrating purposes only; they
are likely to change along pre-production.

● Playtesters will also need two 4-sided dice (a

red one, a yellow one).