Let’s start at the very beginning: Losing our jobs during a global pandemic and getting quarantined in our cockroach-infested Brooklyn apartment.
Prior to March of 2020, Olivier, Julie, and our fat cat Diesel had a happy normal(ish) life living and working in New York City. Olivier was a marketing manager for an advertising firm, and Julie was the Event Director for the city’s holiday markets. We both wanted to run our own business, and Olivier dabbled in illustration and game design, but we were like, busy and stuff. Our Brooklyn apartment was too small for normal human standards, but like most New Yorkers we lived outside the house, only coming home to sleep, occasionally clean, and Netflix and chill.
Then, Covid 19 happened. The disease was raging in New York City and we got quarantined in our tiny apartment. Then, on March 20th, both of us lost our jobs. We got the calls that we were laid off within one hour of each other.
It was a tough day. Diesel was unaffected.
After lots of couch crying (Julie), and video game playing (Olivier), we settled into a new routine of sending out resumes, baking bread, and watching Tiger King. Our apartment felt smaller and smaller as time went by, but we made it work... until we got new roommates. Roomates that didn’t pay rent, ate our food, had 6 legs, and haunted our dreams. Cockroaches!
They came in in droves and instigated terror. Big ones that would crawl under the door at night, scurry up the walls and disappear into cracks! Tiny ones that would scuttle out of the drain of the tub! They were in the bathroom, under the sink, in the closet, and in our nightmares. We couldn’t escape.
Diesel remained unaffected.
As it turns out, roaches had invaded the whole building. Some construction in the basement apparently disrupted a thriving community of roaches who were now seeking refuge in our apartment. Our neighbors were spraying for roaches, which wouldn’t kill them but cause them to flee from apartment to apartment. The exterminator would come and that would help for a few days… until an army of roaches would return for revenge. Because of Covid, we couldn’t leave… we were stuck with our roaches.
It was here that Olivier got the bright idea to turn these nightmare mechanics of our real life infestation into a card game!
In Cuddly Cockroaches, you send your cockroach army to other people’s apartments and try to keep your apartment below 10 roach points. You do this by infesting your neighbors with your cockroaches, or by playing supply cards like bug spray and gas leak that either kill roaches, send them to your opponents’ apartments, or reduce their point value. Some cockroach cards have special abilities so you’ll want to keep them in your apartment, but you’ve got to be careful - if you have ten cockroach points at the end of your turn, you lose the game.
It really sucked when we lost our jobs and got stuck in our tiny gross apartment. It really REALLY sucked when Julie stepped on a cockroach in her bare feet. But now, we see this time as a gift to start our own business, and prioritize what is actually important to us - making and publishing fun, accessible games. Cuddly Cockroaches can be enjoyed by the whole family, the illustrations are hilariously cute, and it’s easy to develop strategy while playing the game. Please support our Kickstarter! You’ll be supporting the launch of our small business…and making Diesel’s dream of having his parents home full time come true.
Follow our journey on instagram @cuddlycockroaches, and at CuddlyCockroaches.com