The World’s Most Popular Card Game Levels Up
I designed PowerUp Poker to put a new twist on the world’s most popular card game in the form of two dozen different PowerUps that can turn tables and change fortunes. PowerUp Poker adds a new layer of fun and intrigue to a game that pretty much everyone understands, bridging the gap between tabletop and new era card game enthusiasts and players that stand by the ol’ 52-card deck.
PowerUps can affect almost any portion of play, from blind wagers to the value or number of cards in players’ hands or on the table, to the number of chips in play. Even so, each PowerUp was designed with care to ensure that no PowerUp is so powerful that it can guarantee a win even with a bad hand.
No PowerUp is guaranteed to have a purely positive effect on its player. New strategies quickly develop as players conspire to build upon or counter the PowerUps played by their opponents.
I designed all game art by hand and refined the game’s play mechanics through a variety of tests including players at all levels of poker knowledge.
I brought PowerUp Poker to the Kickstarter community beginning on July 1st, 2013. The campaign attracted attention from several members of the gaming press and attracted 117 backers and thousands of dollars in support.
The campaign on Kickstarter did not fund successfully, but PowerUp Poker remains in latent development and will return in another form in the future.