Cheeky
Monster
Games
purveyor of quirky, baroque fantasy-horror games
Featured Game:
Pocket Troll
Pocket Troll is a tiny portable game for 2 players. The premise is that 3 boys have seen a troll, but no one believes them. The boys have to bring 3 pieces of evidence to the village, while the troll has to get to the village at night (or eat all 3 boys). The game board has only 8 spaces (+2 tunnels), with a den at one end and a village at the other, and is played with tokens and cards.
I designed the physical version some time ago, and even did some motion capture for some of the animations, but got sidetracked with Io and other projects. The main task at the moment is redesigning all the game assets for the print version and then finishing the digital version in Unity, as my old version uses some outdated coding techniques that make it less extensible.
Enjoy the images below and keep an eye out for any playtesting sessions!
Our Games
Io Volume 1: Players
by Glen Spoors
Release Date mid-late 2019
Io is a roleplaying game system and world set on a planet of quirky evolution and higher-dimensional phenomena. An original, hybrid system with a story focus, rich world, and highly customisable character creation. The first volume covers the core rules and character creation.
300 page 11"x9" softcover
Io Volume 2: The Host
by Glen Spoors
Release Date mid-late 2019
Io is a roleplaying game system and world set on a planet of quirky evolution and higher-dimensional phenomena. An original, hybrid system with a story focus, rich world, and highly customisable character creation. The second volume covers the occult and the game world, for the benefit of the Host who runs the game.
200 page 11"x9" softcover
Pocket Troll Digital
by Glen Spoors
Release Date late-2019
Three boys have discovered a troll is on their way to the village! If you play as the boys, get evidence and return it to the village. If you play as the troll, get to the village while it is night time or eat all 3 boys. Play using the same tokens as the physical version, or play the improved 3D version. Story mode forthcoming!
Download for PC or Mac
Pocket Troll CG
by Glen Spoors
Release Date late-2019
Three boys have discovered a troll is on their way to the village! If you play as the boys, get evidence and return it to the village. If you play as the troll, get to the village while it is night time or eat all 3 boys. A mini-game played with cards and counters on a board of 10 locations. Short, suspenseful gaming for 2 players!
Pocket Board/Card Print and Play
Colossus Awakes
by Glen Spoors
Release Date late-2019
Every millenia, one of the great colossi wakes from beneath the earth in one of the valleys it has formed. The four tribes of Peladori must deal with the potential disaster by subduing, killing, enabling or surviving the catastrophe. 2-4 player strategy/wargame played with a large board, cards, tokens and miniatures.
Print and Play Download
Quiz Quest
by Glen Spoors
2015
A quiz game designed for the department of health to educate on matters of sexual health and behaviour. Progress through four stages to defeat your monstrous ignorance! It's kind of lame, but was featured in the West Australian!
PC or Mac build
Master of Icons
by Glen Spoors
1986
A 1980s shareware game, written in Turbo Pascal, master of Icons is a hybrid Chess and RPG turn-based strategy game. Play one of 8 formations on one of 8 boards, trying to defeat the icons of your opponent using combat or spells!
PC only, DOSBox included
Holden Sunrise
by Glen Spoors
Installation, 2013
Holden Sunrise was a game installation at Erin Coates The Cars That Ate Perth exhibition in May 2013. It's premise is you repeatedly fail to get to work in Perth while driving a shitty old rundown Holden owing to engine problems, fuel problems, obstackles and a frustration meter.
2013 art installation
About Us
Cheeky Monster Games is a purveyor of quirky and baroque, fantasy-horror games.
I started playing roleplaying games, computer games and boardgames in earnest during my teens. My gaming nostalgia is governed by Fighting Fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons, Dragon Warriors, Call of Cthulhu and other RPGs, as well as Scarlet Sorcerer and Emerald Enchanter, a graphical interactive fiction book where you played two wizards but it was in first person - in a book. (There was another one where you flew biplanes.) Defender of the Crown remains a standout, but I also fondly recall Attack of the Mutant Camels (giant camels like AT-ATs from The Return of the Empire Hoth sequence), The Bard's Tale (original), Might and Magic: Mandate of Heaven, Heroes of Might and Magic 2, Diablo (1 and 2 - heck I even bought Hellfire, the Sierra expansion).
Through my youthful gaming I dabbled at designing hybrid RPG systems, writing RPG campaigns, and coding homages to, and variants of, games I loved. My proudest original and finished adolescent work was Master of Icons, an odd hybrid of chess and RPGs inspired by Talengard and Archon Chess. (I only ever played those games briefly on a friend's Commodore 64, and had to pretend it and another friend's Amiga weren't really proper computers because I only had access to my dad's PC when PC's had 4 colours and music like a kid with a tin whistle scraping its nails on a blackboard). In any case, Master of Icons was 'released' as Shareware to much ado about nothing because I didn't think about such trivial things like promoting it or making it accessible to others...
I only inconsistently pursued gaming while at uni, but after my PhD in game design I finished prototypes for a mini-boardgame Pocket Troll as well as an over-sized strategy wargame Colossus Awakes. I then began adapting one of my old RPG systems, Shadow Realm, into a tabletop game which I re-branded Eidolon, and then Io.
I've taught across game design courses at ECU, Curtin and SAE, with the latter especially creating opportunities to upskill in some technical areas I was lacking. In 2013 I learnt Unity and made a car installation called Holden Sunrise for The Cars That Ate Perth exhibition, and in 2016 a quiz game did Quiz Quest for the WA Department of Health. Around the same time Io evolved into a near-finished 2-volume 900 odd page RPG, and I am trying to find time to work on digital versions of Pocket Troll and Colossus Awakes, as well as Dragon Racer, an idea I had when I was 14, and other miscellaneous gaming tasks.
If you are interested in quirky, hybrid or unconventional games and all things monstrous, I hope you look forward to enjoy ours!
