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It’s nineteen-sixty-something, late on a balmy Summer afternoon in Pork Springs. You and your plus one have been invited to the annual Pork Springs Social, an intimate gathering of the city’s cultural heavyweights. As budding socialites, this is a golden opportunity to rub shoulders with some very influential swines and dazzle them with stimulating conversation and sophistication in your food and beverage choices. Can you out-schmooze and out-manoeuvre the competition to earn your place amongst these Cultured Swines?
Cultured Swines is a push-your-luck social strategy game played in pairs with 4-8 players. Mingling poolside, you and your plus one will boost your credibility with guests by weighing in on a range of topics from art, language and social commentary. In your conversation, you will order your own thoughts, try to validate your partner's opinions, and impress guests with your apparent wealth of knowledge. Race to the buffet for preferential service to match food and beverages with complementary flavor profiles. A perfect pairing will paint you and your plus one in a more favorable light and may help your in your next conversation. Every guest wields influence in their own way, and the impression you make will ripple through their circles. You must choose your conversations carefully to out-manoeuvre the competition, schmooze the right guests at the right time, and earn the favor of the crowd to cement your status as Cultured Swines.
—description from the publisher
- Different, weird, fresh, unique, and fun
- Theme and artwork are really fun
- Ranking things
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Drafting — Players pick food and drink cards based on their ranking order.
- Push Your Luck — Players bet on whether their rankings match, with points gained for correct bets and lost for incorrect ones.
- Real-time gameplay — The game is described as a 'part real-time game' where players 'races to rank things'.
- Set Collection — Players can play food and drink cards for special abilities if they have a matching pair.
- team play — The game is played 'in teams'.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Cultured Swines is like no game I've ever played before. It's different. It's weird. It's fresh. It's unique. It's fun.
References (from this video)
- Fun and engaging challenges
- Promotes communication and teamwork (humorously)
- Good for parties and groups
- Can be difficult to agree on associations
- Some challenges are perceived as very hard
- Heteronormative and racially segregated couples trying to impress at a pool party.
- A pool party in Pork Springs
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Challenge Variety — The game includes different types of challenges such as word association, art interpretation, conventional wisdom, and the strongest link.
- Resource Management (Food/Drink Cards) — Players draw food and drink cards that can be played for benefits if the colors match.
- Set Collection — Teams aim to secure endorsements by reaching thresholds on different tracks.
- Strategic Movement — Teams choose which table to play at next, influencing their strategy and scoring opportunities.
- team play — Players compete in teams of two, emphasizing coordination and shared understanding.
- Wagering/Deduction — Tokens are placed on a wager strip, and points are gained for matching choices and lost for mismatches.
- Word Association Challenges — Players rank words based on their association with a keyword, requiring simultaneous and silent participation.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Americans, you always talk. You say things like, 'I just want to say this, and let me tell you about such and such.'
- So, how do we start? Can we SEE THE RULES?
- It doesn't work. And yet I loved it.
- Well, you obviously have it. But does Ken agree?
- I thought we'd do a little better before we fell apart, but seemingly [laughter]
- It's hard to defend.
- This game sucks.
- Can you imagine the concept of [laughter] it?
- I hate this stupid marriage.
- There's no such thing as bad publicity.
- My God. Like 911 91 was better than this wedding.
- Well, there we go. That was cultured swine. And we may not have been cultured, but we were definitely swine.
References (from this video)
- Very well-formed prototype
- Fun couples party game
- Nice mix of party game and modern hobby elements
- Host's group was horrible at it
- Couldn't finish the game due to time
- Dinner party
- Codenames Duet
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Betting — Betting on which items will definitely match and which won't.
- Real-Time — Couples work in real time to sequence things in order.
- Set Collection — Going quickly gets the best choices for set collection and points.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Pola... it's like one of the most beautiful games I've seen.
- Paperia... it can actually end up being a bit of a aggressive little game when the right scoring things are in certain places
- 2001: A Space Odyssey... Phil Harding's design it tends to be like simple like things don't need to be complicated and we love it in this one. It's just perfect complexity.
- The working title is called gumball machine... this one is more kind of like a family game.
- It's a really simple family level trick taking game.
- Flip Sevens for everyone.
- We played the bubble tea game. It was very fun.
- It's not a new game. Let us know if you have played this, if you enjoy it, what you think of pass.
- They're great uh convention fillers.
- The second one is the killer whale who actually worked with human in the past for killing other whales.
- The third one is the pool that is made from natural. So that's kind of like in area from the sea and they made a pool. So it's like a natural pool from the sea water.