Good morning, dear friends: As you may know, throughout 2025 we have committed to releasing weekly updates for Gremlins, Inc. Such updates typically include a few quality of life improvements:

• edits for card rules, to make them easier to understand;
• fixing typos and missing values in some languages;
• occasionally, balancing changes (thanks to the forum discussions);
• sometimes, improvements in visual assets (contrast/colors);
• sometimes, improvements in the UI (font sizes and other things);
• from time to time, improvements in stability of servers;

If you have any suggestions for future updates in the categories above, please post them on Steam Forums. We are here for you, working to make your game experience better. And if you report a hypnoheart particularly good hypnoheart bug which we then find, and fix, then we will happily mail you a little package from our studio

UPDATE 2025/03/11

NEW CARD

To celebrate the game's 9th anniversary, which falls on March 11, 2025, we created a new card that shows an uncle of our lead character a famous gremlin oligarch, who spends his days in the Casino (there are rumors that he made his money on government contracts related to the Dump; others say that he used to own a ruby mine in the Treasure; recently, he published a book called "The Self-Made Gremlin Who Does Everything On His Own", written by a team of ghostwriters).
cards"Oligarch" [table noborder=1] [tr] [th]Location[/th] [td]The Casino[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Cost[/th] [td]600$[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Move points[/th] [td]5[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Type[/th] [td]Regular, Permanent[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Get[/th] [td]6score, 2malice[/td] [/tr] [/table] Special Rule: If you are arrested: this card is discarded, instead of getting a jail term teleport to the Casino. [quote] "Evert gremlin knows: those who stole a few coins go to jail, those who stole a few millions go to casino."[/quote] Although the effect of this permanent card is triggered only once, the privilege of avoiding the Jail is still a sizable advantage. Since you can get a significant number of score at once, this card is useful for strengthening your defense and expanding your lead at the end of the session. Please note that the Pauper's ability "No place for beggars" takes priority over this card's special rule. The exact values of this card may be balanced a bit, after we see it played for a week or two. The inspiration for this mechanic in the real life, is the saying that if a crime has a fine, it is only a crime for the poor; to the rich, it's a fee charged for performing the activity. I remember this every time I see a ridiculously expensive car parked in violation of the rules on the handicapped spot at the airport: a crime to most, but just a paid parking spot to the rich gremlin owner who parks this way.

SPECIAL SKIN FOR MAIN MENU

We have created a new skin for Main Menu, which is based on the Oligarch character. You can switch it ON/OFF in the Settings menu. This is available to everyone.

FAST ANIMATION OF DICE THROW

We added an option to speed up the animation of dice-rollers in the game. This will make your session quicker, if every player in the session uses this option. You can switch it ON/OFF in the Settings menu. This is available to everyone.

FANCY SOUND EFFECTS OF DICE THROW

Based to the community suggestion (thanks, magic_sparkles ), we added an option where a gremlin shouts the results of the dice throw at the end of the roll. If you don't speak Mandarin, this is your chance to learn the basic numbers (it also comes handy during kung fu training). You can switch it ON/OFF in the Settings menu. This is available to everyone.

LANGUAGE EDITS

This week, we harmonized the description of the rules on about 15 cards more. This time the scale is a bit smaller due to other key updates. Languages affected: English, Japanese, Russian. During the last week's update, there were errors in the Russian descriptions of "The Promobot" and "Amulet of Do-gor" as well as in "Tip-off". These has been fixed. Languages affected: Russian. (thanks, magic_sparkles dear Russian Gremlin Community and magic_sparkles ). If you see any other spelling mistakes in a language that you play the game in, please let us know and we will be happy to fix those.

USER INTERFACE

Tournament points earned in each session, which can be viewed in the previous sessions tab of the player profile, were shown incorrectly. This was causing confusion. It is now fixed. There was a bug that prevented scrolling the play log while playing a session. This has been fixed (thanks for the reports, magic_sparkles Infernomance). During tournaments, there was a bug that showed "invalid links" when pressing the button for "more information" in the tournament info dialog at the top of the screen. This has been fixed (thanks for the report, magic_sparkles Thainlex). The light bulb symbols that light up on the playing field where each character's special abilities are activated were not placed correctly where the Banker's abilities were activated. This has been fixed (thanks for the reports, magic_sparkles ). Some of the SFX/VFX in cards "Heavenly Duties" did not match the card effects. This has been fixed (thanks for the report, magic_sparkles saffery). During the start of a ranking session on Asia server, there was a bug that, in extremely rare cases, caused the session to lose sanity and both players to lose the ability to play, as shown in the image below (this is a rare case where you can see a special icon we have to mark "instant effects" on the cards, a feature that we did not fully implement and are saving for Gremlins, Inc. 2). The deck also had one more "An Inspection" than usual. This has been fixed (thanks for the report, magic_sparkles Multiple ranked players on Asia server).

ROADMAP

ONE MORE BIRTHDAY GIFT

We have one more birthday gift to release, which we plan for this week (thanks to Anna music), it will be released for the owners of OST by the way, if you don't have the game's soundtrack, now is a great time to get it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/459851/Gremlins_Inc__Original_Soundtrack/

LANGUAGE EDITS

If there are any misleading descriptions of the rules of the cards, we would love to receive your feedback since we continue to edit the rules to make them clearer. Every rule that is made easier to grasp, increases the speed of the multiplayer sessions.

USER INTERFACE

There's a number of things in the pipeline. Like a snail, we're not in a rush to do them all; but like a determined and courageous snail, we just keep going. And going. And going.

OTHER

Gremlins, Inc. celebrates 9 years in full release on March 11, 2025. We commemorate the date by committing to weekly updates throughout this calendar year. You may commemorate it by [strike]leaving a review[/strike] participating in the upcoming tournament.

TOURNAMENTS

The Anniversary Tournament runs from March 11 at 12:00 GMT to March 17 at 12:00 GMT. Check the announcement for the rules. PS malicemalicemalice Shameless promotion time! malicemalicemalice Our new game has a Steam page now (we plan to release a demo in the summer): https://store.steampowered.com/app/2694810/Sister_of_a_Dragon/ Tokens, matrix, combinations, it's a different beast born as a collaboration between our production team and one genius game designer with a beautiful brain.

[ 2025-03-11 09:47:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is an intense strategy board game in a steampunk world of corrupt capitalist gremlins who compete for money, political power and prestige. Save and invest, steal and extort, arrest and get arrested – in single-player and multiplayer modes, with ranks and ladders. Unleash your inner gremlin!

HOW DO YOU PLAY THIS GAME?

Gremlins, Inc. is designed for 2 to 6 players, in multiplayer or in single-player mode (with AI bots). Each player has 6 cards on their hand (replenished from the same deck), and uses them to move around the playing field and to perform a number of different game actions. There is a lot of interaction with other players, and duels are significantly different from 3-player or 4-player games. You play for score limit, or rounds, or for time limit in custom or ranked sessions (with matchmaking by rating). Password-protected private sessions are also available.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO PLAY ONE SESSION?

The game offers different session settings to make them fit your available time, and single-player mode offers automatic Save/Load function at every turn so that you can take a break whenever you want (multiplayer mode offers re-connect functionality as long as the session is still in progress). A quick duel for 20 score points with a fast timer can finish in under 20 minutes, while a 4-player session for 60 rounds can last for 2 hours or more.

SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM STRATEGIES?

There are different types of cards in the game (permanent, regular, secret and criminal) and as each card can be used either to move or for action, you will develop both short-term and long-term strategies for making the most out of where you are, and what you have in your hand. Normally you spend half of your game time accumulating things, and another half controlling other players (stealing, arresting, making them pay a fine, initiating player conflicts, and so on). The more you play, the more new strategies you will discover, especially when combining the effects of several cards played in a row.

MAKE DECISIONS, PLAN YOUR MOVES

• This is an intense strategy game: make decisions at every round! Plan your moves, then adjust to the actions of the other players and new cards drawn.

• The design of the playing field and the layers of optional features allow for a variety of strategies. The more you play, the more roads to victory you discover, using a combination of features based on the particular setup of the session.

• The game offers a resource system that allows for many comebacks even after you're robbed or arrested (or both). With score, money, votes, malice, income and bribes, the tension remains until the very last round.

• In this game, you have to be mean to win: not letting the others to score is as important as scoring yourself. The only true moment of unity in a multiplayer session is when everybody's united against the player who's about to win the game. Earn and steal resources, set traps, arrest, initiate Player Conflicts, bluff and climb up the political ladder to become the Governor.

• The multilayer mode of the game features a system of ratings, ladders and ranked sessions: compete in a specific league, and take part in the regularly organised tournaments (normally, over 1,000 players participate). A system of anonymous masks allows everyone to compete on equal terms in a ranked session, so that you can't really disregard someone as a newbie player, or target a veteran as your prime suspect in a political race.

• In addition to the multilayer mode, the game offers 9 single-player challenges plus the option to create custom single-player sessions with different AI bots (with each major update, we keep adding new challenges).

FACTS & FIGURES

• The game currently features 169 cards in the main deck: permanent, regular, secret and criminal, each with a hand-drawn steampunk illustration (with each major update, we keep adding 1-2 new cards to the core deck).

• The game also features 34 telegrams of Misfortune in the Misfortune deck: send and receive events that may disrupt another player's plans, or significantly improve your own standing (with each major update, we keep adding 1-2 new cards to the Misfortune deck).

• Chaos Cards: an optional set of 6 cards available to every player in the game, that changes the dynamics of the session.

• Special Character Abilities: an optional feature that enables 12 sets of abilities unique to each character type, which then defines the core strategy of every player.

• There are 11 locations – the Office, the Plant, the Dump, the Marketplace, the Inferno, the Jail, the Casino, the Court, the Treasure, the Bank and the Astral Plane – and 7 spot types – Danger, Gamble, Police, Income, Bribe, Misfortune and Tribune.

• The game took us three years to develop from concept to Early Access and to full release, and we're committed to the continued support of the community and development of new features and new content. It is the brainchild of Alexey Bokulev, the acclaimed creator of Eador.Genesis. There are currently over 35,000 players of Gremlins, Inc. on Steam from all over the world, including USA, Russia, China, Japan, UK and France. Collectively, players launched over 400,000 single-player and multiplayer sessions since the game's full release in March 2016.

FINALLY, WHO ARE THE GREMLINS?

You think that’s just a pocket watch in your hand, a watch that’s a bit late because you keep forgetting to wind it up? No, no and no – you couldn’t be further from the truth! What you carry around is a whole gremlin town packed into this tiny mechanism: a town with its own bank, its own casino… and even its own jail! Gremlins are the microscopic creatures that inhabit any mechanism that they can possibly infiltrate. If a watch or a telescope malfunctions, then it’s probably due to gremlins who took up a residence there.

More than anything in life, gremlins value money, political power and prestige: prestige that one can claim after completing some sort of a grandiose engineering project. Aside from working on their own projects, gremlins mostly spend their time preventing other gremlins from building something even more grandiose. This they achieve through bribing officials and lying to the electorate, as well through stealing from their competitors - and outright arresting them.

A DISCLAIMER (JUST IN CASE)

We felt it important to note that Gremlins, Inc. is not a free-to-play game. Also, this is not a CCG or TCG: you do not need to buy boosters or packs, in every session the game offers the same deck to every player, and everyone's chances are equal.

OUR DLC POLICY

We remain committed to the principle of continuously updating the game with new features (e.g. special character abilities) and new content (e.g. new cards, new Misfortunes) that come in the form of regular updates that are FREE for every owner of the product. At the same time, from time to time we create and release fun stuff (animations, character portraits, alternative music themes) that is not related to the game mechanics, as paid DLCs. If you like it, you can support our efforts by your purchase. However, there is absolutely no pressure to own any of the DLCs in order to play the game or compete in the tournaments.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT ONLINE CONNECTION

Gremlins, Inc. was designed as a digital board game with the multiplayer mode at its heart. This is not to say that we don't like single-player – we do, and there's a separate section with the single-player challenges as well as the mode where you can create any custom single-player session that you like. However, the architecture of the game is built in a way that allows us to continually update the game mechanics and AI logic, which for this reason is processed entirely on the server side. Therefore whether you play Gremlins, Inc. in a single-player mode or in a multiplayer mode, your game client needs to be connected to Steam, and game's server, at all times. If you are looking specifically for a game that can be played offline, then Gremlins, Inc. in the current state is not the right product for you. An offline-only version of the game is currently in development for release later in 2016.

AMSTERDAM AND SINGAPORE SERVERS

The game currently supports 2 separate servers: Amsterdam and Singapore. Players are able to check their ping value for each of these servers, and play on the server that is the most convenient. Each server has its own player ladder, statistics and player profiles. Most players choose Amsterdam, since ping to Amsterdam from anywhere in the world rarely exceeds 300. However, as we saw more and more players from the Asian region join the game, especially from China, we added the server in Singapore in order to be able to offer faster connection specifically to these players. We hope that this works well for every player, as good player experience is our top priority. We will continue to monitor the quality of our server/client connection in order to adapt the servers to the changing requirements and we thank you for your patience.