Meeting Our Biggest Fan

by Jay Bernardo February 29, 2024

Meeting Our Biggest Fan: Kevin and “Weredino” Talk Werewolves & Silver

We sent our fearless Trade Show Manager, Kevin, out into the wild to be interviewed by the biggest fan of Bezier Games - WEREDINO!

*Note: This is not a word for word transcript of the interview. A full, unaltered transcript of this interview can be found under the interviews tab in The Social Deduction Network Discord.

Dino: This is a big day for the Social Deduction Network! Kevin of Bezier Games is here to talk to us about the recent Silver Kickstarter Campaign. Would you say that Silver is a great gift for people celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary?

Kevin: Haha absolutely! It is a cost effective solution to the age-old Silver Anniversary.

Dino: My parents display their copy in their china cabinet. Silver is a fantastic game. I have really enjoyed every version of it that you have released thus far. For those tuning in who have never heard of it, could you tell us a little bit about how the game works and how to play?

Kevin: Sure thing. Silver is a card shedding, deduction game. All players are dealt 5 cards facedown and may look at 2. The rest of the game is spent deducing what your other cards are and trying to shed them. Every turn you’ll draw a card, either discarding it for its effect or replacing one or more matching numbered cards. The goal of the game is to have the lowest total in your village (tableau). When you think you have the lowest, you may skip your turn to “call”. We then all reveal our cards. If you successfully called, you score zero points and get the silver token. If incorrect, you get your score plus 10. Lowest score after 4 rounds wins.

Dino: Wow! Didn't think you'd be able to do that so concisely. Not your first time answering that question, methinks. Well done. The first two Silver Games were released in late 2019, and the next two came out in 2020, and I had hoped the next installments would come out in 2021. Why did Bezier Games wait so long to release more content?

Kevin: The pandemic certainly played a role in that. The first batch of silver games were unfortunately timed.

Dino: I see. I anticipated more content like crazy. I used to go through the alphabet with my kids, trying to guess the titles of future Silver Games.

Kevin: That’s a big goal of this Kickstarter campaign—bring awareness to the series that may have been overlooked during the dark times.

Dino: I remember at one point, there were hints that three games would be released the year following Coin and Dagger. I guess COVID messed that all up? Thank you, Biology! But we are getting them now, so I digress...

Kevin: Yeah, the intention was to release them more consistently, but these two new installments are more than worth the wait.

Dino: Agreed. My role in all this was to occasionally pester Bezier Games and inquire when new content would be released. I think I did it pretty well. The cast of villagers across the Silver Games is quite diverse. You have anthropomorphic animals, people who look like they are from centuries ago, others in modern clothing, a dinosaur, and a guy whose head is a bomb. Have you considered basing a character on me?

Kevin: Oh you were a wonderful reminder to continue the Silver Saga, know that your voice was heard. That being said, we already have a dinosaur in Silver Dagger. Consider him your nod!

Dino: Oh, okay! ...I am human.

Kevin: Dino was misleading.

Dino: Anyway, please pardon my inflated ego and ill-timed narcissism. Why did Bezier decide to go in so many wacky directions? The first two games were pretty consistent in terms of character design.

Kevin: Originally it was just going to be one-for-one werewolf characters, but that constricted us to what effects we could implement. We decided to just go with a wacky village that anyone could live in.

Dino: Ah. Including mathematical octopi.

Kevin: Octopuses are quite intelligent; they have nine brains!

Dino: And they can fit in anywhere.

Kevin: Including the Silver Series!

Dino: See what I did there? An octopus can squeeze into tiny holes, you see... I was proud of my joke...

Kevin: Well done, Sir.

Dino: Thank you. Thank you. I like that you have named so many of the characters after other characters that have already existed in other werewolf themed games but with a new spin. The Troublemaker, for example, looks completely different from those found in Ultimate Werewolf, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Ultimate Werewolf Inquisition, or Ultimate Werewolf Extreme. Who are some characters that you were hoping would have been included in the game but were ultimately not included?

Kevin: A lot of the Alien characters couldn’t find a home in the Silver Series, which was a shame, but honestly that’s kind of how the Collector’s Edition cards were born. They let us fit in everyone we had been trying to include.

Dino: Interesting. You do have Cow, Blob, Leader, Rascal, Psychic, and Mortician. These are all Alien characters. But where are all the aliens? It's a question we have been asking for decades.

Kevin: You must search the stars for a UAP.

Dino: I like the Gambler character, but couldn't help but think that this could have easily been the Oracle, making a prediction. I am also surprised that the Mason never made an appearance...

Kevin: We’re always keeping our options open for more Silver Games!

Dino: Aren’t Silver Eye and Silver Fang the final games in the Silver series? Why is Bezier Games trying to hurt me?

Kevin: Haha well you’ve got the collectors edition cards; that’s an entirely additional game. And those drawers can hold even more cards!

Dino: Yes! But due to my problem, whenever I get a new game that I really like, my first question is "When's the follow up coming out?". Maybe this is the end of the Silver Series, but then you can start the Silver II Series...? Or you could use the old, "We thought we were done with the Silver Series, but then we had a brilliant idea..." I'll back you up. I'll be like, "They had a brilliant idea, guys!"

Kevin: It’s difficult to ever truly say if something is ever truly over, but we are going to take a break for a bit. That way you get more time to enjoy these new games, and we have more time to think of great new powers!

Dino: That's true. Good point. I also like that you are not opposed to flip-flopping. Flip-flopping is underrated, especially when I don't like the initial position. I like your games is what I'm trying to say. I am really happy that the game includes Silver cards that are slowly being revealed during the campaign. With 14 new Silver cards, it is like a seventh game in the Silver series minus a new Silver token. Do you recommend people play with just the new cards?

Kevin: Jay and I have actually played with just the Collector’s Edition deck and it works. We even filmed it, so you should be able to see the game on YouTube by now. However, these new cards were definitely designed to supplement the other decks, rather than being played by themselves. You can definitely take 6 or 7 of them and make it work, but all 14? Might be a little wonky. I’d only recommend it to advanced players.

Dino: Interesting. Most of the time, I mix and match. If I am teaching someone the game, I just use Amulet. Just curious, why are the number 10 cards always vampires? Yes, I've gotten to the big questions.

Kevin: We love consistency. If you’ll notice, all the colors of each number are roughly the same in each set. As an example, all 5’s are light green.

Dino: Of course I noticed that but vampires?

Kevin: Why are they vampires? The village seems to have a shortage of garlic. It’s an easy place to thrive.

Dino: I always thought Cursed would make for a good Ten card, though he is not a Vampire. Something like, "If discarded from the draw pile, add this card and the top three cards from the discard pile into your village." Almost forces you to take an undesired card into your village, hence "cursed". I guess, "cursed" COULD be a vampire... Maybe that's his curse in this game...? Something to reflect on, though vampires don't do a lot of reflecting. In the comments, there was a hint that there just might be more new cards in the immediate future. How would Bezier Games make those available?

Kevin: Haha I should clarify that nothing at this time is planned. Just note that we aren’t completely closing that door. Give us a year or, at least, until this Kickstarter fulfills.

Dino: Okay, okay... I'll delay my pestering for a moment. We have to talk about that beautiful collector’s box that comes with this campaign. It is definitely not conventional. Can you tell us about some of the cool properties of this box?

Kevin: Absolutely. We wanted to focus on the functionality of this box. It was important for us to be able to access the games without taking it off the shelf. The gate just fit so naturally as the cover we couldn’t pass up that opportunity. The silver ribbons are my personal favorite. They are attached to the bottom of each shelf and allow for the games to come out so smoothly. The drawers are also a nice little extra for pens and the silver tokens.

Dino: And room for millions of more promo cards that I'm not going to pester you about... for a while… I love that it can fit playmats, which reminds me… I also really love the playmats! How would you say these playmats improve gameplay? I mean, are they functional or just aesthetic?

Kevin: Playmats always have a bit of functionality. It’s nice to have a distinguished place for everything. That being said, it’s primarily aesthetic. But they came out so nice we had to include them.

Dino: I do like what I’ve seen so far. And I like how all the characters from each game make an appearance. Really makes them seem like they are part of a village after all. Let’s talk strategy. If you have two 10s and three 1s in your village and you see another 10 in the draw pile, do you trade your three 1s for the 10 so that you can trade the three 10s for a single card on your next turn, knowing that the next player will take that low-numbered one and that you currently have a total of thirty points? I know what I would do, but…

Kevin: Oh I always go risky. Grab that 10. What are the odds the next person's calling? They’ll surely go for the low card instead, or they’ll get a false sense of security against your three cards and call prematurely. Either way, I would still have one more turn.

Dino: Yes! I would, too, but it would kind of depend on what the 10 was... if it's like "The Master," I might search for another 1 in the draw pile and trade my 10s for it. Which new card from this campaign is your favorite and why?

Kevin: Flasher! The 8 from the Collector’s Edition is so fresh and different. But out of Silver Eye and Fang, I’d go with Simon (2 from Eye). He’s both aesthetically pleasing to look at and powerful.

Dino: Interesting! Number 8, huh? That's one of the few ones I’m not too familiar with yet.

Kevin: Flasher is great because there’s a uniquely new activation effect—different from the other 97 cards across all the Silver games.

Dino: Oh! Yes! An ability that activates when someone messes with your cards, right?

Kevin: Haha you’ve got it. If you view a Flasher, you turn it and any other card faceup!

Dino: My mind is going crazy now… I'll move things along though. If you will forgive me, since you are here and I might not get a better opportunity to inquire, I would like to shift gears a little bit. One Night Ultimate Werewolf is my favorite game OF ALL TIME. What plans does Bezier have for that series?

Kevin: As of right now, we don’t have a new One Night game that’s in development. We are open to expanding that universe though, and we certainly haven’t forgotten about the greater werewolf universe.

Dino: Well, I am really curious to see what you eventually come out with. I am personally hoping for more content featuring the art style of the first few standalone games (Ultimate Werewolf, Daybreak, Vampire, and Alien). Does Bezier Games have other plans for new social deduction or werewolf-themed games? (2024 is a great year to introduce us to whatever it is...)

Kevin: We do have another werewolf themed game coming out this year, but I can’t say more beyond that at this time. You’ll see it soon!

Dino: Whoa! Really? I was just taking a shot in the dark!

Kevin: It’s not social deduction, but it’s very enjoyable and my personal favorite out of our 2024 titles.

Dino: Exclusive! Okay, okay! Still really excited. Man, oh man! Sorry. I'm just telling my stagehand to get the smelling salts ready, just in case. Really excited to hear that. Let the speculation begin. What a way to end this thing. Thank you so much for being here! This was huge for me, and a big deal for this humble server. The Silver Campaign is over, but the pledge manager should open soon?

Kevin: Yes, the pledge manager should open the last week of February!

Dino: Yes, yes! Back it before the werewolves take over! Thanks, Kevin!

Kevin: A pleasure! Thanks for having me! We’ll see you on future comment boards, right?

Dino: Yes, you will! FYI, I don't like it when the last comment isn't mine!

Kevin: Noted. Thanks!

Dino: Don’t mention it.