Category: Uncategorized

Rt. 60 Man Gaming Company creators Caleb Huff,

Michael Valentine, and Kyle Quinn

ONCE UPON A TIME…

In the spring of 2018 in Huntington, West Virginia, my cousin Caleb Huff told me

he had a bunch of ideas for board games. That’s nice,” I thought. It was only a few weeks

later  that my longtime college friend Kyle Quinn, unprovoked and out of the blue said,

“I’d like to make a board game, I just don’t have any ideas.” “That’s nice,” I thought…

Wait a minute…a rusty cog started to slowly turn in my brain as I connected the dots…

“My cousin was just telling me about all these ideas he had for board games! Let’s sit

down with him.” And so began my unpurposeful interest in designing board games,

stuck somewhere in between creativity and craftsmanship. Caleb pitched us a few

suggestions, some lavish, sprawling, complicated, worker-placement games  with

resource gathering-over my head, but others closer to my level of competence  and

patience,  such as one idea that captured our imagination immediately –

A game he was considering naming ScrapBots.

The original proposal involved collecting money and multi-tiered upgrades,

but being the resident dummy in the group, I championed for stripping it

down to its essence and trimming out any of the over-complicated concepts.

We beat it around for a couple weeks and once we had our mechanics settled

on and did some play testing, Kyle and I (being former art majors at Marshall

University) went to work drawing out the 60 Mission Cards,

110 Junk Cards, and 105 Robot Parts.

Some of Kyle Quinn’s prototype homework

Finally, after settling on the name JunkBots, we met at Caleb’s office with a paper

prototype – he’s one of those baby-delivering doctors btw.  Hey,” we thought, “This

game is actually fun. How did we do this? Making games is easy.
We might have this printed in a few months.” Har har.

How innocent.  How ignorant.  How imbecilic.

Caleb Huff and Kyle Quinn take the prototype for a spin.

We knew right away who we wanted to do the actual artwork.

In art school, Kyle and I had become close friends with Glen Brogan,

who has earned a name for himself doing illustrations for Disney, Marvel,

and many other big time fancy-shmancy corporations. We anxiously

wondered if he could make time for his old pals in between his more

illustrious gigs, and he did…kind of. Glen began by designing the

box art and creating three of the 21 full robots for the game before

he got buried in other work. Of course we totally understood  and were

grateful to even have some of his original art included in our game. The reins

were picked up by Jesse Lewis, an artist I had worked with while managing

a frame shop a few years prior. We waited patiently – drawing hundreds of

pictures can take a while – especially when you have another full time job!

RustBots artists Glen Brogan and Jesse Lewis

When we finally had our art, we produced 3 copies of the game, ordering the cards

through Game Crafter, then spray gluing to chipboard and cutting the robot pieces

by hand (for those of you keeping count at home, that’s 105 pieces x 3 = 315 at 4 cuts

for each side, drumroll…1,260 cuts, phew!)  Now who is going to print this thing?

Having no clue what we were doing, we more or less flipped open the phonebook

and stuck our finger down. Got a few quotes from China and actually began working

with a company that ended up changing ownership and in the end didn’t seem to fully

understand what we were asking for. We decided to find a printing company in the

United States so there would be no language barrier misunderstandings. Staring at a list of

US printers I found online-…Hmm Florida. Sounds exotic. Shuffled Ink it is!

So totally by random chance we began work with the Americans at Shuffled Ink and

couldn’t have been happier with their customer service. Charles Levin and his team are

professional, patient, and detail oriented. He had every opportunity to take advantage of

us  (again, if all we knew about producing a game was leather, we couldn’t saddle a flea),

but rather, mentored and advised us even when it meant making less money for his company. 

And here comes October 2020. It is brought to our attention that there is a toy called

JunkBots where you use pieces of trash to build robots. Sound familiar? Oof.

Rather than chance it, we renamed the game to RustBots and with some clever photoshopping,

were able to redo the box title. With the new name in place, it was off to Kickstarter where we were

most thankful to have our project successfully backed by 260 wonderful individuals! Next came

some final tweaks to the art -I’m sure my over-attentiveness to tiny details bugged  the snot out

of the Shuffled Ink staff, but they remained tolerant throughout the years of email exchanges.

It was exciting for us to receive our white box and proofs from the printer as well as to approve the

production copy which began the process of manufacturing 1,000 of our games. We couldn’t have

been happier with the quality of the components. After five years of on and off work and through

our trusted relationship with Shuffled Ink, in February of 2024 we finally got to hold our

completed games. It’s a pretty crazy and humbling feeling to go from scribblings on a

piece of notebook paper to something that looks and feels like a real live

board game and further unfathomable that is now on four continents!

-Michael Valentine, co-creator of Rt. 60 Man Gaming Company/RustBots

Caleb Huff and Kyle Quinn contain their excitement

checking out the first RustBots shipment

Check out what else we are working on at: rt60mangamingco.com
Or, you can find Rt. 60 Man Gaming Company on Instagram and Facebook

Our Brand New Artist Affirmations Deck is Live

and Ready to Help You Become Your Best Self. 

This project has been a long time in the making, but well worth it. 

Back in August, for artist appreciation month, we conducted

our largest contest ever and collaborated with 54 different artists

to bring you an amazing deck filled with insight and whimsy! 

After sorting through hundreds of contest submissions,

we picked the best and brightest affirmations to help

get you through any situation. 

One of the main benefits of affirmation cards is building a more

positive mindset, and we like to think we’ve accomplished that

with the help of our contest winners.

Affirmations are a great way to practice self care, and we kept that

in mind while selecting the artwork. One of our favorites is

“Embrace your Weirdness”, something we do every day here

at Shuffled Ink. It’s a great reminder to embrace and

encourage what makes you you! 

Did you know affirmation cards actually have scientific backing

behind them?  Studies have found that affirmations activate the

reward center in our brain, which then elevates the mood.

These mood elevations encourage real-life behavior changes.

Affirmations have also been linked to an overall decrease in stress.

How cool is that?

Artistic Affirmations is not just a fun product, it’s actually good for you!

All proceeds of this gorgeous deck benefit ArtCares for Kids, an amazing nonprofit!

They are located in the Miami area and work in hospital settings

to help children dealing with physical, emotional, and psychological challenges.

They aim to nurture a child’s spirit through art, and have been doing so since 2010. 

There were a lot of nonprofits to choose from, but we ultimately picked

ArtCares for Kids due to their incredible work helping kids foster their

creative spirit, allowing them to heal inside and out. 

Congratulations to all of our artists, and to those who purchase this deck!

Go ahead and pick it up here ✨Artist Affirmations✨

Here’s to being the best version of ourselves possible!  

If you are interested in participating in a future contest,

please keep an eye on our Instagram

Breaking in a new deck: how do you do it?

by EndersGame

Experienced card handlers will often talk about the benefits of “breaking in” a brand new deck of playing cards, to make it perform and handle optimally. So suppose we do want to break in our deck, how should we go ahead doing that? Let’s imagine that our deck is still staring at us from the kitchen table, grinning at us from within its cellophane. Starting with the very beginning, we’ll run through a whole process of things we can do to get our new deck working as smoothly as possible.

Step 1: Preparation

So what do we need to get started?

● Be clean. You didn’t see that coming did you? There you were, with your grimy hands, all ready to rip into your brand new deck, and you almost forgot this important step! The oil on your hands, and any unwanted grime that might be invisibly clinging to it, will quickly transfer to your brand new cards, and before you know it they will start looking grimy as well. So it’s important to get rid of any sweat, dust and dirt that your hands might be carrying, and give your new deck the very best start it can, rather than throwing mud at it on its first test drive! So before going any further, go ahead and wash your hands. Oh, and also be sure to dry them. Thoroughly – because we don’t want to add any moisture to our paper cards either.

● Get your tools. Don’t worry, you won’t need a hammer or any heavy equipment! But a sharp knife will come in handy shortly, in order to do a neat and tidy job of opening the seal.

Step 2: Opening the Tuck Box

You didn’t really think that the cards magically pop out of that wrapped box, do you? This process involves several steps:

● Cellophane. We begin by opening the cellophane, or shrink-wrap as it’s sometimes also called. Rather than ripping this from the top or bottom, I usually like to pull the tab provided for this around the deck. What this does is divide the wrapper into two halves. I typically remove the smaller top half, but leave the larger lower half on the deck. This provides additional protection to the tuck box, helping it stay in shape, and preventing the corners from becoming dinged up or tearing. Fortunately not too much can go wrong when removing the cellophane – unless you’re using a knife, in which case be careful that the sharp blade doesn’t slip and leave an unplanned but permanent tattoo on your skin or on the tuck box!

● Seal. Now for the seal itself, which is the adhesive sticker on most decks that keeps the deck closed, and which needs to be cut or removed in order to open the top flap. Again, there are wrong ways to do this. Rather than just tear this in any fashion, I like to preserve the seal as best as possible. With a custom deck, the seal has often been thoughtfully and deliberately designed with unique artwork to suit with the rest of the deck, so it’s nice to preserve as much of that as possible. Cutting it parallel with the top of the deck along the upper flap is less than ideal, because it means you’ll invariably have part of the sticky side of the seal facing inwards, where it will occasionally attach itself to a playing card, and over time accumulate dust and dirt. Instead, it’s often best to get a sharp knife, and cut the seal right along the semi-circle shape. In a pinch, you can use a thumb nail to do this. The result of breaking the seal along the semi-circle shape will be very neat and tidy, because when the tuck box flap is closed, you’ll see the two parts of the seal come together in entirety. And there’s the added advantage that you won’t be leaving any sticky surfaces around to attract grime.

● Top flap. Ideally you want to bend the top flap backwards. There is usually a line about 1cm below the top flap, which has been pressed into the deck during production, and that’s where you want to bend the top flap backwards – not at the very top of the deck itself. What this does is reveal the top centimeter of the cards, making them easy to grab. If you don’t do this, and the cards are somewhat of a tight fit in the tuck box, you may find yourself butchering the top of the case trying to get the deck out.

Step 3: Removing the Cards

Wait, do we really need a whole step that explains how to remove the cards from the tuck box, and do I really think you have an IQ lower than an Ace of Spades? I’m sure you’re bright enough – after all you’re reading this! – but the truth is that you can butcher this part of the process as well.

● Take out the cards. If you have pushed back the top flap at the line described in the previous step, you should be able to get your fingers on both sides of the top of the deck. The most natural way to do this is to have your thumb on one side of the deck in the semi-circular thumb tab (another reason for not cutting the seal directly across the top!), while your forefinger grabs the other side of the deck along the top centimeter of the cards that has been revealed when you bent the top flap of the tuck box backwards. Now you can just pull the cards out, but even that can be a little tight at times. Get gravity to help, and tip the box over, so that the cards fall naturally into your hand. Don’t forget to inhale that new deck smell – that’s not something you want to miss is it? Breathe in deeply, and smell those new cards – you know you want to! This is also a good time to remove the ad cards, so that what you’re handling is a 54 card deck without unnecessary extras.

● Smooth the edges. In the case of a USPCC produced decks, the edges of the playing cards of a brand new deck will feel noticeably rough. While this can improve over time, you might want to take your deck and rub all four sides a number of times against some fabric – denim jeans are perfect. This will remove any loose bits and can help reduce some of the roughness.

Step 4: Conditioning the Cards for Optimal Friction

Some swear that there’s a particular order of steps that must be followed when breaking in a deck in terms of how you handle the cards for the first time once they’re outside the box. Personally I fail to see how the order of what follows matters too much – although I wouldn’t begin with a riffle shuffle or spring for reasons I’ll explain in a moment. So here are the moves you should consider doing to make your cards perform better than when you have them in your hands for the first time.

First of all, you want to give your cards a workout to help ensure optimal friction. These first moves are geared to ensure that the cards slide smoothly over each other. Cards have a coating that is designed to optimize how they glide over each other. But in the factory the cards have just been produced, and have never actually rubbed over each other yet, so there may be some small imperfections. We want to make sure that with the help of some warmth, wear, and pressure, everything is in good order and sliding smoothly and evenly. A helpful way to think of this is that you are polishing the cards by rubbing them against each other.

● Overhand shuffle. Shuffle off all the cards one at a time, to ensure that all the cards move freely, and there are no clumps of cards sticking together. It’s important to make sure that all the cards are properly separated.

● Wash. At this point some people recommend “washing” your cards. No, don’t get out the soapy water! A wash refers to spreading all the cards on the table, crudely overlapping each other, and shuffling them around over each other. The term “granny shuffle” is also used for this method. Personally I think that a systematic series of overhand shuffles accomplishes the same thing, is neater, and does a better job of looking after your cards, but you might find it more satisfying and effective to give your cards a “wash” as just described.

● Fan. A few fans are now the order of the day, in both directions. The idea of this and the previous step is that you get the cards sliding over each other every which way.

If you did the above steps face up, now repeat them face down. This ensures that each card has gone through its paces in each and every direction, from both sides.

Step 5: Conditioning the Cards for Optimal Flexibility

But cards don’t only need to slide over each other smoothly, they also need to be able to flex in different directions. If they were stiff and rigid like wooden boards, there’s no way you could handle them at all, so we want to make sure that they are malleable and soft. That’s something that the printing process won’t do for us by bending them in different directions to soften them up, but fortunately it’s something we can easily do, by giving the cards a workout to help ensure optimal flexibility.

These next moves are geared to ensuring that the cards flex properly, and return back to their natural shape easily and quickly. I strongly suggest doing these steps after the ones just described to get optimal friction, because when sliding the cards across each other, you don’t want them to be previously bent as a result of riffle shuffles or springs. Although if you find that your deck is warped out of the box, these flexibility routines will help straighten it out, so you may need to adjust the order of things.

● Aeration. This is a simple and interesting “flex-ercise” in which you hold the deck similar to the beginning of a spring, squeezing both ends towards each other. This causes the deck to bend into a C shape, and you’ll notice the cards all separating from each other with a layer of air between them. This helps separate the cards, and helps prevent the oil or coating causing them to stick together. Do this in both directions.

● Riffle shuffle. Now it’s time for a good riffle shuffle, since not only do you want the cards sliding smoothly over each other, but you also want them flexing nicely. Do this both face up and face down, completing each shuffle with a bridge, so you don’t end up with bent or warped cards, and so that the cards are flexed in both directions.

● Faro shuffle. Another good move to do at this point is a faro shuffle. Given the new deck order, the central place that splits the deck exactly should be even easier than usual to find – for most standard decks it will be right between the King of Clubs and King of Diamonds. You can complete the shuffle by bridging the cards, or by cascading the cards together if you know how to perform that flourish. A faro shuffle will also tell you immediately whether or not a deck has a traditional cut or a modern cut, depending on which way you need to weave the cards together for the faro shuffle.

● Spring. Just like a riffle shuffle, a couple of good springs will help, and be sure to do these in both directions (face up and face down).

To round things off, you might want to conclude with another series of overhand shuffles, just to make sure that the factory coating has had another pleasant polish and final warm up, so that it can behave optimally.

Closing Thoughts

In most cases, for the average person anyway, there’s no real need to artificially “break in” a deck. Just go ahead and use it! How it will handle and feel will change naturally over time, and as long as it’s a good quality deck, often this may make the handling smoother and better.

But if you’re a performing professional, it may be important to make sure that a deck is in optimal handling condition ahead of a performance. In that case you will want to put a new deck through its paces before using it for the first time on the stage. Usually the best way to do this is by a systematic series of shuffles, fans, spreads, and springs, as described above, to break the cards in faster, and to ensure that they have optimal friction and flexibility ahead of your performance. It’s not a complex process, and simply spending five or ten minutes with your deck in this way should do the trick.

For most of us, none of this really matters enough, and wearing in a deck is what happens automatically as we use it. Even so, it is good to be aware of how to treat a deck well, and to be familiar with some of the things you can do to help give your playing cards that familiar feel, and ensure that they won’t let you down. Treat your cards right, and they’ll treat you right!

About the writer: EndersGame is a well-known reviewer of board games and playing cards. He loves card games, card magic, and collecting playing cards. This article first appeared on PlayingCardDecks.com here.

Oracle Cards

Oracle cards have become a popular tool for people seeking guidance and clarity while navigating difficult situations in their lives. Unlike tarot cards, which allow for more interpretation, Oracle cards offer a specific message on each card. In this article, we’ll share the story of Dana Whitby, one of our clients who created the Inner Compass Oracle Deck. We’ll dive into the details of her mission and the meaning behind her oracle deck.

How It All Started

We have all been stuck on a project where we overthought every detail, practically becoming paralyzed by overwhelming thoughts of “what, when, where, and how.” Dana shares a similar instance, which she learned how to overcome, “This is my first card project! I originally thought that I was meant to write a book, and so I began putting pen to paper about the idea of how to use your inner compass (aka intuition) in a tangible way. Once I had written several thousands of words, I experienced writer’s block and truly didn’t know what else to say. I had to step away from the project for a while to clear my head and understand what it was that I was supposed to do with this idea. One day I had the divine download that this project was an oracle deck. Once I had this realization and committed to the new idea, the writing began to flow easily again as I dismantled the book and turned it into an oracle card guidebook.”

A Divine Mission

The Inner Compass Oracle deck was created to “teach readers in a tangible way how to open and follow their intuition”. Which is intriguing to new Oracle card users who are looking for guidance within spiritual work. Dana goes on to explain, ” The concept of listening to an “inner compass” is widely known, yet the process of how to do so is made difficult in our modern society. The Inner Compass Oracle is a tool which can be used to initiate or deepen one’s relationship with their higher self in order to receive clarity and guidance on their life journey.”

How It Was Created

Dana mentions that she collaborated with artist Jennifer Birge who owns Coral Antler. “I originally asked her to create 4 pieces of art for 4 of my cards as a trial, and I was blown away by her ability to take the mundane and make it absolutely magical. She took the visions I had for my card artwork and elevated it!”

“You’ve always had the power, my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself.” – Glinda The Good Witch

As all projects come with a bump in the road, Dana describes her toughest battle/ lesson. “For me, the largest hurdle I had to overcome was patience! I began writing the guidebook several years ago, and never would have dreamed it would take this long to come to fruition. But I have learned through this process that oftentimes, the best things in life are worth waiting for, and taking your time to complete in a way that honors the depth and breadth of the project.”

Why Shuffled Ink

Here is what Dana has to say about her experience printing her cards here at Shuffled Ink, ” I chose Shuffled Ink because I love that it is a family-owned business located here in the United States. So many Oracle deck printers are found overseas, and I preferred to support an American business, and especially one with such an amazing reputation. While I haven’t received a final copy of my deck yet, the samples I received were gorgeous, and I am so impressed with other decks I own that have been printed by Shuffled Ink”. We thank Dana for the opportunity to be a part of this insightful project! It’s always interesting to hear how these creative card decks come about and we hope this story helps inspire those who are looking to create their own custom cards!