Mole Park Theme Song
Funded on Kickstarter
The Kickstarter for Mole Park was a roaring success! Check it out as we continue to post updates!
Welcome to Molehaven!
“Mole Park: Whack and Win!” invites you into the thrilling world of Molehaven, where becoming
the ruler means mastering the art of Whacking moles and Winning prizes. In fact, in order to
claim your rightful place as King* of Mole Park, you must win the contest's grand prize: King
Mole's crown! But don't expect to waltz right in and win it in the first go. You'll have to
whack many moles and win many prizes before going for the crown. And you'll have to be quick,
since your friends will be right on your tail!
Just remember: you have to Whack before you Win!
*or Queen, or Supreme Ruler, etc. Once you're in
charge, you can make your subjects call you anything!
How do you play?
Mole Park progresses in rounds (players do not take turns). Every round, each player secretly chooses whether they want to Whack or Win, and then everyone rolls their dice at once:
When you win a prize, it stays with you for the rest of the game, and will help you win better prizes the next time you cash in moles. Win the game by being the first player to win the Grand Prize!
What are we Whacking?
Other moles, of course! Each mole you whack has a corresponding value from 1 to 5, which indicates how many stars it's worth when you cash it in for prizes! The mole deck is filled with unique, professionally-illustrated moles, each with its own character that will delight everyone who whacks them!
If you're coming down with Mole Fever and can't wait to see the newest moles as they're released,
check out our
Instagram page. Every Monday, we release
the week's "Mole Poll", where you can vote on the moles you want to see next!
What are the Prizes?
In Mole Park, you’ll find a colorful array of fabulous prize vendors which will accept your moles! Each prize vendor has an assortment of prizes, though only one will be available each round. So pay attention to what's in stock - you never know when an exclusive prize might show up!
Where did "Mole Park" come from?
Mole Park has always had a ton of dice.
We started Mole Park: Whack & Win at the end of a roadtrip through the Pacific
northwest. Amid the trails and beaches, we talked of a new game, one that would be fun for
everyone. A game - like a carnival - that was colorful and bright and in your face from the
start. Where you could get into the action before you even knew what you were doing, and by
the time you did figure everything out, you already had a winning streak going. But not one
without strategy!
In the original concept of the game, you managed a squad of 5 moles which improved over time.
You started the game with a set of five "Budget Moles" (each worth one Power) and on your turn,
you would spend your Power either to try to Whack better moles to replace the weakest links in
your squad, or to Win prizes (more dice). You could allocate your moles however you wanted, say
by putting forth a few moles to Whack and the rest to Win a prize. Over time, you would build
up synergies between your moles, since most of them had either permanent abilities or effects
that triggered when they were recruited, and eventually you could Win the game by securing the
Grand Prize with 50 Power.
Aside from moles having effects and sticking with you (instead of being cashed in), one other
notable change from the current version was that you needed to hit each prize tier exactly to
win a prize. If you wanted a Prize worth 30 power and you ended up with 32, you ended up with
nothing. So at times, you might choose to keep a weaker mole over a stronger one simply because
it gave you a total which could guarantee you a prize on your next turn. If you didn't have an
exact multiple of 5 with any subset of your moles (or if all the prizes at a certain tier were
taken), you had to rely on rolling your prize dice and hoping they would bring you to an exact
multiple. Each dice you rolled could be rolled either as normal or as a “weak swing”, in which
you divided the number you rolled by two. Let's look at some photos!
Version 1
After I got home from the trip, I got right to work on a prototype and brought it on a family vacation. Here's a photo from our first game!
Version 2
At this time, all of the moles were simply numbers. Once that gameplay became stale, I introduced a ton of new mechanics and printed out the cards:
Version 3
To play with the rest of Restart Round (who lived across the country), I made an online version (via Tabletop Simulator):
Version 4
At this point, the game had become way too complicated. I scrapped everything and came up with the Whacking Dice as they are now. This version of the game required over 130 dice per copy (shown here: the ones I didn't lose) since all of the prizes were just more dice:
Version 5
And then this turned into the game we all love! There were enough dice for 10 players, if you didn't mind re-drawing the dots on the dice with a sharpie whenever they rubbed off, haha!
