Taiko Card Game

The year is 1575, and you are one of many wealthy and strategic Daimyo dreaming of uniting the broken Japanese country under your own sovereign thumb. You are confident in your troop’s superior loyalty, and your own skill to defend your castle and outmaneuver your opponents. The clanking feet of your armies are deftly coordinated to the sound of secret patterns pounded on massive Taiko Drums set high above the battlefield. As you survey the soldiers moving in the valleys below, the taste of glory seems almost as real as the smell of salt and the whipping wind from the Japanese Sea. Nothing will stand in your way to reach the top and carve your family name into legend forever!

TELL ME MORE About The Game

Taiko is a fast-paced, strategic war game with a set of rules that's easy to grasp in the first few minutes of play, with plenty of room for strategy, and an immersive tension that can be played for hours. As a designer, I have carefully studied the structure of my favorite board games and breathed new life into those elements, inventing an original set of card-play mechanics. These include a few unique twists. Taiko has no random dealing or card-draw and instead pits power-hungry War Lords against each other with identical starting armies, which emphasizes the importance of timing and bluffing as a means to victory.

TELL ME ABOUT THE ART About The Aesthetic

The creation of TAIKO was approached as an artistic project, with each element being formed with quality and care. Rather than using digital tools, the artwork is done by hand using traditional ink and pen, with all their unforgiving but unique beauty. Each of the samurai characters on the cards are inked with their own story and personality. The artwork on every game box cover is painted by hand, which makes each copy unique and personal. The coins are metal, and based on Japanese-used currency from the 1500s time period. Bringing each of the pieces together under a single artistic theme has been an exciting adventure!

TELL ME ABOUT KICKSTARTER The Taiko Journey

Creating a novel table-top game has given me the chance to combine some of my favorite areas of interest! It has given me an opportunity to tell stories from my experience living in Japan; the Land of the Rising Sun has wonderful history and incredible art aesthetic. It has allowed me to host community events to play the game and evolve it toward an exciting experience that can be enjoyed by both casual and competitive players alike. It has proven to be an outlet for me to pursue art and design, and the deluxe Taiko version has let me craft a product using authentic materials: metal, leather, ink, linen paper, and wood.

Taiko has a fast-paced set of rules that are easy to grasp on the first few minutes of play, with plenty of room for strategy, and an immersive tension that can be played for hours. As a designer, I have carefully studied the structure of my favorite board games and breathed new life into those elements, inventing an original set of card-play mechanics. These include a few unique twists. Taiko has no random dealing or card-draw and instead pits power-hungry War Lords against each other with identical starting armies, which emphasizes timing and bluffing as critical to victory. Every card has a weakness, and the best strategy is not one of statistics, or brute force, but of anticipating and countering your opponent’s choices.

WHO MAKES IT POSSIBLE The Taiko Community

The community around Taiko has developed via word-of-mouth and the game has been played and shared by those who love it and believe in the vision of helping bring new artistic ideas to life. I have been privileged to play with hundreds of longtime and brand new friends all over Pittsburgh and across the US. We’ve translated the rules into several languages on the fly to help outsiders feel like insiders. Grandparents have played with their grandkids and parents against their competitive, college-aged kids. As this initiative grows to a new level with the public Kickstarter Launch, please consider joining our community and supporting the dream!

Jason Okerman

GAME DESGINER

I am an artist and engineer living in Pittsburgh, PA. I grew up in Kobe, Japan, learned to speak Japanese, and had the chance to study their rich history. Creating the original card game Taiko has allowed me to weave actual historic elements into the fabric of the game. This project has been an opportunity to explore the samurai theme and showcase an original set of art illustrations in a novel form. It has let me use my engineering eye to design a simple set of game mechanics that self-balance so that both casual and competitive players can have a chance at winning. And it has let me become part of a growing community of Taiko fans that bridges age, interest, countries, and languages.

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