Indie board games made with heart.
Informal Ferret Games is an informal line of games from game designer Gil Hova, designer of the games The Networks, Wordsy, and High Rise.
All games are print-on-demand (POD) from The Game Crafter.
Coming soon
Rough Roads, my next big-box strategy game, will be available for pre-order on The Game Crafter between November 30 - December 13.
Rough Roads is about the historical plank road boom and bust that happened in the northeast US and Canada in the 1850’s. In the game, you’ll be building roads across the mid-19th century New York City metro area. You’re trying to earn the most money, but your roads will get more expensive to maintain as they age. In order to win, you’ll need to properly plan your actions, anticipate your opponents’ moves, and satisfy various goals.
The pre-order will be a Game Crafter Crowd Sale. This is a unique form of crowdfunding that TGC offers. When you order, you’ll commit to buying the game. The more people who order the game, the less expensive it will be. I’ve always liked this model, and I’m excited to try it for the first time. Read more about Crowd Sales here.
If you want to be notified when the game goes live, sign up to my mailing list.
Check out the game’s BoardGameGeek entry here.
Here’s a short video about the game.
Ferret Frenzy is a push-your-luck game about the best pets in the world. I co-designed it with Channing Shattuck, who is publishing the game himself. It funded successfully on Kickstarter in October 2025 and will be shipping soon.
On your go, you reveal cards one at a time. You can stop at anytime to collect the cards you’ve revealed. But if you reveal a Ferret Frenzy card, then every player can slap their hand on the table to grab a card they want. There’s also a turn-based version of the game if real-time isn’t your thing.
My available games
Bad Medicine
Genre: Party/Storytelling
Player count: 3-8 (best with 6-8)
Length: 30 mins
A small game about big pharma. Pitch ridiculous medications that will treat the conditions caused by your previous medications. A re-release of my first self-published game.
The base game comes with 76 Drug Cards. Each set of Extra Cards adds more Drug Cards, and some add new features to the game as well.
(Also, get vaccinated. For real.)
Odds and ends
Wordsy: the Delay Timer mini-expansion
This is a tiny variant for Wordsy that makes the 2 and 3 player games a bit more interesting by replacing the no-flip card with a timer. All you need is something that can count down from 10 seconds. Any phone-based timer will work.
Now, the Fastest Wordsmith from the previous round can still flip the main timer, but they have to wait a bit longer.
I was originally going to release this on The Game Crafter, but they discontinued their 10-second sand timers. So phones it is!
My upcoming games
Weird Stories (release date: 2027). A one-shot, GM-less/ful, play-to-lose storytelling RPG where players tell stories similar to the films of David Lynch, novels by Haruki Murakami or Jeff VanderMeer, and the TV series Lost. These stories have many more questions than answers, and remain shrouded in mystery throughout. A re-release of my first RPG.
My older games
Prolix (2010, Z-Man Games). My first published game, and the predecessor to Wordsy. Fiddly and obtuse. Don’t bother with this game. Play Wordsy, it’s a million times better. Status: Out of print, will not return.
Battle Merchants (2014, Minion Games). An economic game where players are fantasy arms merchants selling weapons to 4 perpetually-warring factions. The base game is pretty mediocre, but the POD New Kingdoms expansion made it a bit better. Status: Out of print, will not return.
Bad Medicine (2015, Formal Ferret Games). A small game about big pharma. Pitch ridiculous medications that will treat the conditions caused by your previous medications. Status: Now available at The Game Crafter.
The Networks (2016, Formal Ferret Games). A game about running a TV network. Draft TV shows, stars, and ads, trying to gain the most viewers. My most successful game, spawning several expansions. Status: Now available from AllPlay.
Wordsy (2017, Formal Ferret Games). A word game for people who like big words. Those 2- and 3-letter Scrabble words will not help you here. The best word game ever made, but I might be a bit biased here. Status: Now available from AllPlay.
High Rise (2020, Formal Ferret Games). A citybuilding strategy game that features tense decisions and opportunity for cunning play. Use the one-way track to commit to building your skyscrapers. Looks great, plays great. The publication did not go the way I wanted it to. I’m very thankful for AllPlay for stepping in and helping me. Status: Now available from AllPlay.
Weird Stories (2021, Formal Ferret Games). My first RPG, but not released widely. It deserved better, so I’m going to give it another try. Status: Will be re-released by Informal Ferret Games in 2027.