As the new year is kicking off we are hopefully closing in on finally releasing Scurry & Scamper into the wild. But first we have to discuss a bit of a setback with the need to make a name change.
Due to pushback on our use of the word "ratfink" we have had to change the title of our games in that line. We received a notice of takedown from the estate that handles the "Rat Fink" IP which is a two-word proper name counterculture response to "Mickey Mouse," and not the single-word non-copyrightable word from the dictionary that we were using. However, we do not have the means to fight the issue in court.
The reason we were hoping to keep the name is the trick-taking portion of this game was a game we played in college under the name "Ratfink". And after we designed this new iteration with the pre and post-hand action cards we spent multiple years at dozens of Cons marketing with the "Ratfink" logo. But we're just glad we were able to deal with this issue now before we had spent money on printing thousands of copies of games.
So now moving forward we decided to pivot and just keep the subtitle portion of our game names and remove use of the word "ratfink".
This does not affect game play and only required some minor changes to game art. We are currently reworking the rulebooks for both "Scurry & Scamper" and "Casino Fromage" to reflect these changes, and hope to have updated copies ready for blind playtesters soon. We are also working on swapping out older photos and promotional materials that still have the "Ratfink" title so there should be some new images and graphics appearing soon.
Hopefully there is still enough of a connection with the "Scurry & Scamper" portion of the game name that this won't affect awareness as we push to crowdfunding later this year.
We appreciate everyone who has playtested and provided feedback over the past few years. Thank you for your continued support of our games!