by BenjaRocks BenjaRocks

Hi, I'm Benja Amorín, journalist and global communications manager at Devir, and even though I have done a great deal of writing in my life, I never imagined I'd be putting together a designer diary for a board game.

Honestly, I have no idea how you're supposed to write one of these. I may be comfortable expressing myself on paper, face to face, singing, or acting like a fool in front of a camera, but this? This is giving me a serious case of stage fright. I mean — I wasn't planning on designing a game, and I definitely wasn't planning on having it published.

And you? You reading this? That sure wasn't in the cards either. (See what I did there?) Maybe the same thing applies to you on the other end, so seriously, you can bail at any time. I won't be offended. Maybe there's something decent on TV? No? All right, then — don't say I didn't warn you.

Let's put the shame aside and do this the only way I know how: with grandeur, epic flair, and unapologetic coolness. Crank up a tune full of screaming guitars and get ready...

Welcome to the Belly of the Beast — The Dark Secrets of a Demonic Game

In Ace of Spades, you step into the dusty boots of a gunslinger with a magical poker deck, out for revenge. Your target? Lord Overkill, the most dangerous bastard this side of the Mississippi. He seduced your mare, torched your sweetheart, and smoked your house — or something like that. All you need to know is: You're pissed. And this isn't the kind of grudge you settle over cheap beer. This one's gonna need blood.

Taking down Lord Overkill and his goons won't be easy. You'll need to make the most of your poker deck, pulling off the best combos and using the rewards you gain from every defeated enemy. The road ahead is treacherous, stranger...so tread carefully.

In a nutshell, Ace of Spades is a cocktail of poker mechanisms, solo play (or co-op for two), video game vibes, Weird Western themes, and a heavy metal attitude. Who the heck thought blending all of that was a good idea? Hi again — Benja here. Still rambling. I'm a board game addict (probably like you) with a soft spot for card games and co-ops. Funny enough, I don't usually play solo board games; if I can't find anyone to play with, I usually turn to video games, my other great passion.

Oh, and I'm also hopelessly hooked on metal music and comic books, so yeah, my first game was always going to bleed all of that.

Why Poker?

My love for board games has evolved over the years, probably like yours. Maybe it's just that I am getting old, but you start to appreciate those games that offer a lot with very little. I still remember the day I discovered Regicide. How could someone be so damn creative as to turn a regular poker deck into a dungeon crawler? It honestly blew my mind.


Another major moment of inspiration was re-discovering Doomtown, a card game that never got the success it deserved — probably because of its complex rules — but I was always drawn to how it mixed poker mechanisms with head-to-head play in a Weird Western setting. I always felt that game could've gone much further.

Then came Balatro, an indie video game that blends poker with roguelike mechanisms: super addictive, full of clever ideas, but a bit too chaotic for my taste. (To be honest, I played Balatro only a few hours when it was released in February 2024 and never played again. Anyway, it became the main influence for the core mechanisms of the game — then I wanted to get as far as I could from the video game to create a board game with its own identity.)

At the time, I had a baby daughter, and my in-laws used to handle daycare drop-offs during the week — then they took a week off for vacation, and I had to do it myself, so I decided to unplug from work completely while she was at daycare and try to design a game. The idea? Something that blended poker and combat with a video-game feel — something that would make you feel like your character was growing stronger with each fight. At the same time, the game had to be super accessible, something I could play with anyone...even my parents, who love poker.

First Shots

Ace of Spades didn't originally start as a Western. In fact, I first imagined it as a classic dungeon crawler with monsters, skeletons, dragons, and dungeon doors to kick open as you worked your way deeper and deeper. My wife actually made me a prototype with pixel art illustrations, and I grew really fond of it. That was the version I started playtesting with.


From the get-go, I knew the game had to ramp up: start small, get harder, but not drag on forever. I did some math and landed on four levels (like the four suits in a deck), each with two goons and a villain, making a total of twelve enemies.

Another element that scrambled my brain was figuring out how to make specific cards — not just the poker hands — more interesting than others. I mean, it shouldn't be the same to land a pair of twos as a pair of aces, right?

After a lot of back-and-forth, I found it way more fun to make face cards and aces hit harder. Is it the most balanced solution? Probably not, but Ace of Spades was built with that spirit in mind. There's a solid mathematical and probabilistic backbone behind the game, sure, but I made some design calls purely in favor of fun because Ace of Spades is a game, not a math test. I don't know about you, but I hate games that feel like doing homework.

Deck management also became a key part of the experience — and something fun to play with. What happens when you run out of cards in your deck? The obvious answer would be to shuffle and keep going, but that felt kind of lame. I thought it'd be much more exciting to let players decide when to reshuffle...at the cost of a discard. Should you squeeze every card out of the deck? Or reshuffle to bring back those aces you ditched two fights ago?

A good game is one that forces you to make interesting decisions, and I wanted Ace of Spades to give you the feeling that if you lost, it was because you could've chosen better — and if you won, it was because you're a badass, not because the deck was nice to you.

Big Effects

Without a doubt, designing the card effects was the most fun part of the whole process. What kind of special powers should enemies drop when you take them out? Obviously, the tougher the enemy, the better the reward.

I tested a ton of ideas, and many ended up getting scrapped, not because they didn't work, but because others were just way more fun or impactful. Some were also more useful later in the game, like when you finally face the third villain. It's that classic video game thing: You grab a canteen in the first level, and surprise — it's the key to beating the fire boss three stages later!


Another cool design angle was building the game's lore through permanent effects. Only villains (called "mini-bosses" back then) give you permanent powers — and those powers had to directly relate to the limitation they imposed while you fought them. For example, if a villain were immune to three-of-a-kind hands, then after beating them, you'd gain an effect that boosts three-of-a-kinds.

Basically, I wanted to turn their resistances into your power-ups to tie the gameplay and the theme together in a satisfying way.

Heading West

At some point in the story, there was this wild twist where my wife ended up showing the prototype to Devir (something I'll be eternally grateful for). They liked it, and I suddenly found myself working with David Esbrí — and that's when the whole project progressed to a new level.

Right from the start, David had a clear vision: If poker was the core mechanism, the game had to be set in the Wild West. Obvious, right? But then he took it a step further: Why stop at Western when you could go full Weird Western?

As it happened, at the time I was totally obsessed with The Sixth Gun comics, and the idea felt absolutely perfect. Then came the real bombshell — David told me his plan was to have David Rubín do the game's illustrations. And I just...I couldn't believe it.

Rubín is my favorite illustrator, a good friend, and someone I deeply admire both professionally and personally. He's got a unique style that fits Ace of Spades like a glove, but come on — Rubín is a full-blown superstar. He'd never agree to do a board game, right?

Wait...what did you say, Esbrí?

He said YES?? WHATTTTT!?

I'm still jumping up and down like a maniac to this day!

David Esbrí also had a strong sense of the game's production from the beginning. He knew the enemy cards had to be tarot-sized. He envisioned this artifact — a playmat — with dials to track your hands and discards, and he locked in a book-style magnetized box to make the whole thing feel extra thematic.

Together, Esbrí and Rubín — both massive fans of the Western genre — came up with most of the characters and lore. They turned Ace of Spades into a grim, gritty tale of vengeance and dark forces.

All of that was an absolute creativity boost for me, and when we decided to name the game Ace of Spades and that the final boss would be inspired by the lead singer of Motörhead...it felt like that last puzzle piece that makes the whole picture click into place.

Motörhead is a band that Esbrí, Rubín, and I all love, so having Lemmy's spirit haunt the game somehow felt special. It was the perfect moment to give that iconic card that names both the game and the band's quintessential hit a little extra narrative weight, to make the Ace of Spades the one thing that could kill the final boss. This clever, thematic twist gave the game even more personality — and reminded me of those RPGs in which you need a specific relic to take down the big bad.

Initial cover design
Turn It Up to 11

With a name like Ace of Spades, the game obviously needed a healthy dose of metal to round out the experience, right?

It's no accident that one of the coolest enemies is the Cowboy From Hell — a straight-up tribute to Pantera — or that one of the sleaziest villains is named El Espíritu del Vino after one of the best albums by Héroes del Silencio, a legendary band from Spain that both David Esbrí and I hold dear to our hearts.


Rubín and Esbrí went all in, stuffing the game with references to Westerns of all kinds, injecting the game with layers of quality and wisdom that are just off the charts. There's not a single element in this game that doesn't have a reason behind it — and I absolutely love that kind of attention to detail.

At one point, I was chatting with a good friend about the game's lore, and he asked, "Hey, would you be down to create an original soundtrack for Ace of Spades?" My answer? "OBVIOUSLY!"

But I'd need help, and who better than the guy asking the question — Víctor García-Tapia, guitarist, composer, and producer from bands like Toundra, Ánteros, and Minor Empires — to craft THE anthem for the game.
I mean, how many board games have their own original soundtrack? Not many, but Ace of Spades was going to have one, and it was going to kick ass.

After tossing around a few ideas, we split the piece into two parts, making it feel country, grim, modern, metal, and violent all at once. Somehow, it worked. Víctor even asked whether I wanted to lay down some guitar tracks, but I went a different route — I added a bit of vocals and a short lyric instead. I cleared my throat, summoned the demon inside me, and let it rip.

Getting to make music with a close friend for my own board game has been one of the best gifts this whole journey has given me, and that's how "Embers/Hand of Doom" was born. (Listen on Spotify)

This track was meant to be the official soundtrack for the game's marketing campaign, but it also sparked another musical project: the Ace of Spades Spotify playlist.

As a full-blown music nerd, I've "curated" a hand-picked selection of killer tracks to soundtrack your sessions — tunes that echo the game's many tributes and set the perfect mood for your revenge-fueled journey to take down Lord Overkill. Hit play. Hope you dig it.

Replayability Cranked to the Max

From the beginning, I knew Ace of Spades had to be playable with more than just one player. I've been a massive fan of Onirim since it landed in my hands over a decade ago. Even though I've played it a lot solo, the two-player co-op mode always struck me as brilliant.

So I started brainstorming how to adapt Ace of Spades into a two-player co-op experience — something easy to implement, but with its own distinct personality. Sharing part of your hand while generating tension and drama between players worked like a charm. Nobody likes quarterbacking in co-ops, so I knew I had to keep information hidden, but at the same time, players would need to sync up and co-operate effectively if they wanted to survive.

I really like how it turned out, and I'd love to explore it further in future content. I even flirted with the idea of expanding the player count even more, but in the end I decided to focus on solo and two-player co-op. Still...never say never. Some of those ideas might resurface down the road.

Another key element in any solo or co-op game is the learning curve and the difficulty levels. For me, a good co-op game has to be hard, but not impossible, especially in your early plays. The game should give you room to make it harder over time, once you've got the basics down. The learning curve should pat you on the back...but not too much. It needs just the right amount of frustration to make you want to go one step further.

David Esbrí came up with the idea of a less punishing, more accessible easy mode, a great way to get a couple of warm-up games under your belt before jumping into the normal mode. From there, the challenge ramps up, but with practice and patience, you'll reach the hard mode.

And then there's Nightmare Mode for the bravest souls out there. Personally, that's the one I always play once I've got the game down. It still feels exciting even when you know all the tricks.


The Icing on the Cake

Marketing is my thing, so you can imagine the flood of ideas I had when it came to promoting my own game — but it was David Esbrí who suggested we head out to the desert in Almería to shoot promo videos for Ace of Spades.

Off we went — and we ended up having an absolute blast filming with Rubín, Kenya, and Joan. Seriously, these were amazing moments that you'll soon see on your screens.

And since the game is going to debut at Gen Con, we wanted to take the opportunity to offer something cool and exclusive to folks who picked it up there. And, well...you know how it goes — we got a little carried away.

Ever since we saw how important the Ace of Spades card was to the whole experience, I kept dreaming that maybe — just maybe — we could include a foil version of that card.

Well, we did, and it comes in the first edition of the game. It's a slick little bonus that'll get any of us Magic: The Gathering players drooling because let's be real — shiny stuff is awesome.


Now, I'm not really a card-sleeving guy...but when Rubín showed me the back design for the cards, I was like, "Damn. Those deserve some custom sleeves." But Devir doesn't do that kind of thing, right?

Well...there's a first time for everything! So, yeah, we made a limited run of custom sleeves for events because if you're the kind of person who thinks a poker deck illustrated by David Rubín deserves proper protection... What? All of you? We might've underestimated demand a little, then...


One day, Esbrí was joking around and said, "Hey, about Ace of Base..."

I went, "Wait, what did you just say?"

He replied, "Sorry, I always confuse the name of the game with that pop band. You should totally make an Ace of Base promo card."

Say no more! The legendary Swedish pop band of sugary hits became our next event-exclusive promo enemy. Its mechanisms are special, delightfully weird, and a nod toward future design ideas I'd love to explore.

But why stop at one promo when you can do two? Turns out David's not the only one who keeps messing up the name. A lot of folks (especially in Spain) call it "Ace of Space", so of course we had to make the "Ace of Space", a brand-new ace you can add to your poker deck if you ever feel like banishing someone to the far reaches of the galaxy.


And After Lord Overkill...Now What?

The future's always a little murky, but the plan is definitely for Ace of Spades to stick around for a while. I mean, what's a video game without its DLCs, right? It would be awesome to release expansions, and hopefully the game clicks with you all enough to make that possible!

For now, the next big step is Gen Con 2025, followed by the international release, and I can tell you this: I'm going to enjoy every damn minute of it.

If you made it this far, all I can say is thank you. Thanks for sticking around through this wild ride. It's been a pleasure sharing with you the behind-the-scenes bits and the baby photos of my cardboard child. Hope you enjoy the game — and may Lord Overkill go easy on you.