Smirk & Dagger games are not your grandma’s missing piece Monopoly set you have played a hundred times.

Sandy Hook resident Curt Covert, owner of Smirk & Dagger, founded his business in 2003 to craft a new breed of board games that appeal to a variety of ages and preferences.

The company got its name for its style of play that encourages a thrill-seeking, “stab your friends in the back” tactic of gaming.

Early releases included Run For Your Life, Candyman! — a board game parody that the online description says involves “ripping off your opponent’s sugar-frosted limbs as you try to escape the sweet land of candy and confection” — and Dead Hand Poker, a card game marketed as a mix of poker and Russian Roulette.

“When I started in 2003, I really wanted to distinguish myself and my games, so I planted a flag in a style of gaming that I really enjoy, which is [a] ‘take that’ style of gaming,” Mr Covert said.

In 2016, he expanded his range of products by starting Smirk & Laughter, a sub-brand of the business that focuses on a more light-hearted side of game play.

“When I finally decided to go full-time doing this — for roughly 14 years I did this concurrent with my regular career as a creative director at a marketing agency — I realized I needed to have board games with a broader offering,” Mr Covert said. “Smirk & Laughter allowed me to do games that were outside of what I had done for 14 years.”

Smirk & Laughter has an ever-growing collection of games, with nearly half a dozen options currently listed online.

“There’s everything from a really heartwarming story-telling game to a crazy quick-playing party game. Next year, there’s going to be a game about an oil rig leaking into the ocean, and you have to work together to save the sea life,” Mr Covert said.

He emphasized that under both brands, he enjoys making “games that evoke people’s emotions and create an experience at the table.”

It is especially rewarding, he finds, when his games have an emotional impact on players and leads them to continue to talk about their experiences after playing.

“So many games that most people know, they either think of as kids’ stuff or that board games are very boring,” Mr Covert explained. “If you think about the games we grew up with — Monopoly, Risk, Trouble, Sorry — they’re all very straightforward games that once you play them a couple times as a kid, you’re done with them.”

Modern board games, however, are built for all to enjoy and are made with adults in mind.

“The types of game-play that you’ll experience [with modern games] is more engaging mentally and on an emotional level, and that’s where I lean towards,” he said.

Newtown Arts Festival

Those who attended this year’s Newtown Arts Festival, September 21-22, had the opportunity to try out different Smirk & Dagger and Smirk & Laughter games.

Mr Covert gave game demonstrations throughout the weekend and encouraged people to play among themselves to see which games appealed to their preference of game play. He also sold and autographed the selection of games he had for sale.

Onsite at the festival on Saturday was Mr Covert’s son, Devon, who assisted his dad in manning the booth and engaging with attendees.

Out on tables to be played were games Nut So Fast, Wooly Whammouth, and Shobu, which Mr Covert selected for their appropriateness for a broad audience and easiness to play.

The latter two games, along with the game We Need To Talk, are three of Mr Covert’s newest releases that came out this year.

Future Opportunities

“We are producing new games all the time,” Mr Covert said of his brand, which is set to release two new games this month alone.

Despite the demand, he still finds there is a common misconception that people are not playing board games because of the popularity of video games in this era of technology — but this is not the case.

“The truth is,” Mr Covert said, “we live in such a digital age where people half the time don’t sit and talk with each other because they’re glued to their phones, [but] people really have been enjoying the social experience that board games offer.”

Board games, he says, have the ability to connect people and give them a focused time to do an activity without being distracted by electronic devices.

In addition to breaking the stigma surrounding the popularity of board games, Mr Covert is also a proponent of having people not be afraid or intimidated to venture into game stores.

Gamer’s Gambit in Danbury, he used as an example, has “a very warm, welcoming, gorgeous store. They’ve got demo tables up front and their staff will come greet you and say hello. If you are interested in something, they can tell you about it or show you how it plays.”

Thursday nights there are designated as open board gaming nights where people can go with their friends and try out games that they are interested in before committing to purchasing it.

“It’s something I encourage more people to start doing,” Mr Covert said of playing in game stores. “I think gaming is so much more needed than it’s ever been in our world. These are the perfect places to dip your toe… You can grow into the hobby.”

Mr Covert’s board games are sold throughout the world and are available locally at Cave Comics in Newtown, Gamer’s Gambit in Danbury, as well as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

To learn more about Smirk & Dagger and Smirk & Laughter games, visit smirkanddagger.com and follow at facebook.com/smirkanddagger.

A Quick Look At Some Smirk & Dagger Releases

Interested in learning what it takes to play a Smirk & Dagger or Smirk & Laughter game? Read on:

Nut So Fast

Mr Covert explained, “Nut So Fast is a quick reaction game where you are flipping cards looking for a set of four matching icons that have these little pictures of nuts, like walnuts and pistachios, and if you see a match of four, you reach to the center of the table and grab these chunky wooden nuts on the table.

“There’s one less than the number of players, so someone is not going to get one and that person ends up taking all the cards. And you don’t want cards.”

Wooly Whammoth

“Wooly Whammoth is a devious game of prehistoric survival, tricking rival tribes into taking a step too far,” its online description states.

In the game, the players are cave people with the mission of hunting prehistoric mammoths while trying to avoid periling in the process.

“The game features four different tribes with unique tribal abilities [in the advanced game] and modular sliding boards, which change how far you have to travel down the hunting path to find more mammoths,” the description details. “Wooly Whammoth is a light-hearted, think-double think, bluffing game of prehistoric shenanigans… and is wildly fun to play.”

We Need To Talk

The premise of We Need To Talk is “about hosting a ridiculous intervention for nonsensical problems,” Mr Covert said.

The scenario has a player not knowing what their problem is or why their family and friends have gathered them there.

“You draw a card from the deck — you don’t look at it — then you hold it up for everyone else to see, and it will have your problem on it,” he explained. “You have to guess based on their clues as to what your problem is and why it’s a problem for them.”

Shobu

“Shobu is a Japanese word that means game, bout, or match. It’s made of two kanji: sho and bu, which means victory and defeat,” Mr Covert said.

It is a strategy game designed for two players that builds in intensity as the game goes on.

“You can learn the game just as quickly as checkers, but about halfway through the game, it shifts into a three-dimensional chess-type thinking,” he explained.

The game itself is made from wood, tumbled river rocks, and a cotton rope, giving it a classic appearance.

“It’s got a very Zen feel to it,” Mr Covert said. "The game looks like it has existed for centuries, and quite honestly, it plays that way, too."