Skybound Tabletop has officially announced the arrival of No Context, a party game created by game designers Banana Chan (Deimos Academy) and Jason Slingerland (Unreal Estate), and featuring the artwork of renowned webcomic artist J.L. Westover of Mr. Lovenstein Presents: Failure fame. This highly anticipated game is set to hit stores nationwide on May 31, 2023, retailing at an affordable price of $24.99.
No Context is a unique, logic-based party game that encourages players to make connections using randomly selected pieces of art from J.L. Westover’s comics, leading opponents to guess their cards while attempting to deduce their opponents’ cards. This game promises a sweaty good time as players must explain their thought processes after each round, generating laughter as friends share the reasons behind their connections, all without any context.
According to J.L. Westover, No Context uses his art like “anarchic hieroglyphics,” jumbling up panels from his comics to create connections that produce even bigger laughs than the original comics. The game offers a window into the minds of friends as they attempt to connect seemingly unrelated images, such as a knife-wielding cat and a donut.
No Context is a result of the successful partnership between J.L. Westover and Skybound, which began with the 2021 Kickstarter campaign for Mr. Lovenstein Presents: Failure. That campaign attracted worldwide media attention and raised $225,000, making it one of the top 10 webcomics graphic novel campaigns of all time. Fans can look forward to the upcoming Kickstarter campaign for Mr. Lovenstein Presents: Feelings this summer.
Banana Chan, the game’s co-creator, recently received the Designer of the Year award at Dicebreaker’s Tabletop Awards 2022 for her impressive body of work that includes Jiangshi: Blood on the Banquet Hall, An Exquisite Crime, and the Dune RPG. Chan highlights her favorite part of No Context as the stories players tell when trying to explain their thought processes during the game, revealing the fascinating differences in the way people think and envision things.
Jason Slingerland, the other half of the creative duo behind No Context, has been designing tabletop games and hosting his weekly documentary podcast Building the Game for over a decade. Slingerland praises the simplicity of No Context, stating that the game is easy to understand and immediately start playing. He finds joy in the reactions of players when they are certain they know what another player is describing, only to realize they had no idea – moments that create laughter rather than frustration, which he describes as the “real magic of the game.”
No Context promises to be an engaging, hilarious, and thought-provoking addition to any game night. Mark your calendars for May 31st and get ready to dive into the world of Mr. Lovenstein with this unforgettable party game.
