The Forger is a satirical game about making fake art and pretending it’s real.
(2016-2020)
Overview
It encourages players to explore the interaction between truth, lies, and their impact on art institutions. It’s a 3-player drawing-and-bluffing game with asymmetrical roles — a curator, an original artist and a forger — in which players imagine being responsible for the authenticity of the artwork on display at a gallery, or creating original work and having someone copy it, or performing originality where there is none.
First Edition
This was the first edition of 100 games. Each handmade, one-of-a-kind game was numbered and signed. Each game was made in the USA, from maplewood and canvas. Each cover was hand painted with its own unique design.
The Forger is no longer for sale.
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The Forger was inspired by Mark Landis, the real-life art forger who was featured in the 2014 documentary, 'Art and Craft' and whose forgeries were later exhibited in a solo show called, “Creative Conscience” at Wirth Galerie in New York City in 2022.
For weeks after watching the film for the first time, I was stuck thinking about Landis. He’s an intriguing person, and watching the film brings up questions about originality in art, truth, the value of art, and… what even makes an artist an artist? Most of my creative works start this way, where I experience something and can’t quite understand it, so I make art about it in order to make sense of it.
Months after watching the film, I was in a 2-hour game design workshop about translating movies into games. My partner during the workshop and I chose to use “Art and Craft,” as inspiration, and within 20 minutes we’d made a playable, fun prototype. We knew we were onto something. We became friends, and we spent the next year and a half developing the game together. We exhibited prototypes of the game at art galleries across the country, playing it with gallery-goers as they explored the exhibitions. It added a playful, lighthearted ambiance to the atmosphere, and tended to attract a lot of attention. We even brought it to Indiecade, the independent games festival, where it was a Finalist in 2016 (and later again in 2021).
Eventually we realized that taking it from a fun prototype to a product required entirely different skillsets altogether. My partner was less interested in completing this project, and more interested in making more prototypes of other games, so we parted ways. I got accepted to a startup incubator where I focused on the design of the board, and advanced manufacturing methods to get it made. I envisioned the shape of the board, and worked with industrial designers to bring that vision to life in a cardboard prototype. I pitched it to board game publishers and two of them expressed interest in publishing the game. I pitched it to an online retailer and they expressed interest in selling it.
But everything changed when COVID hit. The publishers stopped answering my emails. The global supply chain had broken down, and it was impossible to get the full game manufactured by a factory. I thought the project was over. Then one day, a friend posted on social media that his friend was running the innovation team at an advanced manufacturing lab. I contacted them, and they agreed to make a small batch of the games. This was at the beginning of COVID, when people were worried about showing up to the lab, and worked remotely to stay safe. They’d committed to manufacturing a large order of medical supplies for a local hospital, but they managed to make time to design and manufacture 100 of my board games.
Each game is an elegant work of art, and I’m really proud of the design aspects: the game design, the narrative design, the product design. The design of The Forger far exceeded my expectations, and I’m proud of the contributors who poured their creative energy and expertise into making this elegant piece of art a reality. Of course, I’m proud of the awards we won along the way. Most of all, I’m proud of the tenacity it took to get the game made, overcoming all of these challenges and many, many more.
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The design of The Forger was inspired by objects that are familiar to artists: easels; maple wood plein air boxes with custom compartments for their tools; raw canvas stapled onto wooden frames; official seals for certifying the authenticity of limited editions; and specialized rulers that museum registrars use while receiving new work. The inspiration cards are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand — the size of a secret. The shape of the board is a physical manifestation of the act of copying — two identical easels sit parallel, forcing the artists close enough together so one can copy the work of the other. The surfaces of the easels show the remains of past forgeries. The easel proportions are large enough to create a stage that attracts an audience of curious onlookers from across the room, yet small enough to reveal the faces of the artists as they create their masterpieces.xt goes here
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The Forger has been played by over 550 people across the country, at these events and informal gatherings.
2023
Spin in New York
2021
Finalist, "Tabletop Games" category at Indiecade Everywhere
Last Place on Earth in Brooklyn
The Forger Gameshow at Wonderville in Brooklyn
2017
Secret Project Robot in Brooklyn, “Babycastles Fundraiser”
2016
Finalist, "Big Games" category at Indiecade in Los Angeles
Come Out and Play Festival in New York
Come Out and Play Festival in San Francisco
Come Out and Play Festival in Pittsburgh
The Children's Museum of the Arts in New York
WomanMade Gallery in Chicago, "Code/Switch"
AC Institute in New York, "Game Night"
ArtHelix in Brooklyn, "Permission Slip"
Playcrafting, "Halloween Game Expo”
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Finalist, "Big Games" category at Indiecade in Los Angeles, 2016
Finalist, "Tabletop Games" category at Indiecade Everywhere, 2021
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Materials: maple wood, canvas, faux leather, acrylic paint
Components: rule book, 54 inspiration cards, 2 sketchpads, 2 identical sets of 5 art pencils, 1 roll of ‘Original Artwork’ tape, 1 metal pencil sharpener, 1 six-sided die
Dimensions: 16.5” x 9.5” x 2.25”
Weight: 5 lb. 13 oz.
Years of Design: 2016-2020
Origin: The Forger board was designed and handmade in the USA. Patent Pending.
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3 Players
Ages 18+
Drawing skills are optional.
Each exhibition lasts ~10 minutes.ription text goes here
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Michelle Calabro - Game Design, Creative Direction, Product Management
Jaehyun Kim - Game Design
Mark Yappueying - Graphic Design
Lisa Ramburg - Product Design
Scale Workspace - Product Design, Graphic Design, Production
Philip Calabro - Character Development Writing
Somy Kim - Illustrations
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The beautiful thing about games is they allow us to explore aspects of the human experience that are unacceptable or off-limits outside the ‘magic circle’ of the game world. When we all read the rules of a game and agree to enter its world for a brief time, with knowledge and consent of the interactions and experiences it entails, we enter a safe space to understand aspects of ourselves and each other that would otherwise remain unexplored. The Forger is a work of satire, and it aims to provoke discussion through a dark game world. Art forgery is a serious crime.
If you play The Forger with your kids, don’t worry too much about the fact that they’re copying while playing the game. After all, all art students learn technical skills by copying the techniques of the masters. Use your time playing The Forger as an opportunity to develop your kid’s drawing and storytelling skills, while encouraging them to become Original Artists and not Forgers.
Teach your kids to value critical thinking, the pursuit of truth, originality and invention.
Put them on a path to develop their raw creative talent.
Educate yourself on intellectual property law and forgery. Visit uspto.org for official guidance.