Fervent Workshop

I'm Chris Scaffidi. I gave up a career as a professor of computer science so that I could give the gift of fun and friendships. How? By designing games that bring people together.

My company, Fervent Workshop, specializes in “Weefolk of the Highest Quality.” These small but magical Peoples embody the best and worst of our shared experience — and what it means to be a human.

High-quality Weefolk meet 2 primary criteria:

Immersively thematic. Every type of Weefolk generates connotations, thanks to folklore. Gnomes resemble clever little old men with magic. Goblins are cunning and nasty, not to mention a bit greedy. Dwarfs dig and are a little silly. Carefully aligning a game's characters to the theme sends players swimming in a deep, overwhelming pool of experience that drowns out ordinary “reality.”

Integrated to mechanisms. Kind weefolk such as wish-granting fairies come with kind mechanisms. Nasty weefolk like gremlins come with nasty, tech-oriented mechanisms. Family-oriented weefolk like gregarious gnomes come with lightweight, communal mechanisms. Theme-mechanism integration is extremely important to me, an area where I absolutely refuse to compromise.

In addition, my games about weefolk must meet a variety of other criteria.

Enthusiastic fans: I never consider a game “done” until a contingent of playtesters absolutely love the game.
Alluring art: I'm not satisfied until I feel a repeated urge to look at the components, just for pure aesthetic pleasure.
Market-competitive: I aim to create new experiences not offered by other games, without waste on needless components.

Games

Cartref, Dungeon Maker: Deluxe!, Gnomadic Gardeners, Recruit, Tomten, What Lies Beneath