After exploring more expensive options in the Color Games category, we decided to take a step in the other direction and introduce the Hip Pocket brand, card games as cheap as $3. Hip Pocket Games are small-print run, mostly abstract strategy games, featuring unique mechanics and very attractive price tags. Also on this page are a few small card games older than the Hip Pocket brand, including Change!, and The Big Idea.

The Big Cheese (December 2004): Originally released in 1998, The Big Cheese has joined the Hip Pocket line with new graphics and the same remarkably low $3 price. It's a clever little game about vice presidents bidding on company projects with their underlings' time, designed by James Ernest and Jon Wilkie, and illustrated by Carol Monahan.

TimeLine (August 2003): A highly strategic, very simple game about traveling through time and getting rich.

Safari Jack Remix (May 2003): A colorized version of a Cheapass Games classic. Explore the wilds of Africa and bring home fabulous animals in bags.

Light Speed (February 2003): A full-color, real-time card game of spaceship combat. Light Speed is fast and furious: a round takes less than a minute to play!

Steam Tunnel (February 2003): With a highly abstract board built out of cards, Steam Tunnel is a game of connecting tunnels and controlling the best ones.

Cube Farm (2002): Cube Farm is a simple abstract card game about building an office and putting your people close to the good stuff.

The Very Clever Pipe Game (2002): A re-working of a Cheapass Games classic from 1997, The Very Clever Pipe Game is as abstract, and as good, as it gets.

Agora (2002): Build your very own chaotic marketplace in this intriguing tile game where the cards don't have to align with a grid.

Nexus (2001): The first game in the Hip Pocket line, Nexus is a truly abstract game about connecting and capturing nodes. Hey, it's still pretty good.