The document discusses the development of a board game based on the CHEW comic series. The creator of the comic series, John Layman, had created a prototype game based on the property. This led IDW Games to secure the rights to create card, board, and roleplaying games for the CHEW series. Game designer Kevin Wilson then created a prototype that had players taking on the role of FDA agents solving food-related crimes using evidence cards. John Layman and artist Rob Guillory were heavily involved in the development process, providing feedback and additional art. The finished product aims to capture the humor and tone of the comic series.

1. CHEW: Cases of the FDA started with
a tweet from series creator John Layman.
He’d invented a game based off his comic
and he was incredibly excited about it.
Being the CHEW fans that we are, we
immediately reached out for a protoype.
Good sport that he is, John sent over a
print-and-play of what turned out to be the
building blocks of a light, fun, investigative
game that was plenty long on humor
and gore (collecting body parts was a
major mechanic).
of what has happened to that object. This
makes Tony an excellent field agent, no
matter what his boss might say, and over
the course of 47 issues at the time of this
writing, Tony has been closing food-related
crimes with the help of an ensemble of
characters featuring all kinds of other
food-related powers.
CHEW: Cases of the FDA has a lot of
over-the-top humor, and rather than being
an investigative procedural, it’s more of a
rollercoaster ride that ends up with the car
coming off the rails and landing right on
the villain’s doorstep. When creating the
game, we wanted to make sure that we got
something that straddled the line between
Closeau and Holmes, and that’s where
game designer Kevin Wilson came in.
Kevin took to the material immediately.
After getting a feel for the weight, player
count, and style of game we were looking
for, he went into his lab and emerged a
month later with a great game! Players
would be given a case and a culprit at the
beginning of the game, and their job would
be to gather enough evidence to make the
arrest. This felt perfectly in tune to the
CHEW universe, where the villains are
often obvious, but their motives can be
That initial protoype led to IDW Games
securing the rights to do card, board, dice,
and roleplaying games based off the
CHEW graphic-novel series (and yes,
we plan on doing all those things as fast
as possible).
If you’re not familiar with the series,
CHEW revolves around FDA agent Tony
Chu. Tony’s what is known as a “cibopath,”
meaning that just by taking a bite of
something he can get a psychic sensation
by Nate Murray
6
CHEW:
Cases of the FDA
Declassified behind-
the-scenes info
provided by
IDW GAMES

2. mysterious. There was only one issue —
he’d built in a drinking variant. Some cards
were marked with small purple shot glasses,
indicating that players would take a drink
(of beet juice, or whatever’s handy) when
playing any piece of evidence or an investi-
gation card with that icon. It was obviously
a fun twist, but one we were a bit nervous
to present Layman with. We didn’t want
him thinking that we had taken the source
material lightly. Luckily, when the material
went over to him for approval, a big “Hell
yes!” came back regarding the variant, and
we were set to start working!
From the beginning, both John Layman
and Rob Guillory were intimately involved
in the process. As Kevin sent over his card
counts and rough ideas for what kind of
things should constitute evidence, things
like Space Babies, cremated corpses, and
inebriated astronauts, John would jump on
the list and tweak and place things slightly
to make sure that everything was both
thematic and appropriately powerful.
Rounds of notes circulated for weeks, as
evidence and card powers were juggled,
balanced, and honed into the final
product. It is a mark of great game design
that Kevin’s knowledge of the material
shines through in even the subtlest card
interactions. A great example of this is in
the Chow Chu card. Chow is Tony’s
brother, and in the comic every time Tony
turns up in Chow’s life, he screws things up
for him. Things play out for Chow the
same way in the card game: if a player
brings out Tony, Chow is immediately
discarded (poor Chow!).
Once all the building blocks were in place,
Layman sat down and wrote all of the
flavor text for each card, adding a last layer
of humor that really gives the game the feel
it had to have to live up to the name. On
the development process, Layman said,
“Rob and I have been involved with or
overseen every step of development of this
game. From picking art to writing up flavor
quotes to recommending who should
have what powers, it’s been an inclusive
experience, and I’m incredibly pleased
with the end results.”
Along with pick-up art from the comic,
Rob provided several original images,
including what has to be one of the most
hilarious and awesome game covers you
will see at a game shop this year. The
CHEW: Cases of the FDA cover is
homage to the Dogs Playing Poker trope,
but instead of mutts with flushes and
straights, it features characters from the
comics sitting around playing CHEW:
Cases of the FDA!
Rob was a great sport the whole way
through, and when it was all over he
summed up his thoughts on the process
succinctly: “Never in my wildest dreams
did I ever think that the art I was making
for our weird little comic would end up in
a card game, let alone a game this fun. It’s
really surreal and freaking awesome to see
what the fine folks at IDW Games did
with CHEW: Cases of the FDA.”
So there is the story behind what we hope
will be a game that you play all summer
long. If you like quirky humor, take-that
gameplay and want to bust perps by
gathering up exploding cows, wormy sushi,
and a buried body, then CHEW: Cases
of the FDA could be the game for you.
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Nate Murray
does product management and
marketing for IDW Games. He’s
worked on IDW’s breakout
hit, MMachi Koro as well as the
upcoming CHEW: Cases of the
FDA. He also claims to be unde-
feated at Air Hockey.