Eisner Award-winning creatorMichael Walsh(Exquisite Corpses,Silver Coin,Magic: The Gathering)has a new tabletop game design company, Wayves, which makes its debut designing card games for Tiny Onion titles Exquisite Corpses: The Gameand Something Is Killing the Children: A Gridstorm Game. In fact, Something is Killing the Children#50 will have the first game card in the Cover C Blind Bag variant, also available at the Tiny Onion booth #HB907at NYCC ’26. The card art is by SIKTC artist Werther Dell’Edera.
Something is Killing the Children: A Gridstorm Gamewill launch as a Kickstarter in 2027.Walsh created and developedExquisite Corpses: The Gamein collaboration with Tiny Onion, which was over 400% funded on Kickstarter andinspired Walsh to form his own company. Wayves Creative Co. builds original tabletop games with an emphasis on immersive storytelling. Walsh and the Wayves team are now designing SIKTC, which will be the first in a wave of “Gridstorm” reskin games with the same fundamental mechanics,based on titles from the Tiny Onion universe. Fans will be able to play as either Erica and the hunters or as the monsters in opposition.
Gridstorm is a grid-based 1v1 card battler where unique character effects and strategic positioning combine to lead you to victory. In this first Gridstorm release, based onSomething Is Killing the Children, players can take on the role of the cunning Hunters, using stealth and clever maneuvering to save the children or as the Monsters, using their predatory instincts to capture them from a distance. Each deck contains a full roster of beloved characters and creatures from the series.
“We’ve been having a blast balancing and tuningSomething is Killing the Children: A Gridstorm Gamefor almost a year with the incredible team at Wayves,” said Walsh. “We are so excited to share this game with the world.”
Walsh added, “The SIKTC gameis a map-building, deck-battling, 1v1 experience. Drawing from a deck of all the most memorable settings from the comic book series, both players will build a map and then battle. Playing either as a hunter deck or a monster deck, you place your favourite characters, collect resources, and fight to the death. Each character deck has a completely unique play-style, making the game experience dynamic and varied. One of the best parts about the gridstorm engine, which the SIKTC game is built on, is that we will be able to iterate on it for years to come. We already have more Gridstorm projects planned, so stay tuned to see what other characters might appear.”
Exquisite Corpses: The Gameis a casual tabletop game perfect for fans of trading card classics likeMagic: The Gatheringand party experiences likeUltimate Werewolf. Needing only a deck of cards and some dice, a group of 4-12 players each pick their favorite killer from the comics and proceed to attack, bluff, and barter with their fellow killers until just one remains. No two games are alike, so players can immediately play again and again and get different results. Tiny Onion launched awebsitethat has instructions on how to play the game, printables, and a video playthrough with the creative team.
Bringing together creatives from a range of disciplines, Wayves is mashing comic books and gaming together to create a new kind of narrative gaming experience. CEO Walsh is joined by COO Losty, Lead Game Designer Charlie Helsdon, and Graphic Designer & Game Developer Mike Jerome. As CEO, Walsh will be leading each project and managing the art and design of the games.
“When production on the first season ofExquisite Corpsesbegan, I assembled a crack team of playtesters to work with me on fine-tuning and balancing what would becomeExquisite Corpses: The Game,” said Walsh. “It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional career, and I immediately knew there were more games in my future. The success of theExquisite Corpses: The GameKickstarter has given us the opportunity to go deeper into game development. To spend more resources and create even bigger, more competitive games. This is just the beginning, and I can’t wait to share what we’re building with the gaming world.”
“The craft of creating a comic lends itself well to game design as we try to create an environment where stories can be shared between players in a way only possible within the confines of a social table top game,” said Losty. “Much like my approach to storytelling as a cartoonist, I often revisit my childhood memories of playing with Lego on the floor telling myself tales of dangers and peril among biscuit crumbs. I’ve spent the past ten years developing art and stories in film, TV, and comics. Comics books have always remained the constant for me. The playfulness and world building that arises from developing stories is something I’m hoping to share with and elicit in our gamers.”
“Our goal is to create really deep strategy card games likeMagic the Gathering,” said Helsdon. “But we’ve also experienced how the complexity of those systems can make it difficult to just invite a buddy for a quick game. Our goal is to create games that are breezier to pick up and play while still maintaining that strategic depth and the character driven mechanics that make the worlds in these games feel so rich.”
“Most of my career has been using design to make complicated ideas easier to understand,” saidJerome. “Tabletop games are a dream project because it’s such a pure expression of that! There are so many interesting design challenges to solve, and my goal is to showcase the incredible work of comics’ top illustrators while creating a design language that is clean and easy to navigate.”
