Mix Up Fairy Tales: Interview With Warcradle Studios Co-Designer Robin Cruddace

What happens when two designers from Warcradle Studios — Ziz Simoens and Robin Cruddace — get to raid the British Library’s sumptuous vaults of period fairy tale art?

You get Mix Up Fairy Tales, a family card game where two to six players remix the elements of eight classic yarns simultaneously — with a milestone scoring challenge system that leavens the laughs with some strategy.

Mix Up Fairy Tales co-designer Robin Cruddace got some help forming the core play concept when his daughters got their hands on some prototype art. There may be lucrative consulting work in their future.

Puss in Boots can find himself contending with the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk, for instance. And if playtesting reports are to be believed, seeing Goldilocks pushed into an oven might be just as important to your group as meeting the game’s scoring requirements.

The project arose from the British Library’s Fairy Tales exhibit (running until Aug. 23, 2026 in London). The Warcradle team broached the possibility of spinning up a companion family card game.

Simoens and Cruddace were paired up for the design work, which included working with British Library staff to comb a massive stock of vintage storybook art. The game found its core concept when research artwork fell into the hands of Cruddace’s two daughters, whose spontaneous play with the cards revealed a direction that could engage younger and older players at the table.

Breakup Gaming Society host Nate Warren and contributor Walton Wood talked to Cruddace about the origin of the project, the concept of the game, the importance of multigenerational play and storytelling — and the surprises he found in both the stacks of the Library’s art and on the playtesting table.

Take a look at Mix Up Fairy Tales for yourself at Wayland Games or via the British Library Online Shop.

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BONUS: Meet Professor Phelyx and learn about tarot’s history as a storytelling game.