Warrenton resident Shelley Bruney is one of the creators of the card game KnukNFutz.

Ever thought about creating your own game?

Shelley Bruney, with her three girlfriends and fellow gamers, hatched an idea for a new card game, KnukNFutz, in May. Five months later, and with cards in hand, the four are now marketing their creation.

Bruney, from Warrenton, attended Astoria High School with Linda Haines-Katzberg, now in La Pine. On a trip to a timeshare in Hawaii, Bruney said, she met Nancy Rosendahl from Newberg and Deanna Knox from Dallas, Oregon. The four take annual trips to Hawaii and Sunriver, where Bruney said they play all types of board and card games.

On one such trip to Sunriver in May, a name was hatched.

“We were just playing card games, and one of the gals threw that word around,” Bruney said. “I said ‘We should just do some type of a game and call it that. The name alone would sell it.’”

Bruney said the friends looked at a lot of the games they liked and crafted an amalgam. KnukNFutz resembles Golf or Polish Poker, card games in which players try to achieve the lowest score possible from their cards.

Players in KnukNFutz start with nine flipped-over cards of undetermined value. Decks include cards from a value of negative two through 12. Through luck and chance, players try to replace the flipped-over cards with the lowest number possible. When the last card is flipped, a player exclaims “KnukNFutz” and hope they have the lowest score when everyone else’s hidden cards are revealed.

“It’s a good family game,” Bruney said. “Our age limit is 9 to 99.”

Once friends had the idea for a game on paper, they started a crash course in turning an idea into a finished product.

First, they got a blank set of cards to test their concept. Bruney said Rosendahl then had to research trademarks and patents, ensuring KnukNFutz wouldn’t lead to a lawsuit by another game maker. The closest to the name is used by a hot wing restaurant called Knuk-N-Futz.

The friends also had to ensure their game was different enough from any others. Bruney estimates at least an 80 percent difference between KnukNFutz and any other games the group has played.

The friends contacted a playing card company in New Jersey, which helped them transfer their concept onto a deck of cards. Then they ordered 5,000 decks of KnukNFutz, which arrived a week ago.

“The amount of work we got done in five months, I don’t see how we got it done,” Bruney said.

The game is now for sale on Amazon.com and KnukNFutzgames.com. The friends are also traveling to various resorts and businesses such as Made in Oregon to promote the game. Bruney said Rosendahl has already sold at least 200 to her employers as Christmas gifts.

The team is already working on an expansion deck, and a simpler version for children younger than 9 years old. The friends plan to meet early next month at a resort in Hawaii to teach more people how to play.