The Classics
Ten complete guides to the timeless games, plus the full Collection. Download, read, play tonight.
See the ClassicsIllustrated teaching guides for board games
We make beautifully illustrated guides for classic games. Now we’ll make one for yours.
Game Squire makes teaching guides for board games that shipped without one — or with a rulebook that teaches badly. Every guide teaches from zero, with hand-made diagrams and a learn-as-you-play structure, like someone patient is sitting next to you.
The Classics are ready-made downloads on Gumroad.
Custom guides are open now — 2 pilot spots.
10 Classics volumes
111 pages of teaching
60 hand-coded diagrams
Any game · any art style
A squire’s whole job is to prepare you for the game.
Knights had squires to ready their gear and teach them the field. Game Squire does the same for your table: we take a game whose rules are a wall and hand it back as a path.
Most rulebooks weren’t written to teach. They’re written to be complete — every rule, in order, whether you need it yet or not. So the game sits on the shelf, not because it isn’t good, but because learning it felt like homework.
A Game Squire guide is built the other way around. Rules rewritten and structured to teach from zero — setup, turns, winning, edge cases — in the order you actually meet them at the table. Custom diagrams drawn for your board, your pieces, your mechanics. Strategy that starts with your first game, not your fiftieth. Every guide is original prose and hand-coded diagrams, made to be read on a phone at the table or printed and kept in the box.
There are two ways we can serve. The Classics are our ready-made guides to the great public-domain games — Chess, Go, Backgammon, and their kin — ready to download today. And if you’ve made a game of your own, we’ll build a guide for it from scratch, designed around your game’s world in any art style you can picture.
A guide for your game
You bring the game and its rules. We bring the teaching — an illustrated guide in your game’s own style.
How commissions workThe Classics.
Guides we’ve already made, to the games that have outlived empires. Every volume is complete on its own — rules taught from scratch, diagrams drawn by hand for the series, and strategy for your first game and your fiftieth. Downloads are sold and delivered through our Gumroad store.
The whole shelf · Bundle
The Complete Game Squire Classics Collection — All 10 Game Squire Guides
Every classic. One collection. Ten games, 111 pages, 60 hand-coded diagrams — the whole shelf for less than the price of a pizza night.
Bought one by one, the nine paid volumes run $44.91. The Collection is $29 — all ten volumes, Checkers included — a saving of $15.91, about 35%.
Classics · Vol. 1Free
Checkers — The Complete Game Squire Guide (Vol. 1)
The world’s most underestimated strategy game — learned in minutes, mastered over years.
Get it on Gumroad
Classics · Vol. 2$4.99
Chess — The Complete Game Squire Guide (Vol. 2)
Sixty-four squares, sixteen pieces, infinite war — the game every strategist must face.
Buy on Gumroad
Classics · Vol. 3$4.99
Backgammon — The Complete Game Squire Guide (Vol. 3)
Dice, nerve, and five thousand years of grudges — the fastest race in classic gaming.
Buy on Gumroad
Classics · Vol. 4$4.99
Go — The Complete Game Squire Guide (Vol. 4)
Four thousand years old and four rules deep — the simplest game you will never finish learning.
Buy on Gumroad
Classics · Vol. 5$4.99
Dominoes — The Complete Game Squire Guide (Vol. 5)
Twenty-eight tiles, zero batteries required — the game-night classic that fits in your pocket.
Buy on Gumroad
Classics · Vol. 6$4.99
Mancala — The Complete Game Squire Guide (Vol. 6)
Forty-eight seeds, six pits a side, and the oldest counting game on Earth — out-think, out-sow, out-last.
Buy on Gumroad
Classics · Vol. 7$4.99
Reversi — The Complete Game Squire Guide (Vol. 7)
Sixty-four discs, one brutal truth — the lead means nothing until the last move.
Buy on Gumroad
Classics · Vol. 8$4.99
Chinese Checkers — The Complete Game Squire Guide (Vol. 8)
Ten marbles, one star, and the longest jump in board gaming.
Buy on Gumroad
Classics · Vol. 9$4.99
Cribbage — The Complete Game Squire Guide (Vol. 9)
Fifteen-two, fifteen-four — the pegging classic where every card counts twice.
Buy on Gumroad
Classics · Vol. 10$4.99
Nine Men’s Morris — The Complete Game Squire Guide (Vol. 10)
Two thousand years old, eighteen stones, one ruthless little war — the mill game that outlived empires.
Buy on GumroadYour game, taught beautifully.
Game Squire is opening 2 pilot spots for indie tabletop creators. We’ll create a complete, beautifully illustrated guide for your game — the same treatment our Classics line gives Chess, Go, and Backgammon — designed from scratch around your game’s world.
A complete guide, up to 15 pages
Your whole game taught in one document — setup, turns, winning, and the edge cases players always ask about.
Rules rewritten to teach
Your rules, restructured to teach from zero in the order players meet them — not just reformatted, re-thought.
Diagrams made for your game
Custom diagrams for your board, your pieces, and your key mechanics — drawn for your game, never stock.
Two revision rounds included
You review, we refine — twice — with one point of contact the whole way through.
Two editions of the file
A print-at-home friendly PDF plus a screen-optimized version, so the guide works at the table and on the phone.
You keep full ownership
Your game is yours, and the finished guide is yours — sell it, bundle it, print it, give it away.
You send your game
What you provideYour rules text — the game should be playtested and rules-stable — plus photos or descriptions of your components if you have them. We can work from text alone.
We design around your world
The buildYour guide is designed from scratch: your art direction, your colors, your feel — in any style of art, from storybook watercolor to pulp spectacle to bold modern minimal.
You review, we refine
Two roundsTwo revision rounds are included, with one point of contact for feedback. We reply to every inquiry within 48 hours with a yes or no and a start date.
Your guide arrives
Delivery · then print, if you want itYour finished digital edition lands — and if you want it in players’ hands as a physical book, the print door is open, below.
Designed in any style.
The Classics wear our house style — charcoal, gold, heraldic. Your guide doesn’t. It wears your world. One invented game, three of the directions we can take it:
- Also on the menu:
- 1970s Fantasy Module — raw ink & monochrome
- Mid-Century Family Gouache — 1950s box art
- Art Deco Glamour — 1920s gold & geometry
- Or describe your own world
Beyond the digital edition
Every guide starts digital. Print is a door, not a ceiling.
Your guide begins as a digital edition — and it can be completed as a full print edition in any format. If you can picture it, we can design it — and get it printed.
- Full-color print editions — glossy or matte finishes, wraparound covers, premium layouts.
- Designed for your stock — textured paper, heavy card, whatever your edition calls for.
- Print runs ordered through Game Squire — you pay in advance; we fulfill the run through our print partners and handle the rest.
- Or print it yourself — take print-ready files designed for Amazon KDP, DriveThruRPG, or your own manufacturer.
- Companions too — boxed-set companions, quick-start cards, and reference sheets.
Standard
$149
Delivered in 3–4 weeks
The complete pilot guide: up to 15 pages, rules taught from scratch, custom diagrams, print-at-home + screen editions, two revision rounds.
Pilot pricing · 2 spots
Priority
$249
Delivered in 14 days
The same complete guide, the same inclusions, the same two revision rounds — built first, on the fast track.
Jump the queue
What’s the difference?
The guide is identical. Same pages, same diagrams, same revision rounds, same ownership. The $100 difference buys one thing: speed of attention. Standard joins the work queue and is delivered in 3–4 weeks. Priority jumps the queue — your guide is the next one built — and lands in 14 days. Choose by your deadline, not by fear of missing features: there are none to miss.
Print editions are quoted per project after the pilot, once we know your format, stock, and run size.
The pilot exchange
Pilot pricing is a fraction of the future rate. In exchange:
- We may feature the finished guide publicly — portfolio, social, marketing — using your name and your game’s name.
- You provide a short testimonial after delivery (2–3 sentences).
- A credit line, “Guide by Game Squire,” appears in the PDF.
Ownership, in plain English
- You own your game. 100%. Always.
- You own the finished PDF. Sell it, bundle it with your game, print it, give it away — it’s yours.
- We keep showcase rights — we can display the guide and talk about the project publicly, per the pilot exchange.
Start your commission
Tell us about your game.
If your game is playable and your rules are written down, you qualify. Send the short version here and we’ll reply within 48 hours with a yes or no and a start date. First come, first served — 2 pilot spots.
- Reply within 48 hours
- No payment until your spot is confirmed
- Your game and your guide stay yours
Questions, answered plainly.
The things creators ask before they hand us their game.
Is my game ready for a guide?
If it’s playable and the rules are written down and stable, yes. Kickstarter-bound, print-and-play, or made just for your own group — all qualify. If the rules are still changing every session, finish the game first; a guide locks the teaching to the game as it stands.
What do you need from me?
Your rules text, one point of contact for feedback during the two revision rounds, and — if you have them — photos or descriptions of your components. We can work from text alone.
Who owns the finished guide?
You do. You own your game 100%, and you own the finished PDF — sell it, bundle it, print it, give it away. Game Squire keeps showcase rights: we may display the guide and talk about the project publicly, and a “Guide by Game Squire” credit line appears in the PDF.
Can my guide be a printed book?
Yes. Every guide starts as a digital edition and can be completed as a full-color print edition — glossy or matte, premium stock, wraparound covers. Order the print run through Game Squire (paid in advance; we fulfill it through our print partners), or take print-ready files for KDP, DriveThruRPG, or your own manufacturer. Print is quoted per project after the pilot.
Why only 2 pilot spots?
Because each guide is built by hand around one game’s world. The pilot rate — $149, a fraction of the future rate — is exchanged for case-study rights and a short testimonial, and two spots is what we can give full attention to at once.