Quacks publisher CMYK is launching a TV game show based on another Wolfgang Warsch game this year

CMYK, the US publisher of Quacks of Quedlinberg and Wavelength, is making the jump to television with the launch of a game show on CBS based on another Wolfgang Warsch design.

The Perfect Line is inspired by Warsch’s 2018 design Illusion – which CMYK is re-releasing as Figment this year – and will challenge contestants to test their pop culture knowledge by placing items in a precise lineup to win cash prizes.

The show, which will be hosted by Inside Edition’s Deborah Norville, is anchored by CBS and has now been sold to broadcast stations in 90% of the US.

Company CEO Alex Hague told BoardGameWire, “We get dozens of inquiries each year to make a Wavelength TV show, and while we haven’t hit on the perfect format for that yet, we were lucky enough to meet lots of people through those conversations.

“And separately, [CMYK co-founder Justin Vickers] and I had been working on a ‘put things in a line’ game for years, along with working with Wolfgang on Figment, which is a redesign of his game Illusion.

“So a lot of those ideas had been percolating, and the folks at [American cable channel] Game Show Network and CBS loved how simple the idea was.”

Hague and Vickers are executive producers on the show, which is set to premiere later this year.

Asked how creating the show has proved different from designing a more regular board game, Hague said, “Gameshows are hard! You need to capture someone’s attention even faster and ideally have a concept that’s able to be understood even with the sound off.

“Plus you don’t have the usual prototyping tools available to you, since the format is so different.”

CMYK scored early success with its release of party game Monikers in 2015, and doubled down on that with breakout title Wavelength four years later.

That game has gone on to sell more than a million copies, as well as reaching four million digital downloads for its app version.