Gem Benders is a revolutionary lo-fi TCG where you mix and match gems, explore blend synergies, and command your heroes to outwit your opponent! Each player begins with a team of 4 heroes and a 50 card deck. During the game, you’ll equip your heroes with different combinations of gems to use unique and powerful transformations called blends. Position your heroes for optimal damage and get your opponent’s HP down to 0 in order to win the game!
Gem Blenders began as the passion project of Steve Sekula. After prototyping various trading card games in his youth, Steve fully developed the first iteration of Gem Blenders in 2018-2020, raising enough on Kickstarter to print 1,000 sets of the Beta Version cards. Since that milestone, the team has grown, and they’ve been hard at work towards their official release as a full trading card game. Upon a successful Kickstarter in March 2023, Gem Blenders is poised to breakthrough to market as the world’s next most popular TCG.
At its core, Gem Blenders is an indie game, which is an element we do not shy away from. With inspiration from the early internet and retro video games, Gem Blender’s simple (and lovable) characters and lo-fi accents shape the distinctive world of Gemlandia. As you explore card effects, lore, and descriptions, you’ll get to know all of the heroes and blends and their distinct personalities.
Gem Blenders was rigorously playtested at the NYU Game Center, NYC Game Makers meetup group, Play NYC, Gen Con 2019, Gen Con 2021, Emagination Computer Camps, and online. We continue to playtest future cards online using our community Discord, and we are always in search of new and experienced card game players alike. We encourage and rely on community input in the creation and balancing of new cards. If you are interested in learning about our playtesting process, please do not hesitate to get involved!
STEVE SEKULA
Steve has been making trading card games since he was a kid. He’s a fan of all things Pokémon, and grew up playing Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic: The Gathering. He’s working to build his own creative studio dedicated to crafting high quality titles with unique concepts and art styles that break away from traditional board game and fantasy tropes. Outside of his nerdy ambitions, he loves fine art.
SAM LEBRYK
Sam met Steve as freshman year roommates in college, and he’s been beating Steve at games ever since. Gem Blenders is no exception. Their mutual love for card games and Super Smash Brothers brought them together, and Gem Blenders continues to enrich their friendship. His love for healthy competition also expands into sports, as he continues his high school and college basketball career at his local YMCA.
DAVID WURTELE
David is fascinated by the rich worlds that exist to simultaneously accommodate and inform trading card designs, and he aims to create lore that provides a similar sense of wonder for Gem Blenders players. Outside Gemlandia, he can be found drafting up automated tools to make deck building easier for players new to the genre. He loves to spend his spare time engrossed in classic murder mystery novels.
BEN FLORENCE
One fine Spring evening, whilst scrolling through memes on Facebook, Benjamin was assailed by an advertisement: Do you like card games? “Boy, do I!” Benjamin enthusiastically replied. The rest is history. An avid Magic the Gathering player and game studies enthusiast, Benjamin will play any game any time. He can often be found listening to concept albums, playing piano, and combo-ing off on turn 3.
Gem Benders is a revolutionary lo-fi TCG where you mix and match gems, explore blend synergies, and command your heroes to outwit your opponent! Each player begins with a team of 4 heroes and a 50 card deck. During the game, you’ll equip your heroes with different combinations of gems to use unique and powerful transformations called blends. Position your heroes for optimal damage and get your opponent’s HP down to 0 in order to win the game!
Gem Blenders began as the passion project of Steve Sekula. After prototyping various trading card games in his youth, Steve fully developed the first iteration of Gem Blenders in 2018-2020, raising enough on Kickstarter to print 1,000 sets of the Beta Version cards. Since that milestone, the team has grown, and they’ve been hard at work towards their official release as a full trading card game. Upon a successful Kickstarter in March 2023, Gem Blenders is poised to breakthrough to market as the world’s next most popular TCG.
At its core, Gem Blenders is an indie game, which is an element we do not shy away from. With inspiration from the early internet and retro video games, Gem Blender’s simple (and lovable) characters and lo-fi accents shape the distinctive world of Gemlandia. As you explore card effects, lore, and descriptions, you’ll get to know all of the heroes and blends and their distinct personalities.
Gem Blenders was rigorously playtested at the NYU Game Center, NYC Game Makers meetup group, Play NYC, Gen Con 2019, Gen Con 2021, Emagination Computer Camps, and online. We continue to playtest future cards online using our community Discord, and we are always in search of new and experienced card game players alike. We encourage and rely on community input in the creation and balancing of new cards. If you are interested in learning about our playtesting process, please do not hesitate to get involved!
STEVE SEKULA
Steve has been making trading card games since he was a kid. He’s a fan of all things Pokémon, and grew up playing Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic: The Gathering. He’s working to build his own creative studio dedicated to crafting high quality titles with unique concepts and art styles that break away from traditional board game and fantasy tropes. Outside of his nerdy ambitions, he loves fine art.
SAM LEBRYK
Sam met Steve as freshman year roommates in college, and he’s been beating Steve at games ever since. Gem Blenders is no exception. Their mutual love for card games and Super Smash Brothers brought them together, and Gem Blenders continues to enrich their friendship. His love for healthy competition also expands into sports as he continues his high school and college basketball career at his local YMCA.
DAVID WURTELE
David is fascinated by the rich worlds that exist to simultaneously accommodate and inform trading card designs, and he aims to create lore that provides a similar sense of wonder for Gem Blenders players. Outside Gemlandia, he’s also drafting up automated tools to make deck building easier for players new to the genre. He loves to spend his spare time engrossed in classic murder mystery novels.
BENJAMIN FLORENCE
One fine Spring evening, whilst scrolling through memes on Facebook, Benjamin was assailed by an advertisement: Do you like card games? “Boy, do I!” Benjamin enthusiastically replied. The rest is history. An avid Magic the Gathering player and game studies enthusiast, Benjamin will play any game any time. He can often be found listening to concept albums, playing piano, and combo-ing off on turn 3.