There’s more than one way to play
Welcome to Cow Island Publishing – we’re all about balance. Screen free time playing table top games or reading a physical book are excellent for connecting with family and friends (not to mention a sure fire way to make new friends!). Sometimes this isn’t practical (as much as I would love to take a library with me on holiday, it’s just not going to meet those pesky weight limits on checked baggage) or you don’t have any family or friends around to play with. Then it’s great to have digital versions of your favorite games. Cow Island Publishing is on a mission to make both available side by side and have our games played far and wide across the archipelago of the world!
Tabletop
Physical games to test your strategic mind and bring historical stories to life
Digital
Virtual versions of our tabletop games so you can play on the go
Fiction
Novels and short stories with historical backdrops
Featured Projects In Development
Here is a selection of our project pipeline, with one from each of our pillars.
Consul of Rome
Consul of Rome is a Roman Republican themed strategic card game for 1 – 4 players combining set collection and hand management where you vie against your opponents to gain the most votes on your tableau and make it to the top of Rome.
Played solo, quick game or multi round campaign. In each mode you are aiming to gain votes by laying out Senators (gardening the most votes), Officer sets (three of a kind or better attracting variable votes) or Legion runs (sequential straights of Legion cohorts, which carry only one vote each). The first player to discard all cards from their hand “calls a vote” which means all votes on tableau’s are counted and the highest count wins.
Assassination and bribery mechanics allow players that have fallen behind in votes to use the might of their Legions to even the playing field.
Inter-round games of Risk (a poker style game) allow players in a campaign game to catch up or leap ahead by risking their hard won votes.
There’s more than one way to the top of Rome!
Dictator of Rome
Our daily logic puzzle campaign inspired by the decision-making and strategy of the Roman Republic.
Each day brings three new challenges that test your reasoning, drawing on real historical references from Rome and beyond.
Blending modern puzzle design with classical insight, Dictator of Rome turns moments from history into small acts of logic and leadership — daily puzzles that sharpen the mind and connect players to the civic dilemmas of the ancient world.
The project is currently live, but we are making improvements all the time, so make sure to follow us on instagram or sign up to our mailing list for regular project updates.
In the Cazique’s Wake
Inspired by the incredible true story of 19th-century conman Sir Gregor MacGregor, this novel follows a group of young people swindled out of their family fortunes who must choose: accept their ruin, or risk everything to take revenge.