OPPORTUNITY
Create a table-top game.
SOLUTION
A simple social card game about living with less.
IDEA
Getting rid of unnecessary stuff is a satisfying and being a minimalist is in.
INTRODUCTION
In her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo has popularized the idea of de-cluttering by only keeping the things that "spark joy" in one's life. We all want to live more minimally but it is easier said than done.
Insight
It is easy to accumulate shit and hard to get rid of it, but there is more incentive to toss when in competition with friends.
SOLUTION
A game about living with less.
Gameplay
The goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all cards, becoming the ultimate minimalist. Cards are played one at a time and must match the previous card either by color or item category. There are special wild cards that can be placed at any time, no matter the item category or color. That player then gets to choose the next color continuing the game play.
When a player has a single card in their hand, they “minimalism” and if they are able to play that card on their next turn, they win.
Minimalism rule cards.
The Cards
Each card is categorized by color and item (the colors and items are independent of each other). The item categories include miscellaneous, electronics, furniture, and wardrobe. The colors are green, orange, blue, yellow, and black.
The special cards give players the opportunity to give cards to their opponents, making it harder for them to be a minimalist.
A selection of item cards and a special wild card
The deck of cards.
A selection of item cards and a special wild card.
A front and back view of a card.
A selection of item cards.
A selection of item cards.
Action shot of the gameplay.
Packaging
The cards come in a small, simple box with “minimalism” printed on the front and “the game” on the back bottom right corner.
A front and back view of the box.
A product shot fo box and item cards.
The opened box with rule card.
PROCESS
User Testing
The first iteration of the game consisted of black paper cards coded with color stickers to represent the item groups, color categories, and the special wild cards. Users appreciated the ease and high paced nature of the game, however it went too fast and without copy — it wasn’t very engaging. We learned we needed to decrease the number of item cards and increase the amount of special wild and action cards to enable more participant interaction. The first high fidelity prototype consisted of all white cards with black text (with touches of pastel colors in the iconography). We realized that the pastel was hard to read and our icons where not minimal enough so we switched to brighter, full bleed color.
Team
Dakota Ward, Art Director Kymberli Fraser, Art Director Donald Kim, Copywriter Elise Sokolowski, Experience Designer
Role
Game design Prototyping Photography
Tools
Pen & paper Camera