Hello, This is Hadeer from Egypt, I participated in Openvillage - MENA REEF House so I had the opportunity to meet some people from here and since that, I didn’t stop my series of questioning that some here might be aware of it on facebook with #Didi_Asks.
I would like to share with you the updates and would be very helpful to have some ideas from your side.
I am tuning #Didi_Asks into question into a serious game that aims to enhance communication through a journey of questioning and sharing answers while motivated by the joy of playing.
It is a multiplayer game using cards like UNO that consist of 3 different types of cards as following:
1- Questions
2- Star cards: a set of privileges and actions to be performed by the players
3- Game instructions: to redirect the order of playing to keep the dynamics
I examined it with some groups here in Egypt and the results were very promising so far.
Now, I am kind of a being lost state, not knowing how to register it officially, should it be a startup or that I just need to register it solely as a game. Also, I feel like something is missing…we are experimenting it with different groups but I feel like I need a tool to evaluate more than that taking people opinions.
Photos are from 2 different sessions we held were different individuals gathered to play mostly knowing each others for the first time.
The cards are still primitive and those were in Arabic.
thanks for sharing this idea here, I am thinking that maybe @sebquack or @matteo_uguzzoni with their incredible experience and expertise can throw in some tips and ideas.
There is also @tomo_kihara who is dealing with social interventions and playful experiences in his game design practice, as well as @jyow, who is both designing games but also works as an illustrator and graphic designer, possibly also @Kavita and @ProducedMoon with their cross-disciplinary projects, then @serios.maria (i have a feeling you would have a wonderful conversation) . @robjones could pitch in some interesting ideas.
If you would be able to make a small trial deck for early November, I could use it as part of my biennale exhibition project - if you could think of a special deck that could facilitate encounters of strangers in a retirement home, since we plan to make newcomers go and experience this space in different ways, maybe I could even find a small budget and a designer to have it produced for that occasion.
Hey @HadeerGhareeb nice to hear from you!
People in the pictures seems to enjoy a lot the game, how do you feel about it? Is the experience the one that you were visioning?
Reading your description seems that you have all the element to go and make the game real!
In term of publishing, the self-publishing way is always available but maybe there are publisher in Egypt that can be interested? If not, sometimes book publisher are interested to have alternative products in their lines.
One way is also to create your own profile in itch.io and then upload a PDF with instructions and graphics so everyone in the world can download the game and produce it in his own language. Various game like “A Quiet Year” followed this strategy is the Creative Commons one, and is really rewarding in term of community and evolution of the game.
I’m also considering to follow it with one of the game that I’m working on, but first I will playtest it with group of people that doesn’t know me (I think they are called Blind-playtester) so I can really receive feedback that are honest!
Matteo brought up some good points about self-publishing. Itch.io is a really great resource and a lot of my peers use it for digital and paper-based games alike.
To follow up on his suggestions, I think a good step to take would be finding an illustrator/graphic designer (or doing it yourself) to make the game look more polished if you decide to pitch it or move forward with self-publishing. A good resource to check out would be the Unpub community (http://unpub.net/); while it’s largely US-specific, they may still have applicable information for you and people to reach out to.
