CONTEXT

Timeline

July 2020 - Present

My Role

Visual Design

Product Design

Prototyping

Web Design

Branding

Team (Co-Founders)

Steven N. (Marketing)

Colton H. (Design)

Joshua H. (Sales)

Van T. (Artwork)

Me! (Design)

Overview

In my junior year of high school, the pandemic changed everything. As I was stuck at home, I really wanted to create something to bring people, especially families and friends, closer together. During this time, I was also really into podcasts, and one episode, featuring Koreen and her journey creating the card game "We're Not Really Strangers," inspired me to create a game for families.

I reached out to my friend Colton (the biggest board game enthusiast I know), and we set out to design a card game that would encourage laughter and connections. Not long after, Steven and Van joined the team to help produce the illustrations and brought our ideas to life. Once our designs were finalized, Joshua came and helped raise enough pre-orders to manufacture our first print run. Ultimately, the game reached 16 stores, impacted over 500 households, and was acquired.

PROBLEM

There is a lack of board games that are fun for ALL ages.

Board games in major retailers either appeal to a specific demographic or are unoriginal and remakes of already popular games. Many games with identical game mechanics are rebranded, and popular games are recreated with new themes/characters.

SOLUTION

The Bear Game is fun and easy to learn for children, YET strategic for teens & parents.

The Bear Game is a comedically styled card game inspired by Battle Royales, Russian Roulette, and our other favorite party games. Taking mechanics everyone loves from popular games and combining them with rules they've never seen in a board game before, The Bear Game is a fresh and original product. It features over 54 cute bears, cards, and unique storylines.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Popular games have a cohesive theme around a location or animal. This can be seen in games like Unstable Unicorns or Exploding Kittens.

Many games also have multiple duplicate cards in their decks, leading to repetition. For example, in Exploding Kittens, there are 56 cards. However, only 15 different cards have unique designs/artwork. Out of those 15, there are only 9 unique game mechanics.

Logos of major companies in the board game industy.

Viral games also tend to be very similar to other existing games. We see this again and again in card matching games like Apples to Apples, Cards Against Humanity, What Do You Meme?, New Phone Who Dis?...

USER INTERVIEWS

“I don’t want to play another version of Cards Against Humanity”

I interviewed 15 people to see what types of games are most popular and why they chose which board games to play with friends or family.

Research questions:

1. Please describe the groups or types of people you play board games with and the frequency.

2. How do you typically decide on the game(s) to play?

3. On a scale of 1 to 5, how satisfied are you with the quality and enjoyment of the games you play?

4. Which games are your favorite?

5. What aspects of your favorite games do you enjoy the MOST?

6. How often do you find yourself purchasing or playing a new game?

THE MAIN INSIGHT

Compromises are made when playing with your family.

Based on the trends in the demographics from the interviewees and surveys, this problem is present for busy, on-the-go individuals.

1. Parents will play whatever their children want to play or at a comprehension level of the kids.

2. Games with a steep learning curve are often ignored. They’ll be opened, attempted, and left sitting in the board game closet.

3. Repetition is something that can get annoying, especially when playing with the same people.

IDEATING SOLUTIONS

Bears?

Starting this project during the peak of the pandemic, I wanted a game that could bring families together. We determined that creating a card game would be the most cost-effective so we began brainstorming ideas.

Soon, this became a serious endeavor, with a massive spreadsheet and in-depth discussions. We also knew we wanted to theme it around something fun and visually appealing for children. Perhaps it could have comical, colorful animals, like bunnies?

We studied our own personal favorite games, thinking about what attracted kids, teens, and adults. Eventually, we decided to theme it all around bears. It was perfect that bears could be made into humanoid figures and we could dress them up in clothes so they'd look like humans doing jobs.

The cartoon bears and stories would appeal to kids while the game’s strategy would attract an older audience. We started organizing our ideas from the spreadsheet into sketched index cards. We got together and play-tested these notecards for a couple of hours and realized that this game was not only fun, but had serious potential.

Version 1 of the game, hand drawn on index cards.

Miscellaneous images of early ideas.

ITERATIONS

3 Major Improvements!

The “Evil Bear” cards became entirely black. Initially, it was black borders with white interiors. We got feedback that the old design was too reminiscent of the gray cards, and sometimes it was difficult for players to distinguish the two.

1

Color contrast improvement for "Evil Bear" card types.

A fuller and more colorful box artwork.

We updated the front of the exterior box. Having bears with more emotions better reflects the fun aesthetic that The Bear Game is. This more eye-catching design would also sit better on shelves in retailers.

2

We updated the cover of the instructions. A big complaint about new board games is that it takes time to read and learn the rules. So we updated the cover of the instructions to include a QR code that takes the players directly to a short video tutorial on our website.

3

Improved instructions, with visuals to help with setup.

THE FINAL DESIGN

The Bear Game.

The box features a contrasting white top and black bottom. Inside the box, every card is unique and different. This was something popular games didn’t do. Many games would have multiple duplicated cards. So for The Bear Game, there are 54 unique cards. Every card has different artwork and a unique storyline. The cards also feature a colorful background with the artwork breaking out of its frame. I chose to design the cards like this to bring out the amazing artwork and compliment the fun colors.

Instructions double as a Movie Poster! I wanted to add my own creative ideas, so I included aspects that I’ve never seen in any other game before. On the instructions sheet, the front side are the rules, while the back side is a movie poster for The Bear Game Movie. Moreover, we created our own rules like punishing anyone who was cheating or physical punishments like “go stand in the corner of the room” or “go use the bathroom”.

Spinning mockup of final box design.

Top and bottom of game box.

Various cards from The Bear Game.

The Bear Game instructions sheet.