Mason Haenga

A social strategy card game for 2 to 10 players

Ages 10+

Playing time 15-30 minutes

Introduction/Overview

Election is a fun, easy to play card game, perfect for a laugh with family or friends in the best tradition of social card gaming. Election simulates the Australian electoral process in a fun and engaging way which includes all the dirt and grime of a political campaign as well as the back room deals needed to form government. Many Australian’s simply switch off when they hear the word politics and most don’t understand how our democracy works. I hope that by playing this game people will not only have fun but will also gain a better understanding of our electoral process. The game is suitable for anyone aged 10+ and can be played with 2 to 10 players in 15 to 30 minutes. Player interaction is an important component of the game and the major reason it was developed as a card game and not on an electronic platform. No device can deliver the experience you get from playing a game with actual people. Just like real politicians you can negotiate, bargain, threaten, plead, make secret deals, lie and swindle the other players.

The game consists of 310 unique playing cards. 150 Electoral Seat cards (one for each electoral seat). These show the history, geography, products/industries, demographics and representatives of each seat. These are the cards you need to collect to win. There are 150 Campaign cards which are used to win seats, prevent others from winning seats and to steal seats. Lastly there are 10 Party cards representing major & minor political parties as well as independents. The basic premise of the game is to accumulate as many seats as possible. Anyone gaining 76 or more seats at the end of the game wins government in their own right. However there are other ways to win, such as forming a minority government or by holding the balance of power if you are an independent.

The game is laced with a fair dose of skepticism and sarcastic humor regarding politicians and many of the cards mimic the actions of Australian politician’s and political parties. 

Goal/Aim of Pozible Crowd-funding

Election is completely designed and ready to publish. There have been literally thousands of hours of play-testing and prototyping over the last 5 years. Your support will allow the game to go to print and will also assist us in promoting the game via gaming and educational resource conventions. A successful Pozible campaign will also allow us to deploy a website with further explanations and resources to support the game. Successful publication will also allow us to develop the game to suit other markets. Firstly for other parliamentary democracies (eg.NZ,UK) and then for Republican democracies (eg.USA).

The website which will include tips, strategies and a player forum where people can provide feedback, share their strategies and make suggestions for new cards. There will also be an educators section with further reference’s and year specific lesson plans. Ideally we would like to supply the game free to Secondary Schools right across the country, however in order to do this we would need the game to be commercially successful and a successful Pozible campaign would greatly assist us in achieving this.

As mentioned the primary purpose of the game is to provide a fun social activity through the game mechanism of an election. However if it encourages just one or two people to think about our political system, who hadn’t in the past, then it will be a success.

Keeping Track

We will initially be sending update emails to our supporters so you can follow our progress to publication and once deployed our website will also provide progress updates and developments for the games publication and promotion.

Rewards

Election has not yet been released to the general public and supporters of Pozible will not only ensure the publication of this game but contributions of $25 or more will also be the first to receive a complimentary set of the game as a personal thank-you.

Any level of support would be greatly appreciated and everyone who contributes will be acknowledged on the website. As mentioned, contributions of $25 or more will receive a complete set of the game from the very first production run. If you contribute $50 or more we will send you 2 sets.

Contributions of $100 or more will receive 2 sets and credits on the game.

Future

Apart from market specific versions for other democracies we also hope to release updated versions of the game through time. Under Australian law, electoral boundaries must be revised every seven years so we will release an updated pack of electoral seat cards to coincide with this.

We would also like to design add on sets of cards primarily for the education use of the game. These would be the ‘senate pack’ and the ‘legislative pack’ and would allow the game to continue after the election and would mimic the processes involved in passing laws. Ideally in an educational setting ministers and shadow ministers would have to debate and present laws.

         

Thanks

A big thank-you for taking the time to read about Election.  If you would like a fun social game that is also educational and which prompts people to think about our system please support us.