Goal:
Create a fun and exciting way for younger audiences to engage with different types of sustainability
Solution:
Interdependence, a game that teaches you the many forms sustainability takes in the modern world
Impact:
A new understanding of how to talk about sustainability to those with less educational experience
Draw a card and build a city. The world depends on you!
Interdependence is a card game for 2-4 players that teaches the
players new ways to think about sustainability.
Research
The focus of the game is to complete the sustainability triangle, made up of Social, Economic, and Environmental sustainability.
The game starts out normally but quickly gets out of hand!
Can you master all three pillars of sustainability and save the city?
Below are my design elements and inspirations:
Above is the card game Fluxx. Although there are many different versions, I felt that the Adventure Time (one of my favorite cartoons) version of the game was the most whimsical.
Above is a book from the series Geronimo Stilton. One of my childhood favorites! The author, Isabetta Dami, always had such illustrative typefaces.
When prototyping my design ideas,
my first thoughts were of my favorite things from my childhood. My house was filled with board games of all different types. When I was especially young, my favorite thing to do was to lay out all the pieces of a game… and just look at them!
The whimsy that Adventure Time works into each 11-minute episode was always so inspiring to me. I wanted to make my game just as engaging and effervescent.
The Geronimo Stilton book series encouraged young readers to feel excitement with each word on the page. The constantly changing weights, typefaces, colors, and forms the writing takes shows readers that words can be playful and fun.
Above is a sheet from the instruction booklet
I wanted to design a card game where even if you couldn’t read the rules, you could play with the cards and enjoy the colors and designs.
I want sustainability to be exciting!
The many-splendored world of sustainability!
Card Designs
This is why Interdependence is extremely colorful and full of surprises.
The goal of Interdependence is to complete sustainability goals. You do this by obtaining a Social, Economic, and Environmental sustainability card.
But watch out for bad Events! Just like in the real world, unexpected surprises can make achieving sustainability much harder. To make life easier, you can get a sustainable job in this game! Be a teacher, an urban planner, an architect, or many more jobs that make a greener planet.
Sustainability can be colorful!
The coolest part about this game is that it’s also educational!
After a game of Interdependence, players may wonder why they should even care about sustainability.
Fear not! The back of the instruction sheet details many reasons why it it important.
Furthermore, it enumerates ways that a player of any age can get involved in the sustainability movement!
The full instruction sheet can be found below.
Game collectors beware! There’s only 1 copy out there!
I fit all the cards into specific sections in the box. The point tokens were placed in a small bag in the top right of the box and the instruction sheet sits on top.
If you are interested in your own copy of Interdependence, sorry! This one’s not for sale.
JUST KIDDING! If you want to try this game out, please down load both the instruction sheet above as well as the full card sheet in the button below. Happy playing!
The world’s first unboxing video of Interdependence!
Alastair Merrett 