There are board games where you can hardly infer the game itself from the title. The cooperative card game Pensionerjagd by Holy Crab Games is deliberately absurd because it is satirical: a team of extreme geriatric nurses with special workers fights against a group of demented cyborg pensioners that has gone wild. So far clear?
The card game by two Leipzig game designers is currently running as a crowdfunding campaign on the platform for financing purposes Kickstarter.
Attack of demented cyborg retirees
You know pensioner bands, for example ACDC or the Rolling Stones. Pensioner killer squads are rather unknown - perhaps apart from the expendables. It's great that Holy Crab Games has finally taken on this completely absurd topic and developed a cooperative card game from it.
Behind Holy Crab Games are Max Haupt and Michael Neumann, who got to know each other during their studies. The two have been developing board games together since 2010, which they also publish themselves. Laura Oechel is responsible for the illustrations, while Christian Kroneck contributes video animations and graphics.
For the two game authors, what is fascinating about board games is the immediacy of social interaction. So it's no wonder that Pensioner Hunting works with a cooperative game mechanic, of all things. For Max Haupt and Michael Neumann, the essence of the game is in the foreground:
“Playing means pretending. There is great freedom in that. Namely, the freedom to break the rules of everyday life and to engage in behavior that is usually frowned upon: an undisguised desire for power and victory, for example, opportunistic behavior or small-scale fraud. However, all this never happens completely freely, but always guided by the rules of the game. Ideal conditions, then, to satirically and exaggeratedly renegotiate socially controversial topics in the behavioral laboratory "game". It's funny, wicked and always a bit educational."
The themes of their games are deliberately exaggerated, satirical - sometimes absurd. Just like the demented cyborg retirees, whose machinations have to be stopped as part of missions. The people of Leipzig play with taboo social topics that are humorous but have a serious background:
“We play with taboos and allow players to take serious issues lightly. At least for an hour.
Pensioner hunt fits perfectly into our range of topics. Because of course we don't exhaust ourselves simply breaking taboos for the sake of breaking taboos - that would be a bit too simple. Every successful satire throws a spotlight on grievances. And there are abuses in dealing with the aging of our society in abundance. The topic is usually completely suppressed - no one, no politician is really interested in it. The nursing emergency remains unsolved as the people in advertising keep getting younger.
These motives are the basis for pensioner hunting. In the future that we are designing, there are pensioner hunters who remove disruptive pensioners from everyday life, garnished with a lot of slapstick and tactical puzzles, so that the rest of the population can consume undisturbed. Pretty dark in itself - but as a game it's dark fun!"
The card game Pensionerjagd is currently running as a crowdfunding campaign on the platform Kickstarter. A total of 20.000 euros in financial resources are needed to realize the game, part of which Holy Crab Games has already raised.
Crowdfunding is particularly attractive for small publishers, especially Kickstarter:
“Kickstarter has a very active community and, as a platform, also offers self-publishers the opportunity to realize projects that would be unthinkable without this kind of support. These are wonderful opportunities! Of course, a project must also generate the necessary attention and hit a nerve. These are both big hurdles – but they are no different in the games market.”
The makers behind the card game hope for successful funding. There will hardly be any real failure. If the desired amount is not reached, you want to finance the game on your own at a later point in time.
The KickstarterThe pensioner hunt campaign runs until Thursday, November 29, 2018. Those interested can find more information about the crowdfunding project and the rules of the game here Link.
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