It's been two years since I've revisited this project. Originally designed for my Game/Play class final, Meaningful Play, I chose to design the game you see now. At the time I was struggling with talking with my friends about a loss I'd experienced. There's no rulebook for talking about grief and this game by no means is one. What I needed then (and sometimes now) are spaces to facilitate sometimes difficult conversations without worrying that I'm putting undue stress on my friends. At the time, I'd just learned of the game design philosophy, the magic circle. The idea that the spaces that games occur in operate by different rules then our "real world." Some highlighted by Bernie DeKoven in his book, "The Well-Played Game: A Player's Philosophy" states, a good game community requires voluntary participation. That's when I knew that this needed to be a game.

Now, with everything happening in the world right now, I wanted to revisit this game and further polish it. Accessibility has always been paramount to me and now with so many people self-isolating, I knew I needed to reevaluate the resources I provided originally. I know right now I don't have access to a printer so a lot of thought went into creating two versions of the game, one that can be easily viewed on the screen and one that can be printed out if people had the ability to do so.

I hope everyone who has played the game and might play the game in the future finds what they need in it. I know making it has really help me work through some things.

Until next time,

Vian