brainblender
Board game for developing ideas
Authors: Ivan Jelačić, Aleksandra Prole, Sara Salamon, Pika Novak
Board game for developing ideas
Authors: Ivan Jelačić, Aleksandra Prole, Sara Salamon, Pika Novak
Brainblender is a board game thatencourages people to play with ideas – from plain silly to world changing. Thegame fosters team work and assists people to come up with unconventionalsolutions to conventional problems. It was developed at the Interaction DesignWorkshop at UMAS (Arts Academy, Split)
The aim was to create both, agame and an idea generator. Brainblender’s game principles and strategies canbe applied in everyday life whether we would like to change our perception ofthe world around us or just to put the decision making into a playful process.
The aim was to create both, agame and an idea generator. Brainblender’s game principles and strategies canbe applied in everyday life whether we would like to change our perception ofthe world around us or just to put the decision making into a playful process.
Brainblender is a board game forfour players. First, all players choose a question, either out of twenty presetquestions or create their own. Second, each player writes his or her idea inresponse to this question on an idea card and places it on the board. In thenext round a dice throw decides which variation of their initial idea playershave to develop. For example the idea should be made more strange or horrificor architectural. This idea variation is then written on another idea cardwhich is placed on the board. Players explain briefly their ideas and thechoice of placement of the idea card. When idea cards of different playersconnect, the two players have to blend their ideas and create a joint idea inresponse to the initial question. The game ends when all idea cards areconnected to each other.
The versatility of the game can be exemplified by different scenarios:
What should we do? A game to make your life more interesting by coming up with more unconventional ideas to replace your "bore space" - bored state of mind.
What do we want to change in our room/house/yard/city?
Imagining up possibilities in a playful fashion to change one's room or a classroom, re-imagining your courtyard, or the activities in the city.
How can we take our ideas further?
Liberating our mind flow through playing we can arrive to unexpected, creative solutions.
Brainblender is an open source game prepared as DIY assembly in PDF format. It was designed for everybody and it is free for download.
