Featured Work
15 / 20
PassOut!
Game design, branding and packaging for an educational card game about the design industry.
Context
PassOut! is a fast-paced card game for 2 to 5 players that teaches design thinking through play. Players pair brief and designer cards to complete projects while dealing with sabotage from opponents and the constant pressure of a shrinking deck.
The action cards borrow from situations familiar to anyone who's worked in design, from last-minute revisions and lost files to skipped turns. For newcomers, it's an introduction to the industry. For practitioners, much of the joke is that they've probably lived it.
Approach
PassOut! was a collaborative university project. We started with research into the board game market, looking at packaging conventions, gameplay mechanics and pain points that surfaced through prototype playtesting and user testing. That groundwork shaped the game's mechanics, balance and physical presentation.
I handled the brand direction for PassOut!, including the colour system and hand-drawn logo. From there, I carried the identity into the card layouts, packaging, mockups and merchandise. I also designed the website and contributed to the gameplay structure.
One of those contributions was the coffee card mechanic, which gives players a way to block sabotage and adds another layer of strategy to each turn while borrowing from a habit most designers will recognise.
We also developed the project with a longer runway in mind, mapping out production and marketing costs, a deck pricing model and a Kickstarter strategy to take the game beyond the classroom. Future plans included expansion packs and an AR layer tied to the cards, giving players another way to explore the design industry through the game.
