My Responsibilities
- Game Design
- Writing
- Playtesting and QA
- Research Assistance
Description
A card game of quick wits and zany combinations, buffalo: the name dropping game asks you to name-drop faster than your friends, collect the most cards, and win! How fast can you name a vain artist? How about a glasses-wearing heartthrob? Don’t be surprised if you find yourself surrounded by curious players eager to name an annoying conqueror or perky religious figure!
Awards and Recognition
Buffalo was featured on NPR, on Fast Company, and in Bloomberg.
Design Story
I worked with the team at Tiltfactor (Dr. Flanagan, Dr. Kaufman, and student designers and researchers) to design and study Buffalo’s clean party game mechanics. During development, it became clear that more obscure descriptors would often hang around on the table for a long time. To solve this problem, I introduced the Buffalo cards which, while on the table, allow players to match any 2 descriptors and take all the cards on the table. This clears obscure descriptors out so the players can start fresh.
Buffalo was developed as part of a research project to combat biases, and research shows that it reduces players’ prejudices.