What does creating an Adult Card Game like It’s Over! take?

Welcome to the first installment of our blog series where we take you behind the scenes of creating our newest product, It’s Over! – a unique adult card game designed to push boundaries and either bring your relationships closer or tear them apart. In this series, we’ll cover a sort of behind the curtain look at the initial concept, the meticulous planning process, sourcing materials, prototyping and testing, and finally, the journey to launch.

The Concept: 

The idea for It’s Over! emerged from a desire to craft an adult card game that is playable to a wide range of people without being “edgy” just to shock people.

  We wanted a game that was not only fun but also provocatively hilarious, pushing the limits of typical party games or drinking games.

To achieve this, we started with a simple question: How can we create a game that is replayable, and yet not overtly ridiculous? Our brainstorming sessions were filled with wild ideas and concepts which, in hindsight were definitively stupid.  We realized that pushing boundaries within a party game didn’t mean that we could just add everything we thought would offend someone or else we’d get reviews like the reviews on some competing drinking games to the right.

The central theme revolved around challenges and thought-provoking prompts that would engage players on multiple levels.

To ensure our concept was viable, we conducted surveys and focus groups, gathering feedback on what people loved (and disliked) about existing adult card games. This input helped us refine our ideas, zeroing in on elements that would make “It’s Over!” a replayable experience. The emphasis was on creating an experience that was unpredictable, a little crass, sarcastic, and above all, fun for everyone over 21.

Our next steps involved fleshing out the game’s structure and rules.

We wanted a game that was easy to learn and strategize with replayability that would keep players coming back for more. The development of unique, memorable prompts was a focus for us, ensuring each game session would be fresh and exciting. To the left is a snippet of a conversation with my brother and business partner, Jason, about finalizing the game’s instructions.

We also tackled the gameplay mechanics, testing different approaches to ensure the game remained fun and challenging.

In one of our tests, we found that players were electing not to pick certain cards because they were too messed up (see the terrible reviews above from a competitor), which led to some cards being ignored entirely. To solve this, we switched to a system where the other person chooses the card from their hand for the player to do. This change fixed the issue but introduced a new one: deciding what happens when the player then just doesn’t want to do the challenge.

One of our cards suggests the player post something embarrassing on social media which in reality, is kind of a high bar. We realized that we needed penalties that were just as fun as the prompts, rather than just being a lame drinking game.   This is truly what elevated It’s Over! from generic drinking game to something enjoyable.

On one of our many phone calls with my brother, we had that sort of eureka moment after pitching a few different cards that our ideas sucked. The reason they sucked is because we both had a strange and wildly inappropriate sense of humor, given that we are both military veterans so the humor didn’t resonate with or just actually wasn’t funny to our target audience: people who would play a party game. We pitched some cards to our respective wives and the feedback we got ranged from “I don’t get it” to “How do you expect Target to carry your game if you have that sort of joke in it?”

We realized that by broadening the appeal of the game, and lowering the barrier to entry, so to speak (in other words, penalties are easily done, not something like “sext your mother”), we could appeal to a wider range of people and overall, make a better game.

In the following posts, we’ll delve deeper into the specifics of planning, sourcing, and prototyping, sharing the challenges of bringing It’s Over! to life. Join our newsletter to stay updated on more behind-the-scenes insights as we continue this series.