In the Village

In the Village is a cooperative card game that simulates a village’s fight against malaria.

This game was created as an assignment for a game design class at Dartmouth College. It’s designed in part as an educational game, accurately (if simplistically) modeling an anti-malaria campaign. But it’s also designed to present an interesting selfishness-vs-cooperation dynamic. The optimal strategy is one of pure cooperation, but in playtests, that wasn’t always obvious to the players.

Since the game’s creation, Dartmouth’s game lab Tiltfactor has picked up the game. You can get a copy via DriveThruCards.com.