Play with Your Food
The board game industry has taken a turn towards foodie-culture.
According to Atlas Obscura, game designer Jenn Sandercock’s “The Edible Games Cookbook” is set to change your rainy weekend cottage strategy forever. The new game — funding starts this month on Kickstarter — will contain blueprints for 12 different edible tabletop games that will tempt the palates of epicures and game lovers alike.
The Order of the Oven Mitt sets rich chocolate cookie pieces on a spiced gingerbread checkerboard, where fondant-based avatars compete to steal each other’s candies. Victory means eating every last sacred chocolate cookie square, and performing the associated silly “sacred rituals” — such as neighing like a horse — along the way.
Health-nuts will love Sandercock’s Veggieland , where in a twist on your childhood memories of dinnertime, winning means eating all of your vegetables. Sandercock has dreamt up a way to teach kids healthy eating habits and keep parents happy while they’re at it. Those with a more refined palate may choose to modify the game to “Cheeseland” or “Chocolateland”, in which a variety of high end cheeses or chocolates become the game pieces.
The Patisserie Code is set during the French Resistance, and requires baking savvy and excellent puzzle-solving tactics. Winning the game lies in cracking a coded message — which can only be broken by examining the fillings and toppings of various cream puff flavours, from chocolate-mint to chocolate-cinnamon.
Sandercock’s grand idea came from a desire to integrate eating (an inherent side bar to the board game experience), and to add a notion of “destroyability”, which is a huge win for the environment, as the games work with fresh ingredients, not plastic.
Sandercock’s games offer something for the consumer who plays board games to connect with family and friends. The work that goes into creating these games becomes part of the fun, especially when you throw a glass of wine into the mix.
Stay on top of Sandercock’s progress by subscribing to her edible games newsletter here http://jennsand.com/edibleGames/overview.php.
All photos courtesy of Jenn Sandercock.