Hey, we’re Cameron and Arlen – the creators of Food Coma. We’ve been working on this game for over three years!
We’re just a couple normal guys who play a bunch of different games and are into all kinds of sports – we’ve even competed at national / international levels. Cameron is an artist and we think we have good design sense.
When we decided we wanted to make a card game, we spent the first few months meeting multiple times each week in bubble tea cafes and other random locations to vet ideas (while eating tons of food… for inspiration, of course). We wanted to find a game idea that struck the right balance between being fun and strategic.
One day in a coffee shop, with scone crumbs all over us, we came up with a silly idea – “What if we made a card game about feeding your friends until they pass out in a food coma?” And the idea really vibed with us and our personalities.
From the start, our goal has been to make a game experience that’s easy to play, but with a depth of strategy, whether people are looking for a game that fits a party or during a chill night with a few friends. A game that’s easy to play the first time, and with lasting potential so it gets more fun over time. Food Coma has become that game!
Year 1: Creating a fun game
Once we had the raw concept for the game, we began by buying decks of playing cards and writing on them with a sharpie.
Together we tested and refined the game play experience hundreds of times over the next few months. When the game became fun while playing with crappy game cards, we knew we were on to something.
We eventually involved other people in the playtesting experience and refined the game’s mechanics and pace to make it strategic and fun.
For the play tests with other people, we started putting together some pretty basic character cards.
With friends’ feedback, our game’s core was complete. Even though the game pieces were crude, some of our play testers voluntarily played for hours, which was very encouraging and rewarding to see.
Year 2: Art and design
A year had passed by the time we were ready to move to the next phase – designing the actual playing cards and game pieces. This process was painstaking because we had no clue how to get the quality we wanted. We wanted to have unique and funny game cards that were uniquely crafted and showed our sense of humor.
We started with attempts at drawing on the computer with our limited design experience (like the shrimp below). Even though we knew our way around a computer to play games, we couldn’t use Photoshop to save our lives!
As you can see, it was lackluster and left us wanting…
So we tried hand drawing and coloring the images, then taking a picture and cleaning it up on the computer. This art style was more representative of what we wanted but still didn’t meet the standards we had in mind.
Then we decided to get out of 1997 and do things in a more modern way with some design tools. With the help of YouTube tutorials and a ton of trial and error, we eventually achieved a much better result.
There were still some rough edges, literally, so we painstakingly rounded edges by hand, pixel by pixel. Eventually we discovered there were actual tools for smoothing edges. Who would’ve guessed technology was the answer?!
We were fortunate to work with some amazing graphic designers to help us take the visuals to the next level. Here’s an example of the difference between our first draft (image on the left) and how things looked after designers got involved (image on the right):
It was time to do a print-out at a local copy center on card stock to have a working prototype of the game, allowing us to get feedback on the look and feel. This was a huge and gratifying step because for the first time we could really see the results of our efforts.
To the website and beyond
After many, many tweaks to the gameplay and designs, we were finally ready to build the site. We debated using a web builder like Wix or Squarespace to create the site ourselves. But it quickly became obvious that to get the result we wanted, we’d need some help and so we sought out a professional. A good web designer really helped us capture the spirit and style of Food Coma, and our site turned out better than we could have done on our own in a million years!
Now that the site’s done, we’re focused on the Kickstarter to bring this project home. We’ve got plans for more characters, more cards, and even ideas for expansions – all depending on how well the game does on Kickstarter. So stay tuned!
If you like fun, strategic, hilarious party games that took years of talent and heart to make, support our Kickstarter to help bring Food Coma to life!
Got questions about our design process? Just let us know!
