Disrupt!! Battle
of the SF Bros
An educational and absurdist board game about gentrification
Category
Game Design
Role
Strategy, Mechanics Design
Team
Annie Chen, Kristin Romero, Sagarika Jayawant
Overview
For this graduate school project, we were prompted to design an educational game around the theme of “livable cities” that is completely playable. The game could be any format of our choice, except it had to be educational.
After 2.5 weeks of city research, concept iterations and hours of play testing the game metrics, we made a humorous game that poked fun at "bro"culture while teaching about the real ramifications of gentrification on a city.
My Contributions
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Game Concept - I led the concept research and development around city topics and the storytelling behind it
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Game Mechanics - I developed the essential mechanics and flow of the game, which took rounds of iterations and testing
Solution
"Disrupt!!" is an educational and slightly absurdist board game for 2 players about gentrification in San Francisco. Each player is either a "tech bro" or a "finance bro" who has a goal to take over one of San Francisco's neighborhoods for a secret business or career objective. Who will come out on top and who will get sent back to where they came from? Through strategy, luck, and trivia about San Francisco, each player can advance their presence in neighborhoods to win. There are several ways to win, which keep players on their toes and make every round unique.
San Francisco is an ever-changing city, especially over the course of the past 15 years. With tech and other lucrative forms of innovative business moving in, oftentimes gentrification is the inevitable result. This game pokes fun at various “bro” cultures which are now being drawn to the city, highlights the sometimes absurd and ever-evolving motivations fueling their actions, and acknowledges the real implications that their presence and mindsets have on the residents, landscape and culture of the city.