The name of the game proposed:

Hey Kids, Get Back Here Before You Turn Into Wild Monkeys Forever Which Would Make Your Sad and
Angry Parents Eat Our Beautiful Faces!


Author:                       Zuzana Mikuláš Brandejsová (496903)

Target Audience:        children, families, generally anyone

Target Platforms:        a physical board game

Genre:                         cooperative, strategic, family friendly

Number of Players:     1-?


High Concept Statement

The game is set on a sunny Wednesday afternoon at a local Zoo. The story goes: a few of the very
new teachers of a nearby elementary school have been given the task to take the pupils of said
school to see the magnificent animals of lands far away. Sounds easy enough? Okay, let’s see how
you’ll handle it.


The players of the game are the teachers and they have to cooperate on fulfilling one common goal:
gathering the children after they have spread across the space and among other children in the zoo
before the zoo closes for the day. Since the players as teachers aren’t familiar with what the
children look like, they have to try to memorize the slight differences the figures bear to be able
to collect the right children and not e.g. monkeys that have escaped their cages and are now
roaming around as well. To tell a child apart from a monkey or a different child


The passing time is a key factor in the game as well – you have to make sure you make the right
moves that allow you to strategically pick the kids in a fast enough way to make it back to the bus
in time – before the zoo gets closed and children turn into monkeys forever (that’s how children
work – if set free, they turn into monkeys by the dawn, which makes their parents angry and eat the
teachers’ faces (because they turn into gorillas themselves)). Each move makes 1 minute pass and
you only get a fixed amount of those (approximately 45 of them). The only way to lose the game is
to run out of time before safely gathering all of the children by the bus.


One more optional feature that I could see being implemented into the game would be that each of
the kids also have their own unique personalities that make gathering them very specific (e.g. Míša
gets distracted when there’s an ice-cream stand nearby, Péťa is walking two times slower than
everyone else). Teachers could then also get specific characteristics and superpowers (e.g. being
able to shout out very loud which brings the children 20 meters closer to the player).


The gameplay would go approximately in this order:


-          Spread the map of the zoo on the table.

-          Randomly pick 10[1] children’s figures and characteristics.

-          Mix the 10 figures with other children, monkeys’ and teachers’ figures.

-          Take all the figures into your hands, hold them over the map of the zoo and let them
fall freely out of your hands to ensure the children get scattered randomly across the map.

-          The true game starts now. Try to:

o   remember which children belong to you and find them on the map

o   get to them as soon as possible (and find out if you picked the right child)

o   take the children back to the bus

o   repeat until you have all of them waiting in the bus

o   OR run out of time and fail :(


The physical model of the game would therefore consist of:


-          Paper plan (the board) – the map of the zoo – divided with a grid by 5 meters or so (as
to measure the distance one can walk per minute).

-          Children – approximately 20 tiny figures, each with unique features

-          Children and monkeys’ profiles – cards assigned to each of the figures describing the
name and the appearance of the child – to be able to tell a child apart from a monkey or a child
from a different school.

-          Teachers – some amount of figures that belong to the players.

-          A timer – paper model of a clock.

-          Optional: Children and teachers’ characteristics – a set of paper cards with a portrait
of each child/teacher describing their special characteristics.


Player experience goals:


-          Experience the simulation of taking care of a group of children (which is in it’s nature
very chaotic) and get at least slightly more empathetic towards real life teachers and parents

-          Experience adrenaline because of the time pressure

-          Find ways to function as a group under pressure

-          Find beauty in diversity and chaos

-          Have light-hearted fun with each other
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[1] The amount of children would differ depending on the number of players. The more players the
more children.