Author: DanielGrest

Happy Nation is now for sale also in South Korea. We have partners who see the game as a useful tool to promote Happiness in the “unhappiest country of the world” (their words).
We therfore decided to make it more clear how the known theory about happiness is implemented in Happy Nation . The result is the new page “Happiness”:

Balance is Key in obtaining Happiness

After one year of slumber we are reactivating our love and passion for the Happy Nation Web site.

I recently played the game with 4 friends during a skiing holiday. They didn’t know the game, but got into it really fast and were laughing so much. It was a great evening.

Now, that you are so lucky to read this post. Get 10 Euro discount in our webshop with Coupon code:

BACKINLOVE

Happy Nation is now played on the tables in Australia, South Korea, USA and in some European countries, including Germany and Denmark. We are excited, you too?

We made a video, which shows how one round of the game unfolds. It shows the “fast-paced” rule variant, where each player has only one action per turn.
This variant will be the new standard.

I want to explain a bit, why the game is about work-life balance.

In order to win the game, you have to manage your two resources: Time and money. 

In order to earn money, you need to work. But how much time to spend on work ?Just enough to survive ? Or so much that you can improve your production level and produce more per time later ?

In reality, most people don’t have production facilities to improve. But many spend time and money on getting an education in order to get a better paying and probably also more interesting job.We assumed for the game, that getting happy directly from working is for most people first a reality, when they have build their own business or finished the education in their profession of choice. Many people, however, have a job primarily to earn money. Therefore, you become happier from working first from production level 3.

Do you learn in the game how to balance work and life better ?

Well, I don’t think, that a board game can really teach that. But you do learn, that you can 

a) work too much  

b) spend too little time and money on “work” (career/education). 

Both extremes will not make you a winner. At some point, more money and even higher production levels do not help you in getting happier faster. 

On the other hand, ignoring your production levels (career) and spending all your time and money on fun activities will force you to work more for less later in the game or leave you in a situation, where you can’t pay back your loans, loose your business or can’t afford the treatment when you get sick.

We have now a design for the bank notes. In over the 100 test games it turned out, that notes of 1, 5, 10 and 50 are working very well. More would be unneccessary.

That is how they will look like:

Where does money come from ?
Can banks borrow money, that they don’t have ?

We set out 5 years ago to make a board game, which gives playes the answer to these questions without them even noticing it.

Happy Nation on Kickstarter

Any feedback is welcome, even just a comment or email like:
“this sentence sounds funny”
None of us is a native speaker…

We are getting closer to going live with our Kickstarter Campaign.
For that purpose we made a little video, which introduces the game.