The games — Gursha

Design constraints

Four rules the games had to obey

The design pillars we got out of the co-creation workshops

Fast, or not at allJenga beat every other commercial game in the cohort vote, 18 to 10. Speed and physical consequence outranked strategy in every group. Sessions were built to run 15–30 minutes.
Simple enough to explain in a sentence"The rules were a bit confusing" was the single most common piece of playtest feedback. The prototype that ignored this — the food environment game — was the only one sent back for a rewrite.
Social, never solitaryThe one activity that failed outright during the intervention was a solitary writing task. The same nutritional rule, rebuilt as a trading game, worked immediately.
Every role gets an actionPlaytesters were blunt about holding a role that gave them nothing to do. Passive positions were designed out.

Game 01

Beyaynetu

Named for the shared platter of many small dishes. Three levels, played in sequence as students' competence grew — the loudest game in the set, and the highest-energy.

Teaches declarative knowledge — identifying foods and classifying them into the correct nutritional group.
Mechanic fast, competitive pattern matching.
Level 1 sort at speed. Call a group number, players race to grab a matching card.
Level 2 build a meal. First player holding four cards from four different groups wins the round.
Level 3 trade for the day. Target is six groups, and players may trade with each other — out loud, so the table can object.

The blind-cohort test recorded a specific gain: a marked improvement in identifying grains and white roots, the group students were least sure about at baseline.

Game 02

Gursha

The game that carries the project's name, and the only one built around a physical act. Slower and more deliberate than Beyaynetu — it depends entirely on players talking to each other.

Teaches procedural knowledge — portion control and dietary balance.
Mechanic strategic resource management against proper dietary proportions.
The gursha players hand food cards to each other. A card you were handed must be played next turn, and cannot be handed back.
The narrative the bell has rung, lunch is short, and the team has to assemble one balanced meal before time runs out.

The passing rule is why the game exists. Co-designers kept asking for a physical, social action — and handing food to someone is what the word means. It forces the team to negotiate rather than each player optimising alone.

Blind testers said the rules felt confusing for the first few minutes and became intuitive the moment play started — and reported high replay value, saying repeat plays would teach them more.

Gursha game cards — Gursha in play. The narrative wrapper was added after testing, to give the portion lesson somewhere real to land.

Game 03

Digis

The most ambitious game in the portfolio and the hardest to get right. It moves attention outward — from what you eat to where it came from, and what that costs you.

Teaches systems knowledge — food origins, sourcing, and the food environment.
Mechanic spatial navigation linking food items to places of production and sale.
The risk layer danger cards and event cards after each round. Cheaper, more convenient locations carry more of them.

This game drew the strongest emotions of the intervention. Real frustration at losing points to event cards — which the team read as high motivation, not a problem.

It also gave the clearest single proof of learning. At School 2, players began avoiding street-food locations to dodge penalties — meaning the underlying logic had been internalised.

Print & play

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Game documentation

The print-and-play pack: rules, food-group cards and assembly notes for all games. Enter your email and our team will be in touch.

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