My daughter is five years-old. She’s really getting into card games and board games. Earlier this year, she really got into Go Fish! She loved collecting all the sea creatures, and she loved shouting “go fish!” and giggling. I loved watching her. But it pinched a nerve of sadness too because I kept thinking, “by the time she’s my age, there won’t be any fish left in the ocean.”
So I created No Fish! A Game of Environmental Catastrophe for the Whole Family.
I created the game mostly because it’s a way to laugh at a dark reality: Our environment is collapsing. But I also designed it so that it can teach kids my daughter’s age about the situation we’re in, and show them where the logic of overfishing and extinction have led us.
In No Fish! there are seven suites of cards (all illustrated by the magnificent @RandyOtter). Six suites represent species of marine life that are currently endangered or threatened. The seventh suite is ocean plastic.
The game play is similar to Go Fish! , but backwards. Instead of collecting all the sea creatures you can, your goal is to make all the other players place their living creatures into the extinction pile in the middle of the table. You also want to give all of your plastic cards to the other players.
As play continues, all the living sea creatures go one by one into the extinction pile and the player who’s left holding the the last living sea creature at the end of the game is the “winner.”
Right now I’m selling the game online (at nofishcardgame.com) and working on partnerships with brands and non-profits. I’d love to see this game in Urban Outfitters, and in middle school science classrooms around the country.
