Pirate Partage

Pirate Partage is a physical game about group communication overcoming handicaps.

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In Pirate Partage, four players sit around a table. Each of them is a pirate, and their hard life has lead to difficult handicaps. One pirate has a double eye-patch, and can’t see. Another pirate can’t talk. Another can’t hear (too many cannon blasts). And the last pirate only has a hook for a hand. Together they must split up their treasure in a limited amount of time. To make matters more complicated, each has to get another pirate’s help to move the treasure around.

In workshops, Pirate Partage is a way to enter in discussions about handicaps within an organization. What are the challenges to bringing in people with handicaps, and how can the organization adjust to accommodate them?

Pirate Partage is a hybrid of digital and physical components. All code and designs are available on GitHub.

 

Version 1

The first version of the game was developed during a weekend-long game jam. As described in the blog post about the original development,  it started with a pitch from Garry for an idea where players assume physical handicaps and must accomplish something together, and grew into a silly physical card-based game that is as fun to play as it is to watch.

To play this version of the game, the rules and content are available on the GitHub repository.

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We didn’t believe that this game would fair well in playtesting in India, but we were surprised to find that it did. Even players with limited eyesight or full blindness enjoyed the experience. Encouraged by these results, we decided to pursue development into a second version.

 

Version 2

During playtesting, players find the game fun and informative, but desire a scoring system that allows them to compete with other teams. There was also work to be done to make a version that can be easily setup or bought for new players.

We developed a second version that addresses these issues, as well as increasing the replayability of the game. Read more about it on our blog post.

Parrot  mask small

 

Credits

Pirate Partage was initially created by Garry Williams, Vincent Ducos, Jesse Himmelstein at the Diversity Game Jam in Paris, sponsored by the IncLudo project.

In the current version, Rahika Beaume did the graphic design for the mobile app as well as the cards and props. Liburn Jupolli made the music. Jesse Himmelstein did the programming and lead the game design.