Game: For the Girls
Made by Creator of What do You Meme
Since my team is making “Twisted Truth or Dare” which is mod of Truth or Dare and Twister, I decided to play the game For the Girls with my roommates, since it incorporates Truth or Dare.
The game consists of 5 decks of cards: Dare, Never Have I Ever, Categories, Give this Card to the Player this Describes, and Give this Card to the Player who would Do this. There is a 6 sided die that has the 5 colors of the cards and a black side that allows the player to choose which deck they draw from. My one roommate really appreciated the black side of the die because it occasionally gave players control over a mostly random game (dice roll and shuffled deck). I particularly thought the variety of activities in the decks was very smartly designed. The decks gave a good variety of actions. Some cards were answering questions or doing a dare for yourself, some involved thinking about other players, and some engaged the group in an activity. There was a never a time where someone tuned out because it was not their turn.
The theme of this game is definitely raunchy girl’s night out. The dark black background of the box implies night time and the neon lights title is reminiscent of night clubs or late night food spots. It is strongly themed around the stereotypical idea of a female friend group.
They literally describe their target audience as “bachelorette parties, girls night in (or out), sororities and reunions, birthday parties and more”. The wording in the instruction book used phrases like “Hey girl! Hey”, “Easy, Breezy, Beautiful” and instructed game play to start with the player with “the most Instagram followers” (*cue the eye roll*). Some of the female-centric branding took away from functionality. For example, instead of using iconography on the back of the 5 decks of cards to help players remember what each deck does, the design on the back of the 5 decks was just icons of different posed women. This meant we had to keep referring back to the rule sheet to remember what each card was for.
This game was actually really fun! The cards spurred a lot of funny conversations with my roommates and there was a point where I was laughing so hard I couldn’t catch my breath. The type of fun experienced during this game is definitely fellowship. It allows you to reflect on yourself and the other players and learn things about each other. There is also a bit of Competition incorporated In the Orange categories card since the player who loses the categories round loses a card. I particularly liked that the “truth” part was expanded from answering questions about yourself to also answer questions about the other players. The truth style cards definitely sparked the most interesting conversations.
To make this game better I would lower the number of cards needed to win, since at the moment the number of cards to win was infeasible (25 cards!). I would also allow the other players to craft the dares themselves instead drawing dares come from a deck. My least favorite part of the game was the Dare cards. The dares were really personal and required a lot of trust in the other player (see pictures below). Those were the only cards where we sometimes had to pass due to discomfort. One of my roommates gave feedback that she only likes doing dares that her friends craft specifically for her. I couldn’t help but agree. It was honestly stressful being obligated to do dares from this random deck of cards. It did not take into account personal comfort levels like personally made dares could.
