The catch

Jojojo is a storytelling cardgame about exploring people's personalities through questions.

The question cards were not written by one single person, but crowdsourced from dozens of playtesters (more than 700 playtest iterations) to find the ones that really challenged and amused the players — this way they feel open to talk about themselves in a narrative way. It's hard to have pre-made answers, so conversations become energetic, challenging, memorable.

With different game modes, the rules adapt to the number of people playing, the depth of conversation they want and how well they know each other.

How it works

Two piles of cards. Each card a question. The "W" is the weird pile - whacky questions crafted to bring your bizarre self out. The "P" is the profound pile - deep delves into your human experience.

It's a game about exploration, not competition — but it comes with different rule cards for different scenarios and stimulates you to create your own versions. Jojojo is many experiences in one package.

Rules may vary from the simple 'you answered, you pick the next question' to the complex 42-participants group mode.

Example questions

— Weird deck:
If you were a mosquito, who would you bite? Where? Why?
If you could design a planet from scratch, what would it be like? Be really specific.

— Profound deck:
In your opinion, what’s the best possible outcome of your own death?
In one minute, list as many childhood dreams as you can remember.

A word from the creator - Joriam Philipe

I had just moved from Rio de Janeiro to Berlin. A much colder place not only in temperature, but also socially. I was having trouble connecting to anyone at all. So I set out to create a tool, an artefact to help me out.

One of the things I noticed was that often I’d find myself having the same conversation: "what's your name? what do you do? where do you come from?". It was like following a soap opera script! Soon I was not thinking about my answers, just recalling my past conversations. It felt stiff and boring.

This is how jojojo started - as a real problem. I knew I needed something to conduct conversations to a different energy: a place of creativity, of chaos. I wanted people to feel out of guard, but at the same time in safe space. My first prototype was literally made of post-its, still my conversations improved overnight. 

My "do you want to grab some coffee?" invitations quickly became "do you want to participate on a social experiment?" or "do you want to play a personality game?". Suddenly I was surrounded by curious and interesting people. At first, I thought I’d made something crafted for myself, but I started to see (when playing with bigger groups) that the game worked pretty fine without my interference. People were having a blast!

So I printed a first ugly prototype (to be honest, I used a business card service) and everybody wanted one! I guess I was extremely lucky. The process of testing the mechanics and the questions was a very pleasant one. I had an interesting topic to bring up on dates, I found new things about old friends on skype, I really remember most of those conversations. I wish all games were that fun to test and polish! Making a question-based game guaranteed I’d have good talks all along the process.

Now I’m thinking about reaching global scale and also starting to probe the first translations.

Top features

- Creates intimacy and connection between players
- Makes you think about things you normally don't
- Helps you remember interesting conversations
- Social focus: 2 to 44 players
- Playtime: from 5 minutes to 5 hours
- Pocket-sized
- 22 weird cards, 22 profound cards, 4 game-mode cards
- Inside joke generator
- Good for dates, job interviews and everything in between

Website & social media

www.jojojo.cards
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Developed by

Hard Question Studio
www.hardquestionstudio.com
Founded by Brazilians, based in Berlin
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Game design by Joriam Philipe
Graphics by Guilherme Maueler

Release date

01/12/2017

Press contact

Joriam Philipe
joriam@enspiral.com

Imagery (below):