Yesterday I received a mysterious package from Japan. Inside was not (as some have suggested) kaiju tissue samples, tentacles, or my own personal supply of Mr. Sparkle. It was, in fact, Question Quest, a card game I had a hand in developing last year.
Question Quest is an educational card game, full of gorgeous fantasy art, designed to help teach the English language to speakers of Japanese. To play the game, players take turns playing “question cards” on each other. To play a card, you have to ask its question in English. If the person you ask is able to answer the question in proper English, he scores the card. If not, you score the card yourself instead.
There are twists and special cards, but that’s the jist of it: ask and answer questions in English to score points. The player with the most points wins.
The game is the brainchild of Sean Anderson and Patrick Reynolds, with art by Alice Carroll. Sean reached out to me last year and asked for my help tightening up the rules. The project looked so cool, there was no way I could say no, so I put on my tabletop game designer hat (the one with the rules editor patch sewn on) and got to work. It was a blast to work on, and I’m pleased with how it turned out.
Question Quest just came out in Japan, where it’s getting some notice in the educational market. I don’t expect it to reach English-speaking shores anytime soon (since there’s not a lot of call for such a thing here), but if you get a chance to check it out, I’d encourage you to do so. The fine folks at Quest Maker Media have put together an excellent game, and I’m honored to have been able to help contribute to it.
(I’m also tickled to have my own copy, so my family doesn’t think I made the whole thing up. “No, really! There’s a game in Japan with my name in the credits!”)
