UX in the Jungle

You have joined the User Experience Design Team at a new software company trying to break into the dog-eat-dog mobile game market. To stay in business, your team must deliver the most profitable mobile games to fickle customers while satisfying the changing demands of project stakeholders.

In the standard UX in the Jungle game, two opposing teams have until the end of the ninth month of the Jungle Calendar, or until the first team launches its fourth game, to make as much money as possible. Each team earns revenue by launching games that match the preferences of active users in the market. The team with the most profit at the end of the game wins.

Team members draw cards that determine the progress of their products. Some cards provide the deliverables needed to develop a product. Other cards affect users and stakeholders, and have direct consequences on the progress of the products under development and the subsequent profits.

Teams take alternating turns over the course of the game. A turn consists of three steps:

1. Take any three of the following possible actions:

 play a card
 draw a set of tokens
 move to a new tile
 manage a stakeholder
 conduct user research
 give a card to a teammate
 launch products

As in real life, each action has dependencies and consequences.

2. Draw two Design cards, which provide deliverables required for developing a Game. But beware: the Design card deck also contains “End of the Month!” cards that make time pass even faster!

3. Draw one Change card, which might alter user preferences, displease project stakeholders, or throw other obstacles in your way!

To launch a Game (and cash in), a team must satisfy all of the required design specifications, complete the program code (by drawing Development Tokens), and obtain the CEO’s endorsement.

In addition to the standard game designed for 4–6 players divided into 2 competing teams, the rulebook also includes an official 2–3 player variant.

It’s a jungle out there! How will you survive?

English version rulebook https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwhOeznnqAJdQVZjbWZLZEk4RFU/edit

Chinese version rulebook https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwhOeznnqAJdLXcteHUyWVl0eTg/edit