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The school holidays and festive season is finally here!
As you get together with your friends and family to celebrate the festivities (not in more than groups of five of course) and catch up after months of not being able to meet as a group, you might want some ideas for games that everyone (both the young and old) can participate in and have fun!
While there seem to be quite a few card games that involve crude or offensive humour in the name of fun and games, more party games in Singapore on empathy and kindness have been popping up as well.
These games allow you to have deep conversations with your friends or family and learn values such as kindness and empathy. Through these games, you will start to form deeper connections and understand one another’s struggles better.
Here are five wholesome games that encourage kindness.
1. Case Of Feelings
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Case Of Feelings is dubbed as “an honest card game”. The game consists of various questions, activities and quote cards. It is split into 3 stages: Memories, Present Day and Aspirations. Players would ask meaningful questions that parallel different stages in life.
Creator of Case Of Feelings Jasmine says: “I didn’t want to create a game with generic questions, but rather personalised ones based on the different types of relationships we have — be it with friends, families, our partner, and even with ourselves.”
Like in a typical card game, players use an action card. A player would be allowed to avoid a question but it is limited so one would have to choose wisely. Additionally, when players play a “dare” card, they would have to complete a dare decided by the others. No hard feelings allowed!
Case Of Feelings has garnered positive reviews. Through this game, friends have become closer and have deeper conversations.
A customer said: “I’ve known my friends for more than 5 years now but this game made me realise how little I actually knew about them. Definitely going to play this game with my other groups of friends!”
Buy Case Of Feelings here.
2. We’re Not Really Strangers
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On its Instagram page, there is a disclaimer that says: “WARNING: feelings may arise”.
We’re Not Really Strangers is a card game that aims to bring more meaningful connections to everyday life. It was created by a photojournalist from Los Angeles whose camera was a passport to people, allowing her to talk to anyone about anything.
The card game has 3 levels: Perception, Connection and Reflection.
Perception focuses on first impressions and how well you read people. Connection is where it will get more interesting as players ask more personal questions. Lastly, Reflection is for answering questions to dig deeper based on the previous questions.
It can be played by two to six players and throughout the game, players will have to answer 150 questions. There are also expansion packs and different editions such as Family, Couples and Self Love editions players can purchase.
Buy We’re Not Really Strangers here.
3. unCURATED
If you dislike small talk and crave to be seen and to see others more deeply, unCURATED is the game for you.
Aiming to cultivate thought-provoking and powerful conversations, it involves three rounds of creative and meaningful questions that will help players understand others on a deeper level.
There are 50 cards per deck and 16 questions per round. The first round starts off the fun with a question like “What emoji do you use frequently?”. Then, it delves deeper and asks players hard-hitting questions such as “What is a mistake you made that you are grateful for now?”
The creators say: “We hope these conversations cultivate connection, empathy, self-awareness, and basically all the things essential for our emotional well-being.”
Buy unCURATED here.
4. Smol Tok
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Smol Tok is an icebreaker game which encourages conversations to flow openly. The game is self-facilitated so that players can express themselves freely and authentically.
There are 60 cards and the facilitator can pick 12-18 cards that resonate with the other players. The cards have three categories: Personality (Questions about identity: who you are, what you do, where you’re from), Community (Questions about your tribe: the people you count as family and friends) and Intimacy (Questions about that special someone: what you think about romance, love, and commitment). Each card also indicates the depth of conversation players should go into.
The game encourages players to have meaningful conversations, get to know themselves and others better. Players are encouraged to ask follow-up questions to keep the conversations going.
The creators have also launched a “Pillow Tok” edition which includes questions on how we receive and give love as singles and couples.
Buy Smol Tok here.
5. Feelinks Revelations
As the main course of a romantic evening or as the dessert of a game night with friends, Feelinks Revelations is the sequel to Feelinks, a children’s game. However, this game is targeted towards adults and will immerse players in different situations that will make you think, feel and test how well you know your friends.
The game’s setup includes situation cards, emotion cards, tokens and an empathy track. During the game, players pick a situation card. They will then choose the emotion that matches how they feel and correctly estimate fellow players’ feelings. Finally, players show their mutual choices, reveal the correct estimation and take a step (if needed) on the empathy track.
After eight situation cards, the game ends and players will find out how empathetic they were from how far they are on the empathy track.
Will you reach the top of the empathy track?
Buy Feelinks Revelations here.
Bonus: Let’s Unpack This
Get ready to dive deep into your subconscious and resurface a more self-aware person!
Launching in December 2021, Let’s Unpack This is an interactive card game created by Happiness Initiative, a social enterprise that focuses on well-being research and insights.
It aims to help you identify your deep-seated beliefs by showing you how they affect their thoughts and relationships.
Based on scientifically validated methods that build resilience, these cards make you more aware of your negative emotions and beliefs. Building on this awareness, you can reframe your beliefs towards more positive and constructive responses.
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Sherman Ho, Co-Founder of Happiness Initiative, tells The Pride: “Let’s Unpack This was conceptualised because we wanted a game that could help people have important conversations with others around them. It was designed such that it could be played without a trained facilitator, but yet still be able to achieve the same outcomes as if one were present.”
“In our Asian culture, it is difficult to talk about our emotions and negative beliefs — we hope this will help to make it easier to have these conversations.”
Get updates of Let’s Unpack This here.
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