The idea for a political version of Cards Against Humanity was born in a burrito shop.

Seven months ago, Justin Robert Young, a Syracuse University alumnus, wanted to develop a quick, easy-to-understand game for when guests were still arriving at a party. Meanwhile, his co-worker John Teasdale was thinking about creating a game that played like a conversation.

Fifteen minutes and two burritos later, Young and Teasdale had created The Contender, a political debate card game in the style of Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples. They organized a Kickstarter campaign for the game that began in early August and wrapped up Sunday night.

The Contender’s Kickstarter reached its $15,000 goal within 24 hours, and ended with 2,698 backers who pledged $142,552. Because of this huge success, the team now plans to sell The Contender on Amazon and may even try selling it in stores. The game has benefited from its original premise and the fact that the 2016 presidential campaign is getting underway.

Initially, The Contender played like a typical card game. Cards printed with presidential debate quotes were categorized into three suits and given a point value, and it would take a higher point value or a different characteristic to beat a card and win the debate.

But this original Contender was never produced. Not long after the initial idea was created, Young ran into Meg Paradise, a SU alumna who now owns an Oakland-based design studio with co-owner Faun Chapin.

“I show them what we have and they’re like ‘That’s great, also it’s way too complicated and kind of weird and we have this other idea,’” Young said.

Taking Paradise and Chapin’s suggestions, Young and Teasdale replaced the suits and points with a more free-form structure: One player is deemed the moderator for a turn, and he or she reads off a debate-style question. Players then string along a series of their own cards to form a response, and then the moderator picks a winner for that round. The winner becomes the moderator and the game continues.

Teasdale and Young have since teamed up with Paradise and Chapin to take The Contender even further. Paradise said she and Chapin took on the design side of the game and Kickstarter campaign, while Young and Teasdale took on everything else.

Paradise and Chapin decided that a modern American look just didn’t suit the game, and instead looked to the blunt American campaigns of the ‘60s and ‘70s for inspiration.

“Political campaigns were a little bit more pointed and a little bit more graphic,” Chapin said. “Now, it’s all just cheesy photography and sunrays, or they’re really nasty attack ads.”

Paradise and Chapin also channeled the retro vibe throughout the Kickstarter campaign. They brought back the infamous campaign button, decking them out with satirical slogans and giving them away as promotional pieces.

Paradise said that this historical aspect also ties into the game. The cards aren’t printed with random debate-style answers that the creators made up; the quotes are taken from actual presidential candidates.

“It’s not just a game with contemporary political cards; it spans the gamut throughout history,” Paradise said.

In the beginning, they planned to crank out the game as quickly as possible, maybe only as a printable PDF version, Teasdale said. But the game kept getting better and demanded more of their attention.

“It was too good of an idea to give it a half-effort,” Teasdale said.

It doesn’t hurt that The Contender is coming out when politics and the primary debates are at the media forefront, either.

“Normally, no one gives a hot sh*t about primaries this early except for super nerds,” Young said.

But with this year’s campaign kicking into high gear, the group has benefitted from one candidate in particular who’s been rather outspoken.

“Donald Trump may or may not make America great again, but he’ll certainly make our Kickstarter fat,” Young said.

Published on August 31, 2015 at 10:50 pm

Contact Kathryn: kjkrawcz@syr.edu | @kathrynkrawczyk