Human Trafficking

Year

2002

Type

Board Game

Mensenhandel (Human Trafficking) is a board game that I designed it while working on my master's degree in arts with a fellow student (named Davy D'Hollander). The game aimed to generate awareness about the horrors of human trafficking.

In retrospective, it was an interesting student prototype for a game that “no player would ever want to finish”. Players started the game making easy money with minor criminal offences but were eventually forced to turn into monsters to actually "win" the game.

The mechanics led to an interesting challenge and the game was balanced. However, the aesthetic execution of the theme could have been done better, especially in comparison to games such as Brenda Romero's Train (2009). As the game’s mechanics made a strong statement on their own, there was no need for its gruesome graphics.