GIRI Game
is a fun storytelling card game that children created for children. It develops communication skills, imagination, and emotional intelligence.
Ready for GIRI Game on Kickstarter? You can get your GIRI Game now!
GIRI Game takes your kids to the edge of imagination.
Gameplay devoted to learning while having fun.
GIRI Game is…
an exciting storytelling card game for children that can be played by the whole family.
It helps children improve their focus, learn to express their thoughts and ideas fully, and improvise in the moment.
Kids love GIRI Game because…
they can share their stories, thoughts and dreams with friends – while their teammates change the course of the story with ‘Distractor’ cards.
This is how special, unique stories are always created with a lot of laughter and fun.
Parents love GIRI Game because…
it’s a game that children created for children. The look and feel of the game seem positively childlike.
Through telling stories with set elements, children learn to express their thoughts and ideas fully and succinctly and improvise in the moment.
GIRI Game
You can now get your GIRI Game on Kickstarter. Already tested by 300+ children in 14 countries, now we’re ready for you!
Players
4 – 13 is the recommended players’ age
6 players can play at once
4 players are Distractors
2 players are Storytellers
Gameplay
200 words are told on average within one minute of the game
3 minutes is the duration of one game
2+ years is how long the game was in development
Origin
300+ kids took part in testing the game
45 kids drew the game
10+ experts in their respective fields helped develop the game
Cards
84 cards in the Characters, Objects, Time, Place, Theme and Atmosphere categories
32 in the Teaser (Distractors) category
6 blank cards to be drawn on by the players themselves
GIRI Game is waiting for you on Kickstarter
For the first 200 backers, we also prepared a free traveler’s bag with every GIRI Game order!
Why play the GIRI Game?
It develops key communication skills
GIRI Game is not only wildly entertaining – but it also helps children acquire important skills: how to structure and express your thoughts and ideas fully and succinctly, how to hold a conversation with respect and understanding, and how to recognize different emotions and empathize.
GIRI is the first game that children created for children
More than 45 of them age three to thirteen drew all the cards in the GIRI Game. The author Sanja spent more than a year collecting the drawings that professional illustrator Iva used to create the cards. The look and feel of the game seem positively childlike.
It helps with concentration
because it merges storytelling with brain teaser elements and puts them into a three-minute time frame. The ever-shorter attention spans and distractions in the form of technology present challenges for developing brains, which makes it all the more important to practice concentrating.
It teaches negotiation, cooperation, and teamwork
Our well-design learning is to maintain focus, listen attentively and finish your stories despite ‘Distractor’ players, who change the course of the story with their cards.
It develops emotional intelligence
GIRI Game teaches children to recognize and understand emotions – their own and those of others. ‘Theme’ cards help them learn how to include feelings like love, anger, sadness, or happiness into their stories – as well as handle them and talk about them in real life.
The rules of the game were honed by experts
in the field of child development. GIRI Game takes into consideration all aspects important for the positive development of children and their cognitive skills.
The meaning behind GIRI
In Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages in the world, giri means “cloud”, “that which springs up”, while the noun gira means “language” or “speech”.
The cloud motif represents an endless world of play and imagination created by the two players in the roles of Storytellers.
With them, two to four players can participate in the game as Distractors who distract the Storytellers by changing the course of the story with their cards.
Children see the world a little bit differently…
GIRI Game is the first game that children created for children!
Because children see the world a little bit differently all the cards were created by over 45 children, aged three to thirteen. The author Sanja spent more than a year collecting the drawings.
Product designer Željka Zrnić came up with the typology of tracing of the children’s drawings, the color palette, and the style of the game, and the drawings were then illustrated by Iva Hrvatin in a way that preserves their childlike quality.
GIRI Game’s author Sanja about the cards:
The kids were asked to draw an object, a character, or a time period using whatever style, color, and technique they wanted. Some drawings were made on paper napkins, making it hard to know exactly what was on them, while others looked almost professional. The most important thing for all the kids was just to make a contribution whilst sending a message about things that mattered to them: ecology, happiness, school, friends, and the world around them. Still, what they all had in common was a sense of pride and joy in creating a new game. The extent of their imagination can be gleaned from explanations they gave for their own drawings:
CHILDREN’S QUOTES
“The stoplight is a knight. He has a sword to protect and defend us!”
Bor (7), Bosnia and Herzegovina
“School is not a building. It’s a place where all children are happy and equal!”
Iris (4), Croatia
“Look at the rain. It’s not blue, it’s multicolored, see?!”
Karla (4), Croatia
“A dolphin can move underwater because, if you look at it closely, you can see it has a steering wheel on its head!”
Mak (5), Croatia
GIRI Game rules
Children aged four to thirteen can play GIRI. A suggested number of players is between two and six. The game is played in three teams of two (it can also be played individually), whereas one team tells a story, and the other two listen. Team Storyteller picks a card from each of the following categories: Characters, Objects, Time Period, Place, Atmosphere and Theme. The other two teams are Distractors and they draw from the Distraction deck of cards – one card per Distractor team.
Team Storyteller has three minutes to prepare and another three to tell their story. They have to use up all the cards they have drawn, and they can act, sing, talk or dance in doing so. At any point in the story, the Distractor teams can throw down their respective cards and make the Storytellers change the course of the story.
The goal is for the storytelling team to stay focused on their execution and story idea, and to adjust the course of the story according to the elements on the Distraction Cards.
Detailed rules will be available in several languages.
GIRI Game team that provides support to children’s illustrators🙂
Sanja Ljubičić
the author
Ela Naranđa
marketing/content
Lana Brcic
translator and lector
Željka Zrnić
product design
Dea Ajdukovic
psychologist
Katarina Skupnjak
children’s pedagogue
Željka Molnar
visual content producer
Jelena Pervan
children’s writer
Iva Hrvatin
illustrator
Kristina Gami
concept designer
Pavle Golubic, Irena Ljubicic
music
15th September 2021. Kickstarter campaign launch!
Back GIRI Game up and get your game set!
Spring 2021. GIRI Game gets a name, web and a box
Sanja is sending the test game worldwide to 300+ kids.
2020. Sanja gathers a team of experts and works on developing the game
Rules, illustrations and overall design is being created
2019. children are drawing the GIRI Game cards
More than 45 children bring Sanja drawings on napkins, draw with tempera, they are excited to be a part of the new game.
2018. Sanja gets an idea for a game
by telling stories with her family
Want to know more about the GIRI Game project?
Feel free to contact us, and we’ll keep you updated on our Kickstarter campaign!
Our office location
Zagreb, Hrvatska