BOARD GAME DESIGN / MIDJOURNEY + ILLUSTRATOR

Thankfulness Post

A letter-sending party game about finding gratitude inside bad days — designed, playtested through four major versions, and illustrated as a print-and-play board game.

3–4 players · best with 4
15–25 min · adults
30 word stamps · 6 chance stamps · 6 letters
Artwork: Midjourney + Illustrator

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Thankfulness Post component set — word stamps, chance stamps, letter cards, and a player postcard

PROJECT VIEW

“Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses.” Players take turns sending letters about unlucky days that still end thankfully: word stamps build the sentences, the sender ranks them by fit, and everyone votes on the guess.

Letter cards, score stamps, and word stamps from the component set

TABLETOP DESIGN / VISUAL DESIGN

The Game & Its Components

Each round has a letter sender and letter receivers. The sender draws a chance stamp and a letter, then describes the letter as a story. The receivers pick 2 of 3 word stamps to build their own sentence, the sender sorts those sentences by how well they match, and everyone votes — guessing right together is the whole point. Letters and stamps became the visual language because, as the brainstorm noted, writing letters is how gratitude is most naturally expressed in Chinese culture.

30 word stamps
6 chance stamps
6 letters
4×5 score stamps
4 player boards

MY ROLE / SCOPESolo project: game design, rules, playtesting, and all component art direction.

Download Game Components (PDF) ↓ ↗

Word stamp sheet one — Word stamps, sheet 1 — Balloon, Falling, Rose, Heavy Rain, and friends.

Word stamp sheet two — Word stamps, sheet 2 — everyday luck and bad luck, from Spilled to Hope.

Word stamps, score stamps, and letter cards — The last word stamps, the score stamps, and the six letter cards.

Player postcards one and two — Player postcards — the six letter options plus chance- and score-stamp slots.

Player postcards three and four with card backs — Postcards for players 3–4, with the Words Stamp and Letter card backs.

The six chance stamps — Once More, Extra Score, Mute, No Sorting, Time Limited, Exclude.

ARCHIVE NOTEAI disclosure: every stamp and letter illustration was generated with Midjourney, then vector-cleaned, recolored, and laid out into printable sheets in Illustrator. The game design, rules, and playtesting are entirely my own work.

Key overview page of the design document

PLAYTESTING / ITERATION LOG

Design Iterations V1.0 → V4.0

Seven pages of design iteration, from the first “tell a story with bad-luck words” prototype to the final version: four major versions, each reshaped at the table — scoring criteria, the chance-stamp system, and the sender/receiver loop all came out of playtest feedback.

Design document page 1 — Page 1 — Key overview: background, core play, and the round structure.

Design document page 2 — Page 2 — V1.0: brainstorming from the theme “Thankfulness” and the first prototype.

Design document page 3 — Page 3 — Playtest feedback table and the V1.1–V1.2 rule changes.

Design document page 4 — Page 4 — V2.0–V2.2: the completed game loop and scoring rework.

Design document page 5 — Page 5 — V3.0–V4.0: chance-card experiments and the final core loop.

Design document page 6 — Page 6 — Final outcome: game flow and the full component set.

Design document page 7 — Page 7 — Gameplay demonstration across four rounds, with player feedback.

GAME ANALYSIS

Reflection — MDA & Emotions

A three-page written reflection on the finished game using the MDA framework: why the free-form first version failed, how the letter mechanic fixed it, the three interaction stages between sender and receivers, and the emotional curve a round is designed around.

Reflection page 1 — Mechanics — early vs. final version, and what the playtests overturned.

Reflection page 2 — Dynamics & aesthetics — the three interaction stages during a round.

Reflection page 3 — Emotions & conclusion — the emotional-intensity curve across a round.

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