GiftTRAP
Encyclopedia
Gift Trap is an indie party
Party game
Party games are games that some people play as forms of entertainment at social gatherings. Party games usually involve more than one player. There are a large number and styles of party games available and the one selected will depend on the atmosphere that is sought to be generated...

 board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

, invented by Nick Kellet (based on an idea inspired by his eldest daughter in 2004). Gift Trap is billed as "The hilarious gift
Gift
A gift or a present is the transfer of something without the expectation of receiving something in return. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. In many human societies, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may contribute to...

-exchange party game". Gift Trap relies on the players' personal knowledge of each other.

Madhouse Creative created the packaging and brand identity for the game. Images used for the gift cards in the game were licensed using a Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...

 Attribution license; Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....

 was used to collect images for use in the game via both a photo contest and through the use of online websites such as Flickr.com. Winners received a free copy of the game along with having their names included in the game.

Gift Trap was released in mid 2006. It won a MAJOR Fun Party Award from Bernie DeKoven
Bernie DeKoven
Bernard Louis "Bernie" De Koven is an American game designer, author, lecturer and fun theorist. He is most notable for his book The Well Played Game, for his contributions to the New Games Foundation, his pioneering work in computer game design, and for his long-running web site, .-Career:In...

 in September 2006, and was featured on CBC Venture
Venture (TV series)
Venture is a weekly Canadian business television series that aired on CBC Television from 1985 to 2007. The show focused mostly on business documentaries, but also aired business-related news pieces...

's show Dreamers & Schemers in December 2006. Reviews by Tom Vasel
Tom Vasel
Tom Vasel is a well known podcaster and reviewer of board games. Vasel co-hosts a long-running and popular gaming podcast titled The Dice Tower, and has posted over 1200 reviews on the internet database BoardGameGeek....

, Bruno Faidutti
Bruno Faidutti
Bruno Faidutti is an historian and sociologist, living in France, who is best known as an author of board games. His best known games include Knightmare Chess , Mystery of the Abbey and Citadels . He is also involved in the boardgaming community with his "Ideal Games Library" website and...

, Scott Nicholson and Greg Schloesser helped create early awareness for Gift Trap in the run up to its first holiday season.

Gift Trap donated one copy to the charity Right To Play
Right to Play
Right To Play is an international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace for children and communities in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world...

 for every ten copies sold from the first production run of 10,000 games.

In 2007 "Gift Trap" won party game of the year in France by Bruno Faidutti
Bruno Faidutti
Bruno Faidutti is an historian and sociologist, living in France, who is best known as an author of board games. His best known games include Knightmare Chess , Mystery of the Abbey and Citadels . He is also involved in the boardgaming community with his "Ideal Games Library" website and...

 and Best New Party Game 2008 and placed in the Games 100
GAMES 100
The Games 100 is an annual feature of Games magazine, a United States magazine devoted to games and puzzles. The Games 100 first appeared in the November/December 1980 issue as an alphabetic list of the 100 games preferred by the editors of the magazine...

 by Games (magazine) in the USA

"Gift Trap"'s website has always been an integral part of its story featuring contests and showing all the artwork for the gift images from the game in all the different languages. In 2009 a number of http://www.gifttrap.com/index_videos/ videos were added to communicate the fun aspects of exchanging gifts. This was extended by the addition of an Interactive video
Interactive video
The term interactive video usually refers to a technique used to blend interaction and linear film or video.-Interactive video on broadband:Since 2005, interactive video has increased online as the result a number of factors including:...

 by Hustream to communicate the concept of the game and to feature the awards and content of the game.

"Gift Trap" is currently translated into 8 languages. In 2010 'Gift Trap' will enter its sixth production run and will be adding Chinese, Russian, Greek and Japanese editions taking the language total to 12.

External links

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