Aquasition A family friendly water conservation card game

Goal

Be the last player remaining. Your Water Meter reaches 10 points and you are out.

Players

2 to 6 players, ages 10 and up.

Team

Sonal, Shimona, Lydia. CCA, 2026.

Timeline

1 week. Figma, FigJam and paper.

Fun factThis little game won me a ticket to Config 2026.Config 2026

The problem

Most people don't think about how much water they use. It runs, it goes away, it shows up again the next day. Easy to ignore. So we started by asking why people waste it.

Invisibility

Water runs, water disappears. Out of sight, out of mind.

Habit

Long showers. Running taps. Nobody's counting.

Bystander effect

Someone else's problem. Someone else's bill.

Weak education

Facts on a poster don't change behavior.

The brief became simple: close the gap between awareness and behavior. Make it personal. Make it social. Make it a game.

Early ideas

Before Aquasition, we sketched three directions. None of them quite worked. That is where the real game started to take shape.

Water Tower

Stack tokens to represent rising water levels.

Pretty. Not tense.

Flow Guardians

Collaborate to protect a river's flow.

Friendly. Forgettable.

Aqua Uno

Card trading and matching with a water twist.

Fun. The lesson didn't land.

Early concept sketches: Water Tower, Flow Guardians and Aqua Uno

Then we added one rule: hit 10 water points, you're out. Suddenly, people cared about their own water. And everyone else's. The game wrote itself from there.

Game design principles

01
Engagement
Competitive sabotage mechanics (Attack cards) and deep economic decisions (the Marketplace) to keep players emotionally invested.
02
Learning through play
Your Water Meter is a penalty. Every wasteful action fills it up. Reach 10 points and you are eliminated.
03
Social interaction
The game forces discussion, defense, and fragile alliances. The Attack and No Thanks cards create a dynamic social loop of risk and negotiation.
04
Replayability
The randomized Event deck and the constantly shifting Conservation Marketplace mean players must adapt their strategy every time.

Game components

2 essential resources and 3 decks.

**Water meter**Replaces physical tokens. Reach 10 and you're out.

**Coins**Currency for buying Conservation cards from the Marketplace.

Water Consumption deck — **3 decks**Consumption, Conservation, and Special cards drive the game.

Water Conservation deck — **3 decks**Consumption, Conservation, and Special cards drive the game.

Rules and turn actions

GoalYour Water Meter reaches 10 points and you are out.

APlay 1 Economy card and 1 Attack or Event card from your hand in any order

1

+1

/

BBuy from the Marketplace

Spend coins to buy one Conservation card from the Marketplace. The effect applies straight away, the card is discarded, and the Marketplace fills up again.

Marketplace refills

CDefense: No Thanks Out of turn

When someone plays an Attack card against you, play this card immediately to cancel it. You do not need to wait for your turn. Remember to refill your hand to 5 cards on your next turn.

→

DDraw step

Draw from the Special Card deck until you have 5 cards in hand again. Always end your turn with 5 cards.

Special cards→ Economy card

Special rule

At any point, players can choose to pool 20 coins to buy the Special Conservation card. Once bought, every player's Water Meter drops by 3 points. A rare moment of teamwork in an otherwise competitive game.

New

The cards

Three decks run the game. Consumption cards punish. Conservation cards redeem. Special cards create the social chaos that makes every round unpredictable.

Water Consumption

Received only when another player targets you with an Attack card. You don't choose to draw these.

Very minor waste card — +1Very minor waste. Adds 1 point to your Water Meter.

Minor waste card — +2Minor waste. Adds 2 points.

Moderate waste card — +3Moderate waste. Adds 3 points.

Major waste card — +4Major waste. Adds 4 points.

Water Conservation

Bought from the Marketplace with coins. You choose when to buy these.

Good habits card — −1Good habits. 2 coins, lowers your Water Meter by 1.

Mindful changes card — −2Mindful changes. 4 coins, lowers it by 2.

Smart upgrades card — −3Smart upgrades. 6 coins, lowers it by 3.

Big investments card — −4Big investments. 8 coins, lowers it by 4.

Special cards

The wild cards.

Playtesting

We playtested with real players across multiple rounds at CCA. Watching strangers argue over Attack cards and scramble to buy Conservation cards told us the design was working.

The card system was the most fun part to design. Each card features a round character whose expression shifts with the stakes. Click through a full game round below.

Open full screen

Looking back

01
What playtesting taught us
Watching real players taught us more than any design review. Players skipped rules, misread cards, and ignored the Water Meter until it was too late. We simplified the turn structure twice before it finally felt natural.
02
What early feedback changed
Players were collecting Water Tokens like points to earn, not a penalty to avoid. So we replaced the tokens with the Water Meter, a visual scale that made rising consumption feel like a warning, not a reward. We also refined the card language, simplified the turn order, and added the Special Community card for a moment of shared stakes.
03
What we would do differently
Every playtest opened with ten minutes of confusion before anyone had fun. A simple quick start card, or a tutorial built into the first round, would have fixed this. Something for the next version.