''Gift Trap'' is a 2006 indie party board game, invented by Nick Kellet (based on an idea inspired by his eldest daughter in 2004). ''Gift Trap'' is billed as "The hilarious

gift A gift or a present is an item given to someone without the expectation of payment or anything in return. An item is not a gift if that item is already owned by the one to whom it is given. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation ...

-exchange party game". Gift Trap relies on the players' personal knowledge of each other, requiring the matching of the right gift to the right person.

Gameplay

Cards are dealt to the table depicting different gift items. Players use face-down tokens to mark the gifts they would give to each of the other players, and which gifts they would like to receive themselves. Tokens are then revealed, and players score according to the correlation of gifting and reception tokens.

Development

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 (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

Attribution license;

Crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...

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 Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and professional ...

. Winners received a free copy of the game along with having their names included in the game. ''Gift Trap'' donated one copy to the charity Right To Play for every ten copies sold from the first production run of 10,000 games.

Reception

''Gift Trap'' It won a Major Fun Party Award from

Bernie DeKoven Bernard Louis De Koven or DeKoven (October 15, 1941 – March 24, 2018) was 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 Book, New G ...

in September 2006, and was featured on CBC Venture's show Dreamers & Schemers in December 2006. Reviews by Tom Vasel, Bruno Faidutti, Scott Nicholson and Greg Schloesser helped create early awareness for ''Gift Trap'' in the run up to its first holiday season. In 2007 ''Gift Trap'' won Party Game of the Year in France by Bruno Faidutti and Best New Party Game 2008 and placed in the Games 100 by

Games magazine ''GAMES World of Puzzles'' is a puzzle magazine formed from the merger of Games and World of Puzzles in October 2014. The entire magazine interior is now newsprint (as opposed to the part-glossy/part-newsprint format of the original ''Games'') an ...

in the USA. In 2009 Gift Trap won the Spiel Des Jahres: Special award: Party Game. ''Gift Trap'' has been translated into eight languages. In 2010 the game entered its sixth production run and added Chinese, Russian, Greek and Japanese editions.

References

External links

Gift Trap official website
(no longer related to the original game, as of May 2022) *
Bruno Faidutti's reviewSpiel Des Jahres - Sonder Prize for Party Game of the Year 2009Video Review by Scott NicholsonGame rules explained in French
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gifttrap Board games introduced in 2006 Quiz games Party board games Party games Canadian board games Spiel des Jahres winners