During the first quarantine in Germany, the four Schwaderlapp sisters decided to put the long hours they spent locked up to good use and invented a coronavirus-inspired board game that is selling thousands of units.
“Corona” is a game for up to four people, who compete to buy all the food on a list to help an elderly neighbor protect himself from the virus.
Players collect and trade cards and the winner is the one who delivers all the items first.
Obstacles include encountering the virus, which puts the player in quarantine, or discovering that the hoarders have already taken all the toilet paper or rolls.
“The basic principle is solidarity,” Sarah, 20, told Reuters TV from her family’s home in the western city of Wiesbaden. “But each of the players can decide to cooperate with the others … or make things more difficult for them by blocking their path with the virus.”
The sisters worked on the game through most nights of the spring quarantine, gradually incorporating more elements of the news about the pandemic.
“That was the hoarding case. And we saw about the balcony concerts in Italy and we also turned it into a letter,” added Rebecca.
Impressed by the efforts of his daughters, Father Benedikt Schwaderlapp decided to commercialize the game by hiring an artist to design cards, board, and box. So far it has sold 2,000 copies and signed an agreement with a toy store as a secondary distributor.
“Because the game has been so popular, it has been quite a challenge for our family operation to package and publish 500 games in a very short period of time,” said the father. “The demand has been enormous.”
