The Joy of Color Jam
Transcript
Welcome to Board Game Animal. I'm so happy that you joined us here today. Today we're taking a look at a nice cozy little game called Color Jam from Joe Cal, Jean Coup, and Lunar Punk Games. Color Jam is a puzzly coloring game where after picking what color sheet you're going to complete, you pick six colors to use to color your picture with. Maybe colors like phthalo blue or titanium white. You decide on some goals. Pick two star spaces as starting points and begin. You can only color new spaces that are touching an already colored space. When you selected your six colors, you put them in an order representing one, two, etc. And when it's time to color, you can only use the crayon or whatever tool you're using, it's up to you, in the slot matching the spaces number.
You place your tool back in that six slot and slide all of your colors down. And you continue doing this until your masterpiece is finished. Now, some may argue this isn't a game. And I respect that because the end goals are so malleable, nebulous, it may be difficult to see it as more than just an activity with a few rules placed upon it. Nothing more than some restrictions on drawing. First of all, now let's address the significance of the activity itself. First of all, you may question if it's even for you. Have you ever taken the time to sit down and and do some artwork? It's a fact that coloring for adults has proven to be a genuine stress reducer potentially help your sleep, your mindfulness, and emotional processing. Coloring and by extension, art in general is good for you. And now with Color Jam, on top of all those benefits, you have a little bit of a game element you're adding to the experience. One of the things that I think is lovely about Color Jam is that while it suggests certain goals or imaginative ideas that you can assign to your piece of work that gamify the activity, the game actually encourages you to create goals of your own. And I think that this is fantastic because maybe it's something as simple as making sure all the wall colors are the same color or you only use two colors on a specific animal or maybe something more abstract or bizarre. Either way, setting a small goal for yourself and trying to game the game to make it happen is a
satisfying and rewarding finish to an already cozy fun activity. And in a hobby where the game experience is ever more big and sprawling and expansive, complex that requires a lot of mental and physical upkeep. This reminds you that having modest simple goals or achievements doesn't make the experience any less rewarding. Because whether you look at this as an activity being gamified or a game being made into a literally relaxing activity, either definition means you're getting experience that is mutually relaxing, refreshing, and therapeutic while also scratching that thinky puzzly itch. And I love that the game reiterates that things are not going to be perfect. And this is a good principle, not just in this game, but in all art and actually in a lot of walks of life. Things aren't always going to be perfect. And in the context of this game, sometimes things aren't going to go the way you planned.
And that's okay. Like all art, this is your world. You can make it whatever you want it to be. And if things don't go as planned, well, there are no mistakes, only happy accidents. For what it's going for, I think that Color Jam is absolutely splendid. It is a fun, calm, cool down for one or a fantastic family activity. Please check out the link to Color James crowdfunding down below. If you can, please support it. It is a wonderful expression of what a game can be in this hobby. I love seeing initiatives like this come to life. We love to bring some positivity and support to the indie game scene, especially something as niche and different as this. Thank you so much for watching, liking, and subscribing. And don't forget to always, always play board games like an animal.