HRANICA (BORDER) is a board game that focuses on the situation on a border territory between USA and Mexico. Former president of USA, Donald Trump, presented one of the most radical solutions to migration crisis in this area — high concrete wall. Among many political, economic and ethical controversies, my game concentrates on probably the least discussed one — environmental controversy. Not only humans migrate through the border — this area is habitat of several endangered species, many of them close to extinction. “Big Beautiful Wall“, as he calls it, 1600 km long, would potentially influence 111 endangered species, 108 species of migrating birds, 4 fish hatcheries and big amount of protected wetlands. In this game you can play as one of the four selected endangered species whose situation is considered to be the most critical — north american jaguar, pronghorn, grey wolf and arroyo toad. 

The game mechanics is pretty conventional — known from the game Snakes and Ladders. Moving around you collect points by migrating from one country to another, however, there is a twist — mechanics inside the box lifts three segments of the wall in the middle of the playing board in three random intervals, making it more difficult to move around. When the last piece is lifted, species that ends up separated in half will go extinct and the player looses. Player with the highest score wins.

HRANICA was featured on Slovak Design Award finalists exhibition in students category in 2018.