Rural
8 December, 2023
A royal flush for farmers
Meet the Conondale card queen doing her bit to create a better deal for farmers.
Jade Catania is the 17-year-old entrepreneur who has created the game, Epic Garden, made for kids by kids, to educate children on the struggles farmers endure across the seasons.
Two to six players can play Epic Garden, and the first to deliver 10 crops wins.
The trick is to avoid the drought and flood cards, which wipe out your crops.
Jade said the game is versatile, because the game can either run for five minutes for the younger kids, or up to 45 minutes for the older kids.
Catania has been designing this game since she was 13 years old, after living with several struggling farming families, during her family’s trip around Australia when she was a young child.
By 13 years old, Jade had completed her first prototype of the educational card game, but it would take another four years for the final product to be ready for the shelves.
“I wondered how many kids didn’t know what farmers have to go through, then I thought how can you educate kids about this in a fun way, so I thought why not turn it into a game,” Jade said.
“I got an artist to redo my original drawings and made them a graphic design, and it took three years to get it right as I wasn’t happy with the fi rst artist or prototype, it took a long time to make it perfect.”
Jade needs $10,000 to print 1000 card games to start distributing them to retailers, schools and markets, and is raising the money through crowd funding.
Amazen Games in Caloundra has shown interest in the product, and the River School in Maleny has already bought several copies to provide in classrooms.
“It feels great to have the game finished because it’s taken so long, four years doesn’t sound like a lot but working on it for that long and now finally my vision or dream has come to reality, like I can hold the game in my hands now,” she said.
“What I’ve achieved so far shows you have to stay determined because there were a few times where I wanted to give up, but I kept pushing on with it and now finally it’s coming to life so it’s very exciting.”
Proceeds from sales go to farmers.
Jade is currently crowdfunding, to help.
Visit https://www.pozible.com/profile/epic-garden-a-card-game-designed-for-kids-by-kids
