Family roll dice on card game invention

For Bulli dad Joel Bettson, board games provide endless hours of quality time with his kids. So when his youngsters grew bored with slow games full of filler cards, the family spent a day scribbling on blank cards at the kitchen table. Together, they created their own 10-minute card game – The Golden Sausage.

“Dice rolls, going through the deck, stealing cards back out of the graveyard… just as many fun cards as they would want – and mate, if you can keep kids from being bored, you're onto a winner,” Joel says.

Friends and family soon got on board, excited by the simple, fast-paced family game with an Aussie spin. Now the game is available at Collins Booksellers and online Australia-wide.

The premise of the game is simple: collect four golden sausages to win; use 15 cheeky action cards to do it. Steal cards, roll dice, play paper scissors rock and block an attack with the yeah/nah card.

“As soon as you get four golden sausages in your hand, show them to the group. That's it. You win the game,” Joel says.

“We knew that the card had to be something that you collect to win the game, and I was like, well, what is more silly than a sausage?”

Joel and his partner, Haley, see the golden sausage as a fun, screen-free way to spend time with their daughter and son (aged seven and nine). The kids have played the game countless times, helping create and improve it, and Joel says every play is different.

“There's enough chance that kids can win without having to use too much strategy. But then when the kids go to bed and the adults want to keep playing, there's enough strategy in it to keep them really engaged,” Joel says.

“The kids helped make it, so they're excited about it. They love to see it doing well, and they get to be involved. I made it for them, and hopefully, I'll be able to put some money aside for them.

“My daughter designed a card called the evil fairy. She's like, 'Dad, there has to be an evil fairy in here.' So that's her card. And my son loves the yeah/nah card. He loves blocking the other cards and anything with a dice roll as well.”

With great feedback from family, friends and independent testers, Joel decided to get a box together and see what could happen. With help from local graphic designer Kaisa and photographer Sasha Faint, a limited run of 200 sets broke even. Families were intrigued by the brightly coloured box, playful images on cards, and the timeless fun of a dice-roll.

“It's been an adventure,” Joel says. ''I have no experience in making card games or board games. I just kind of stumbled onto this, but the feedback was so good from everybody that I was like, well, I might as well just see where it takes me.

“The hardest part was designing the rule sheet ... you need a rule sheet that's fast enough for kids to learn, and parents can skim it over quickly, so the cards have their own instructions on them. It's pretty easy to just start, play a few times and get the hang of it.”Joel and Haley moved to Bulli from Sydney and fell in love with the area instantly. He has worked in the mines for about 15 years, and cherishes time with his family. The Golden Sausage  has become a family project that he is glad to share with the community.

“It's a good little side-hustle so far,'' he says. ''It hasn't taken too much time away from anything. I’m still managing to help out around the house, make sure the kids are doing what they need to do. The big goal was that if I was going to start a business around it, it wasn't to impact the family life that I already had.

“To be able to create something with the kids and then we get to sit down and play it and have laughs from it … and then other families having laughs from it … It's amazing.”

Joel says that local support has been fantastic, and Collins Booksellers have helped sell more than 30 copies of the game. Another order of 500 games is being rolled out in store and online, with expansion packs on the way. Joel wants to bring family fun to Australian homes and says The Golden Sausage is the perfect stocking-stuffer ahead of Christmas.

“I would love nothing more than an Australian card game to sit amongst the Exploding Kittens, Taco Cat Cheese Pizza games – because you know, we're a small little island, but we go to the Olympics and we win a lot of gold medals for the amount of people we have. We've got a lot of creativity and we've got a lot of good things about this country. So it's always nice to try and put us on the map,” Joel says.

“We have a mini expansion pack in the works, and one of the cards in there is called box jellyfish. My kids come home like, ‘Dad, do you know what the box jellyfish stings like?’ and I was like, all right, well, every Aussie kid knows how dangerous the box jellyfish is. So that's going in there as well.”

The Golden Sausage is making an impact beyond the coffee table – from every game sold, $2 is donated to the Kids with Cancer Foundation.

“Just to put it in perspective, Exploding Kittens has sold 25 million copies. Taco Cat Cheese Pizza — about 10 million copies. So if we could sell 500,000 copies, we get to donate a million dollars to a fantastic charity,” Joel says.

Follow on Instagram @thegoldensausagecardgame or visit the website. A standard set is $29.95.