Cari Makan: From Craft Postcards to a Cultural Party Game

Cari makan means “looking for food” in Bahasa. Coming from Penang, food culture is a big part of our life — so it’s fitting that this is the one game that started somewhere completely different from the rest.

Years earlier, I’d designed a set of papercraft postcards, each featuring a different Malaysian food. They’d been sitting around since. One day, over lunch, a friend mentioned he needed activities for an upcoming National Day event. After a bit of brainstorming, I offered to sponsor him the leftover postcards. He loved the idea and pushed it into his proposal.

The feedback from the event manager was more demanding than either of us expected: was there a card game to go with the food on the postcards? There wasn’t — so I got to work on the gameplay and design. A month later, we had the whole game.

Cari Makan has generated a lot of conversations since, precisely because it’s built on culture rather than mechanics alone. It’s the game that’s gotten me invited to other events off the back of it.

Curious what’s on the menu? Check out Cari Makan.