Annaotto: The twisted card game of the Brunau Foundation
7.5.2020
Translation: machine translated
Designed together with the family, printed in Winterthur and packaged in Zurich. The colourful Annaotto card game by Urs Robustelli and the Brunau Foundation is not only an eye-catcher, but also great to play.
Urs Robustelli is not only the brains and author behind Annaotto, but also the team leader for accounting and deputy division manager of the Brunau Foundation, a social non-profit organisation based in Zurich. The foundation is committed to the education of young people with health restrictions and offers them a sheltered workplace. Whilst looking for a larger logistics contract, they came up with the idea of developing their own game and marketing it themselves. Robustelli received active help from his twelve-year-old son Henri in developing the idea for the game. Other Family members were also involved in the project. His mother-in-law translated the game instructions into French, his brother made the explanatory video and the design was created by his daughter.
Annaotto is based on the same game concept as UNO or Frantic. In turn, you place your cards colour by colour or pattern by pattern. Annaotto also features special cards such as changes of direction or skips. What is special, however, is that the cards can be played on both sides. After dealing the cards, you have to choose a side. You can also play with the backs of your opponents' cards. You can therefore decide whether you want to play your own card or that of another player. The winner is the first player to have no cards left in their hand. In an interview with the Höngger Quartierzeitung newspaper, Robustelli said: "It's a simple card game, but at the same time it has a new challenge and a cheerfulness in the colourfulness."
The card game Annaotto is not only cutely designed, but also a pleasantly entertaining game for in between or as a warm-up for a longer game evening. I particularly like the fact that Annaotto is produced fairly and sustainably in Switzerland. Something that I think should be appreciated and promoted more.
