Ssslap! An award-winning card game about
Australian Venomous snakes!
Our game teaches you how to sssurvive in the Australian bush as a venomous snake! In 'Ssslap!' you take on 1 of 18 unique Australian venomous snakes (BE the snake!), navigating the environment’s various resources and dangers. You’ll need quick reflexes and you might even need to push your luck 🤠 .
About
Aligned with the the Queensland education curriculum but applicable Australia-wide, the object of the game is to be the longest snake! Do this by eating specific prey to add body parts and grow your snake. Avoid dangers like bull-dozers, cane toads, and invasive weeds, and refer to the accompanying information booklet for ecological details about every snake!
Photo: Dr Ariel Marcy and Dr Christina Zdenek play-test an early draft of the game. Note: the aesthetics of the cards will look very different in the published version.
Award-winning!
We won 1st prize in Australia's national game-design awards!
Some nice things the OiOiOi game awards judging panel said about Ssslap!:
🐍 "This is a brilliant example of a simple game done very very well.”
🐍 "The mechanics integrate with the theme seamlessly, with the slap action providing an appropriate parallel to the striking behaviour of snakes."
🐍 "The game’s strengths lie in its clarity, educational grounding, and immediate playability."
🐍 "Quick to teach and quick to table, with rules that can be understood in under a minute, which is difficult to achieve but very effective here."
Who
Dr Christina Zdenek and Dr Ariel Marcy (pic: far left) are developing this game. Christina conceived the idea and provides snake expertise to the project. Ariel is a professional game designer, developing the game mechanics, and managing the play-testing and pitching elements of the project.
We've proudly partnered with A/Prof Corey Tutt OAM (pic: middle right) from DeadlyScience for First Nations consultation, plus Indigenous artist Ben Williams (pic: below left)(@ BenWilliamsArt on insta).
We've been supported by a grant from Inspiring Australia Queensland (I'm currently their Qld hashtag#STEM ambassador (2024 and 2025)), with regular solid support from Dr Anita Milroy (pic: far right) 🙏 , who I cannot thank enough!
Indigenous
collaborations
We've partnered with Ben Williams (pic: on left) to produce all the artwork for our snake game. He has hand-painted all our snake heads, our background elements, and is currently working on the snake body card and tail card.
We've also partnered with A/Prof Corey Tutt of Deadly Science to determine the First Nations names for each of our 18 snake species included in the game. This is an extensive task, involving in-person yarning with elders from multiple mobs across Australia. Thanks, Corey!
Details
In Ssslap you take on 1 of 18 unique Australian venomous snakes competing to grow the longest in a resource-limited environment filled with dangers. Ssslap conveys several principles of biology, ecology, and conservation through its gameplay, specifically:
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Biology
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Featured snakes represent a diversity of venomous snakes found in Australia and its surrounding waters
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Slapping mechanic embodies the ambush behavior of venomous snakes
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Preferred prey mechanic reflects the venom specificity of venomous snakes
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Ecology
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Winning hinges on gaining the most energy from food sources as a predator and converting it into body mass
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Prey and resource cards represent both biotic and abiotic factors influencing snake growth
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Drought and rain cards illustrate the impact of environment on snakes (particularly the boom-bust rain cycle in Australia)
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Conservation
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Invasive species cards demonstrate the cost of human-driven changes to the ecosystem
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The bulldozer card illustrates the #1 conservation threat to snakes: habitat destruction (land-clearing).
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The game comes with a bonus booklet full of fascinating evidence-based facts and stories about the snakes, written by Dr Zdenek, one of Australia’s leading experts.