The Estate Game Pad

Growing up, my family often trekked out during the height of summer to visit relatives in California. We went by car, and as children this was an especially long drive. Being cooped up in a small space isn’t really pleasant for anyone, and there were certainly bouts of whining and complaining by my brother and me (mostly about the heat since we didn’t have air conditioning in the car for many years).

Car games could amuse us for a bit, and one of the games my brother and I would play was the “Estate Game”. We would take turns and select the possessions we wanted when our parents died. (A cheery game, I know. And don’t worry, our parents were not offended by this game—I dare say that it amused them.) Inspired by this childhood memory, I decided to create a game pad for this game.

Aesthetically, I went super simple (like a game pad for Yahtzee would be). There’s nothing fancy about it. It’s pretty self-explanatory with directions at the top. There are spaces to write out the items each player gets and a place to sign at the bottom so the division of property is more “binding”. I perforated each sheet so it could be torn away after using, then I bound the sheets together with string to create the pad.

When my brother and I played the Estate Game as children, we never wrote anything down; it was just verbal. But this game has stayed in our minds (even after all these years), so I wanted to create this pad as a nod to that fond memory. I gave this game pad to my brother as part of his birthday present, and he thought it was pretty amusing.