Hedgehogs and Hot Air Balloons

Hedgehogs & Hot Air Balloons is a cute & cozy, journaling and map drawing game for one player.

You play as a little hedgehog exploring a post-human world in your hot air balloon. You will create a map as you discover new places, and journal about your adventures as you land and explore all of these new places that you find. Perhaps you will make a friend who will travel with you? Or maybe you will find out what happened to the humans who once roamed the land long, long, ago... Your adventures will change with the seasons, and there is always something new to discover and explore. The game is designed to be cozy and relaxing, so although you may face some danger, you will always come out okay in the end.

To play you will need two standard decks of playing cards, some paper, and pens/pencils/anything you want to draw and write with. You will draw cards from one deck to determine your wind direction, distance travelled, weather, and what landscape features you fly over (your ‘Flying’ deck). If you would like to land and explore any of the places that you fly over (or if the weather forces you to land) you will draw cards from the second deck to determine what you find there (your ‘Exploring’ deck).

The game is split into seasons and days, and you will experience different things in different seasons, but make sure you find somewhere safe to hibernate before winter comes!

Hedgehogs & Hot Air Balloons is generally suitable for kids aged 8 upwards (and great for grown-ups too!) who enjoy creative writing, cute animals, and an ecological preservation theme. Younger children who particularly enjoy storytelling and using their imagination may also enjoy playing the game with a little help from a grown-up for the drawing cards and writing parts. The game does include some slight elements of danger, and hints at the extinction of humans, so may not be suitable for children who are particularly sensitive or anxious.

A successful Kickstarter campaigned funded a printed version of the game, along with some extra goodies like bookmarks and wooden pin badges. If you'd like to purchase any of these they are available in my Ko-Fi store, along with physical and digital versions of all my other games.