Game details
Type: Card Game
Topic:
 Design Research
Player number: 1 to 4
Duration: 30 to 50 minutes
Audience: 14+
Publication date: 2023
Designer(s): Oliver Bates and Ben Kirman

Meal Deal

A card game that puts you in the saddles of cycle couriers in the gig economy

What does it look and feel like to be in the saddle, with a bag full of hot food on your back, as you traverse city high-rises looking for the address of a customer? What is the financial impact of waiting around all day for work that never comes? Is it worth pushing your luck and taking a risk if it makes the difference in wages?

Meal Deal is a game that puts players in the saddles of cycle couriers working in the gig economy. With a finite amount of stamina on tap each day, the cards allow players to weave their own gig economy story expanding on research with couriers who’ve worked in Manchester, York and Edinburgh in the UK.

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The game has been exhibited as part of the Games Transformed 2025 Festival of Games and Radical Politics, and presented at the ‘Gaming Social Justice’ event at Kings College in November 2025.

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