LINCOLN PARK — When 27-year-old Chelsie Patterson was rejected from graduate school last spring — on her birthday, no less — she was devastated.
But a couple weeks later, while playing card games at a friend's place, she decided she had to take control of her own destiny.
"I decided to take all of that effort and apply it to a personal project," said Patterson, who lives in Lincoln Park.
That's when her card game, Craption, was born.
Much like the popular Chicago-based game Cards Against Humanity, the goal of Craption is to come up with the funniest tagline to win the card. Whoever amasses the most cards, wins.
But unlike in Cards Against Humanity, Craption uses social media for the prompt and gives players the freedom to come up with their own taglines. Players must write the funniest captions for Instagram photos, and each player gets a turn at being the judge.
For her first deck, Patterson assembled a bunch of Instagram photos (with licensing approval) that beg for witty captions. Think two guys wearing jean shorts and a Lincoln Park woman walking two dogs, one of them tie-dyed pink and the other tie-dyed purple.
An example of one of the cards. [Craption]
To help fund the project, Patterson launched a Kickstarter campaign with the goal of raising $10,000. As of Wednesday afternoon, Patterson had raised $1,828. The money raised will go toward the production of 240-499 games, which is the minimum order size through Patterson's production company, Ad Magic. The game will come with physical cards and a pad of paper for writing captions.
Using social media came natural to Patterson, who is a marketing professional. And the game, like social media, will evolve with time: People can tag their Instagram photos with @craptionthegame, and their photos might end up in future decks. On account of its user-generated content, Patterson said the game is a modern-day version of the old TV show "America's Funniest Home Videos."
Currently in between jobs, Patterson is especially interested in social enterprises, or organizations that give back to the community.
If the goal is met and enough people buy the deck, Patterson pledges to donate 5 percent of her profits to local charities.
"I honestly think [social enterprises] are the way of the future," she said. "This is a movement we'll continue to see, and I want to be a part of it."
So far, Patterson said she's been overwhelmed by the amount of support coming from not only her friends and family, but also strangers she introduces the game to in bars.
"That's been the coolest part of the entire experience. The support I've gotten from my friends, family and people I've met in Chicago. It's been truly amazing," she said.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
