This game grew out of many long conversations (and a fair few rants) with my favourite PhD peer, Trixie Harrison. When we began our PhDs, neither of us fully understood the extent to which luck and privilege shape the experience, and that realisation came as quite a shock. We spent a lot of time discussing how the system itself can often become the biggest barrier.
Over coffee one day, we came up with the idea for this game, imagining it as a powerful ice-breaker and discussion starter for PhD induction sessions. Thanks to AI, it’s now a reality. You can even explore the reference list generated by Claude (switch between ‘board’ and ‘references’ once you have started the game.
This is very much a version 1 – Let me know what you think in the comments. So far I’ve only done a quick surface check of the references, so let me know if you spot anything suspect.