TOKYO COIN LAUNDRY
Designer: Jordan Draper | Publisher: Jordan Draper
This might be one of the weirdest boxes we’ve opened at Tabletop Gaming Magazine. Inside you’ll find an assortment of mini cards, four pink washing machines, two white dryers and then some tiny clothes inside them, as well as currency and a couple of bottles of washing liquid. We asked ourselves, what kind of game is this?
This is a box of several games made in collaboration with other designers. The largest and most complex is RPG created with Luke Crane (Burning Wheel). In this, players are trying to resolve their mood in the liminal space of a coin laundry over three days, oh, and also get their laundry done. It feels like a social experiment, and the wackier day three events offer plenty of fun twists that no one could see coming. It’s an attempt to represent such a small moment in life that when you’re trying to perform it, becomes strangely revelatory.
If an RPG about not getting your washing done doesn’t do it for you, how about a washing machine wargame? Yes, there’s one in here too that lets you do very silly things like flick a washing liquid bottles at your opponent’s machines to score a ‘detergent snipe’. There’s also a solo game, strangely contemplative, which asks you to load washers and push your luck. Rarely does the busywork of components in a solo experience lead to direct fun, and yet it does here. You can get caught up in it in a way that you don’t with abstracted components and scores. There’s also a stacked washer dexterity game which is a decent implementation of a washing machine Jenga tower with added challenge. In short, they’re all perfectly combined with their component in a way that will elicit a smile at the very least.
We think it’s nearly ideal as a conceptual game that’s about ‘play’ itself. For those that ‘get’ the game, they will love it, for the rest… it’s good to be curious.
CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT