The Experiment Is Becoming a Real Game: Our First Wine Rebels Prototypes Are on Their Way
Three months ago, I watched an Instagram video about mixing pickle juice with wine.
Most sensible people would probably have scrolled past it.
I did not.
My eyes saw the video. My taste buds were strangely intrigued. And somewhere inside my brain, new neural pathways began forming—pathways apparently dedicated entirely to breaking wine rules and asking:
“What would happen if we tried that?”
One strange drink led to another. Before I knew it, I was serving increasingly questionable wine experiments to Dad and asking him to rate them.
The fun of it—and possibly the neuroplasticity—soon inspired a weird wine cocktail theme for my upcoming birthday. That, in turn, led to the idea of creating a game for my friends to play at the party.
At first, the “game” was only intended to give us a unique, ridiculous and hopefully memorable birthday experience. But the deeper I ventured into its rules, ingredients, challenges and twists, the more I realised I wasn’t just making a one-night party activity.
I was building something that other people might genuinely enjoy playing.
From Birthday Activity to 108-Card Game
My first thought was to make the game downloadable.
If I designed a few cards for my birthday, I could turn them into a printable pack that anyone could download, cut out and play at home.
Simple.
Except the “few cards” multiplied.
And multiplied.
Eventually, the game had grown to 108 cards—which is quite a lot of printing, cutting and muttering at your scissors.
After creating several downloadable prototypes and spending a considerable amount of time developing the Wine Rebels branding, I temporarily shifted my attention to building the website.
Meanwhile, the wine experiments continued.
Enter the Chief Taster
By then, I had started filming some of the drinks I was creating. As I became more comfortable in front of the camera, I began to see real potential in sharing the experiments with the world.
I didn’t think Dad would want to appear in the videos, so I initially didn’t ask him.
Instead, I would create an experiment, take it out for him to taste and then report his verdict as part of the video.
One night, after preparing another batch of dubious formulas, I finally asked:
“Would you like to give your feedback on camera?”
To my surprise—and delight—he replied:
“Sure, why not?”
And just like that, our experiment videos were born.
Dad became our Former Publican and Chief Taster. I ordered branded aprons, started improving our lighting and recently ordered microphones so you may soon be able to hear our expert scientific commentary with greater clarity.
“Expert scientific commentary” may be stretching things.
Still, with somewhere between 30 and 40 experiments now under our belts, we have found our format—and we are getting better with every recording.
Building the Laboratory
While those videos accumulated behind the scenes, I was also developing the Wine Rebels branding and building the website.
That was when I realised we had an opportunity—if we were brave enough—to release our experiment videos and recipes into the wild for other adventurous souls to try.
But I didn’t want to build another ordinary recipe website.
I wanted to create an actual laboratory: somewhere people could discover our recipes, follow our successes and disasters, and contribute experiments of their own.
That idea became Enter the Lab—an interactive experiment portal where visitors can grab a bottle of wine, choose ingredients from the virtual pantry and build their own formula.
They can then mix it, taste it and rate it before submitting their findings to the laboratory.
After all, I have plenty of ideas about what might work—and an alarming number of ideas about what probably won’t—but we never truly know until somebody tries.
Talking to friends made me realise just how limited one person’s flavour imagination can be. Everyone has a different pantry, a different palate and their own peculiar answer to the question:
“Have you tried putting that in wine?”
By opening the laboratory to other experimenters, we can discover combinations I might never have imagined—and perhaps a few that nobody should ever repeat.
The Game Goes on Ice
While I taught myself how to build interactive website features I never imagined I would be capable of creating, the physical card game was temporarily placed on ice.
Then the website became functional.
Of course, a functioning website needed recipes. The recipes needed videos. The videos needed editing. The social accounts needed content. And apparently, people needed to be told that the whole strange laboratory existed.
Eek.
There is, however, something liberating about being 49 years old.
You eventually reach a glorious point where you stop giving quite so much thought to whether people will think you look silly and simply get on with doing the thing that excites you.
Yes, I’m nearly 50.
Yes, Dad is nearly 80.
Yes, we are arriving somewhat late to the world of digital content creation.
But who cares?
We’re having fun. We’re learning an enormous amount. And life is far too short not to throw yourself into something weird when your imagination insists that you should.
Turning the Game into Something Real
About a week ago, I returned my attention to the physical game and began researching companies that specialise in printing custom game cards.
I eventually selected two printers for our first proper prototypes:
MakePlayingCards.com, or MPC
Australian printer ePrint Online
I was pleasantly surprised by how accessible professional prototype printing could be. A single set is still too expensive for a commercially viable game, but affordable enough to finally get the cards out of the computer and onto a real table.
That matters because there are some questions even the most carefully designed digital prototype cannot answer:
Do the rules make sense when real people play?
Does the game flow properly?
Are the cards easy to understand and handle?
Do any unexpected problems appear?
And, most importantly:
Is it actually fun?
The Final Push
The past week has been one of the biggest pushes of the entire project.
I have been so inspired over the past few months that sleep has occasionally felt like an inconvenient administrative requirement. Most days at 2 am I’m editing video content. Other days I’m up at 4 am working on the game before the rest of the world—and possibly my common sense—has woken up. And most days I crawl into bed before midnight, body exhausted but mind still reeling.
Alongside editing videos, publishing experiments, maintaining the website and conducting still more highly scientific wine investigations, I worked to prepare the physical game for professional printing.
And two days ago, I reached a major milestone.
All 108 cards were finalised.
The tuck-box artwork was completed.
And the prototype orders were placed into production.
For the first time, the Wine Rebels game is no longer just an idea, a birthday activity or a collection of designs on my computer.
It is becoming a real game.
The Australian prototype from ePrint has already been approved for production, with printing currently expected to be completed around 4 September. I’ll then need to allow some time for postage before it reaches the laboratory.
The MPC prototype will take longer because it is being produced overseas, and we also encountered some delays while resolving issues with the tuck-box artwork. It may take up to five weeks before that version arrives.
So far, my experience with ePrint has been very positive. They checked the supplied artwork, confirmed everything with me and advised today that production had commenced.
Now We Wait…
It is now my job to wait patiently.
This is not currently going well.
Calling in the Guinea Pigs
Once the cards arrive, playtesting will begin.
I already have a willing line-up of guinea pigs—also known as friends, neighbours and family—ready to put the game through its paces.
We will test the rules, the timing, the card combinations and the overall experience. We will find out what works, what needs adjusting and whether playing Wine Rebels causes people to create brilliant new drinks—or question every life decision that led them to the table.
The current goal is to complete testing by the end of September, make any final changes and then prepare the game for its first larger production run.
If all goes well, we’ll be able to release Wine Rebels Adventure Lab into the world.
The next game development update should be a particularly exciting one:
The prototype unboxing.
Until then, Dad and I will continue experimenting in the laboratory—because apparently 108 cards were not enough weirdness for one project.
Mix it. Taste it. Rate it.
And let the weirdness begin.
