A Team of Columbians Made the First-Ever Card Game Celebrating AAPI Heroes

Innovator. Pioneer. "One that blazes a trail to guide others." It is little wonder that a group of Columbia students and a professor who ideated, designed, produced, and marketed Trailblazer Heroes, the nation's first Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI)-focused educational card game, are a group of trailblazers themselves.

In the two-plus year process of developing the game for ages 10+, a group of some 50+ students and alumni in Dr. Joey Lee's Games Research Lab at Teachers College have effectively crafted a mechanism to get children and adults talking about the legacies and innovations of a group of undersung Americans, all while combatting anti-Asian hate.

"A lot of my teaching has do with using the power of games and play for educational and social good purposes," Lee said. "Not just designing games for entertainment only, but really trying to bring about some social good with impact. There are a lot of opportunities to use games to build empathy and share inspiring stories or challenge stereotypes."

The initial idea for the game came about during the COVID-19 pandemic when anti-AAPI hate crimes began surging. It recently had its grand debut in May. 

"We as game designers began to ask: what can we do? A small number of students and I initially started thinking about a simple card game that would provide more examples of representation and positive stories of AAPI contribution, showing the inspiring work people are doing in their communities," Lee said.

And so began the research, which turned up both moments of incredible triumph but also historic moments of hatred and injustice that many members of the team weren't yet aware of.

The team also learned that only 11 states require AAPI history curriculum to be taught in the classroom. They knew they had something that could be an educational tool in hand.

“We describe it as a gift from the AAPI community to the AAPI community, though everyone can enjoy the game.” Lee said. "We wanted people of diverse backgrounds to feel heard, learn about their own history, be inspired by heroes, and to empower folks to take action. We hope young people will desire to become trailblazers themselves as they play and learn about these heroes. In 25 to 30 minutes of gameplay, we can spark conversations about culture, identity and history.”

From connecting with the nation's largest AAPI youth organization, Apex for Youth, to 30+ AAPI artists who designed the cards used in gameplay, to piloting the game in local Harlem public schools, game development has been about partnership from the start. Along with the development of the game, the team also crafted lesson plans and educational tools to help teachers tailor the game to their classrooms.

Columbia News recently caught up with Lee, alongside two students involved with the development of the game: Zoey Liu (TC'24), Creative Director, and Randal Manago (TC'24), Outreach Lead. Both students recently graduated with their Master's in Education with a focus in instructional technology. 

When you were growing up, what was your experience learning about AAPI history in the classroom?

Liu: The only thing I can think of was the experience of a debate in the classroom about whether the United States should have dropped the atomic bombs on Japan during World War II. That was truly the most we ever talked about AAPI issues, which is a terrible thing.

Manago: Up until my college experience, I think the extent of it in my school was propaganda cartoons you would see in history textbooks that never really went in-depth into how problematic they were. As soon as I started seeing some of our initial game assets, I just felt like this was something I wished I had as a kid, as a Filipino American. In my education in the United States, there was minimal information supplied about people who look like me and their history here in America. It really emphasized the need for our team to make a community effort to do something for ourselves. This is one solution.

Why a card game? How does it work?

Lee: We purposefully chose card games because, right now for young folks, card games like Pokémon or Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh! are very, very popular. I was just in Japan and I counted at least 100 stores where there are just all these people playing these kinds of games. 

This is a cooperative game where you work together to try to match a pattern on the board using different kinds of cards. The game has four different kinds of cards: 

• 20 "Hero" cards in five elemental colors, representing different areas of expertise
• "Quest" cards, exploring problems in the world, like hate crimes, mental health stigma, or microaggressions
• "History" cards, highlighting key moments of AAPI history, both positive and negative
• And "Culture" cards, representing various Asian countries through food or cultural activities

We made a strong effort to have 45+ Asian countries represented in some way in this game, whether through a cultural food, artifact, or person in the game. And this is just a starting point — we plan to do expansion packs that extend past this first edition.

Liu: There are a ton of elements of the game that are really intertwined, even when they are not foregrounded. We wanted to make it as inclusive as it could be and there is symbolism that, while it might not be apparent to a second grader or third grader, as you grow older those elements would come through. 

We tested with all sorts of people: colorblind players, people with dyslexia, differently abled people. We wanted to make sure you could experience this game in a lot of different ways. We also made it so there is a way to remove "triggering cards" from the deck, so the game could be tailored to a younger audience.

Tell me about the moment you realized this game was ready for the world.

Lee: This was an entirely self-funded project, so deadlines and everything were set by us internally. Sharleen Loh, our Project Manager, is so gifted, she would coordinate about 10 million different pieces and multiple teams to make sure we stayed on track. 

We had to adopt the mindset of "perfect is the enemy of the good," otherwise we would be in development for another five years! This is the first iteration but after all the testing we did we know we can continue to make improvements for future editions.

This spring, during AAPI Heritage Month in May, we had quite a few game nights to serve as a launch celebration. At Prime Produce, we had 20 or so people who were the inaugural folks to play the very first edition off the printing press and it was so well received. We hosted another launch at my church and it was great to see youth and older folks final use the game.

Are there any "Easter eggs" only Columbians/Teachers College grads would know within the game?

Lee: Columbia Professor Chien-Shiung Wu, also known as "the first lady of Physics." 

Liu: Derald Wing Sue, a TC professor who co-founded the Asian American Psychological Association. 

Manago: And Kevin Nadal (TC'08), a professor at John Jay College who researches microaggressions in the LGBTQ+ community. 

Liu: We also have a lion character card that is based on South Asian folklore. It is a blue card — a little bit of a fun Columbia Lions thing.

What are the next steps for the game?

Lee: This is the only AAPI card game that we know of. Even in terms of digital games, there is not a lot out of there. Nothing that hits the same kind of goals wea re after. 

We're really viewing this as an evergreen project. We're in the process of reaching out to the next batch of heroes and we're working on expansions to the full game. We may also do some sort of trading card expansion. 

We're also looking for sponsorship opportunities as well to continue funding the development of the game. We want to make sure this grows into something that is implemented in more schools.

How can Columbians get involved?

Lee: This coming fall semester, the Games Research Lab is open to any Columbia students who want to join the team. There are various ways to get involved. You could work on the design side or the arts and creativity side or outreach. 

In terms of other folks, we are really trying to expand the reach or impact, so educators can access the game at a discounted rater or, in some cases, for free. 

If you are an organization that has a similar mission as us, please reach out: [email protected].