Bubbling Over with 'Creativitea'!

Aaron Tan, Mechatronics alumnus and creator of card game Teabbles, shares the inspiration behind the game and how his SIT education helped him in the product development

8 Jan 2021

Teabbles Creator Aaron Tan — *Teabbles is the brainchild of Mechatronics alumnus Aaron Tan, and it was almost 1.5 years in the making due to the COVID-19 pandemic.*

Manufacturing engineer by day and card game enthusiast by night, Aaron long enjoyed the human interaction aspect of board and card games, an element that technology cannot replace. This led him to create a family-friendly yet competitive card game called Teabbles, inspired by his love for the drink.

Aaron first conceptualised the game prototype of Teabbles and upon good reviews from friends, he proceeded to the next stage for game play testing. The second prototype was created with the assistance of his partner, Jolene Yang, and it was refined further through many rounds of game testing across a range of age groups, before illustrator Ansley Toh was roped in to illustrate the card deck.

Teabbles offers three different game plays – Original Play, Bluff and Boba the Builder, allowing players to choose an option that suits their liking, very much like their bubble tea orders. “The original game play was supposed to be the only way to play but COVID-19 happened and it pushed back the intended launch date much later! In the end it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I got to integrate other game ideas during the circuit breaker period to make the game value-for-money,” said Aaron.

Skills Aaron picked up and honed during his SIT education such as problem-solving, time and project management also came into play during the development stage of the card game as he was working at a full-time job. “My SIT journey has shaped me into an independent life-long learner. I have become more resourceful in finding out and learning about things such as the product life cycle and basic marketing skills, among many others, which helped make this game a reality,” said Aaron.

Happy that Teabbles had gained media coverage in Straits Times, Her World Online and on SethLui.com, Aaron hopes the game will gain traction overseas too and find its place as a “Made in Singapore” game among the other popular games in the world. He also has a few game ideas up his sleeve and hopes to start the prototyping process for one of them soon. “I also have ideas for other products besides games, but I will take things one step a time,” he added.

Teabbles retails for $30 and it is available for purchase here.

Prototypes of Teabbles — *Teabbles went through two rounds of prototyping before it arrived at its final version.*

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