Employee Disposal Program

Employee Disposal Program is a strategic fast paced game about improvising (with a dashing theme of modern corporate misery, because where else do we all fake competence for eight hours a day?). Endless (and pointless) meetings, office jargon, and passive-aggressive emails are now your strongest weapons. Use them wisely.

Inspired by life’s most unfortunate, soul-crushing phenomena: corporate life.

The idea for the Program wasn’t hatched in a slick boardroom, it was born in the trenches of an office. Years ago, I went from a carefree student to overwhelmed intern, thrown headfirst into a world of micromanagers, soul-crushing meetings, and office politics so surreal, they deserved their own reality show. (I’m sure you’ve been there too).

As I started noticing these absurdly annoying office habits, something amazing happened. Friends, coworkers, even that one quiet guy from accounting – we all had nearly identical stories & frustrations. It was like stumbling into the world’s most relatable (and hilarious) group therapy session.

And so, Employee Disposal Program was born, a card game designed to let you laugh, vent, and share your wildest workplace horror stories with coworkers who get it.

The base game contains 75 unique cards:

• 25 Attack Cards (Corporate Frustrations/Stereotypes)
• 20 Defence Cards (Workplace Excuses)
• 20 Ability Cards (Office Politics)
• 10 Sanity Cards (Your Mental Health)
• Instruction Manual
• 1 Game Art (Back of Manual)

A game developed with spontaneity, improvisation, and chaos in mind.

Employee Disposal Program is simple to learn but a nightmare to win. Designed to be irritatingly funny, extremely chaotic, and engineered to actively punish comfortable card game strategies. You’ll be forced to improvise, adapt, and think fast if you want to survive.

Carefully crafted abilities and gameplay ensure standard strategies like hoarding cards are a fast track to elimination. I’ve seen it countless times in all our play-testing sessions, the player overflowing with options, suddenly gets wiped out by someone down to their last, perfectly timed card. It’s beautifully unpredictable. Survival here isn’t about meticulous planning, it’s about your knack for turning sudden disaster into a strategic advantage (now this is starting to sound like true corporate jargon).

And as you’re playing, you’ll notice little stories at the bottom of each card. Those aren’t just random filler text.  They’re tiny, painful, slices of corporate life, things I’ve personally experienced, or horror stories collected from friends, coworkers, and strangers. I put them there because the real magic of Employee Disposal Program isn’t just outlasting your colleagues in the game.

It’s when a card hits the table, someone reads one of those snippets, and suddenly everyone’s erupting in laughter, sharing their own “you won’t believe what happened to me at work” moments.

Ultimately, that’s what this game is truly about, turning the shared trauma of modern corporate life into one big, cathartic, and hilariously unhinged group therapy session.

Distinct Artwork by a Talented Artist

A massive thank you to Zayane, the amazing illustrator who brought this project to life with his incredible artistry. He painted every meltdown, side-eye, and existential scream in Employee Disposal Program with terrifying accuracy and painterly grace, and made each card feel alive with corporate misery. 

A timelapse of one of Zayane’s artwork’s for this project can be seen below along with his details for art commissions here: Zayane’s Link

During early marketing photoshoots and the early play-testing sessions, a few prototype cards included temporary AI placeholder images while characters were still being illustrated by our artists. These were only used to communicate the general look and feel of the game in its early stages and used for play testing.

All artwork has since been fully illustrated and is currently ongoing by our incredible artist. Every visual element in the final product is original and human-made.

WORK FROM HOME Expansion Pack – Thought working from home was a dream? Think again. Navigate frozen screens, endless video calls, surprise pet/children cameos, and the crushing silence of your own living room. 

RETAIL & HOSPITALITY WORKERS Expansion Pack – Dive face first into a world of entitled customers, impossible demands, and soul numbing repetition of “Have a nice day!”. Here, the tips are bad, and the sanity loss is worse.

Both Expansion Sets contain 30 additional unique cards each:

• 10 Attack Cards (Themed Frustrations/Stereotypes)
• 8 Defence Cards (Themed Excuses)
• 12 Ability Cards (Themed Abilities)

Tier 1
Employee Disposal Program – Standard Edition: Base Game – 
USD $29

Be the first to dispose your colleagues! Includes game box, 75 game cards, rulebook and, game art, plus any applicable stretch goals.

Tier 2:
Employee Disposal Program – Deluxe Edition: Base Game + Expansions 1 & 2 –  USD $35

Receive the complete Employee Disposal Program base game and all applicable stretch goals plus the first two Expansions: Work From Home & Retail and Hospitality Workers.

Tier 3:
Employee Disposal Program – Human Resources Package:
3 Copies x Deluxe Edition –  USD $90

You’re HR now. Which means fun is mandatory. Get 3 full copies of Employee Disposal Program, 3 sets of all unlocked stretch goals, and 3 copies each of our expansions Work From Home + Retail & Hospitality Workers.

Perfect for instant office wide forced bonding, and ensuring no one ever volunteers for team building again.

Tier 4:
Employee Disposal Program – Corporate Package:
5 Copies x Deluxe Edition –  USD $129

When one department’s misery isn’t enough. Enough copies for the entire organisation to improve morale by destroying it. Get 5 full copies of Employee Disposal Program, 5 sets of all unlocked stretch goals, and 5 copies each of our expansions Work From Home + Retail & Hospitality Workers.

Because burnout should be a group activity.

Let’s keep it real, we all know that interns, and frankly, most of us don’t get paid enough for the mental gymnastics and outright stress we navigate daily. So, forget Funding Goals or Backer Goals, instead there will be Employee Of The Month Games.

Should you complete these challenges and meet your KPIs and quotas, upgrades will be added to the game for free! The better the performance reviews, the better the upgrades

Phase 1: Caveman and Excel

The first ever version of the Employee Disposal Program, simple & ugly handwriting on blank poker cards. Excel spreadsheets from 1986 had more visual appeal. This whole artistic endeavour took about two months, with most of that time spent wrestling the game mechanics, play-testing with friends, and reworking broken/boring bits and bobs.

Phase 2: Cheap and Tacky

Version 1 was my first stab at making the program look like a proper game so I switched from Excel to Canva. I cobbled together a rough draft, shamelessly borrowing design inspiration from other card games. And for a first pass, it looked okay (this delusion did not last very long), but realistically, It looked cheap & tacky (and used placeholder ai images). So, with a sigh, it was back to the drawing board. This time with a real human illustrator.

Phase 3: Tequila & Tacos

After two weeks of staring blankly at my screen, salvation finally arrived. It wasn’t in a design blog or a fancy Melbourne art gallery. Nope, it was on a rainy, cold day, huddled in an underground Mexican restaurant, surrounded by tequila and tacos (shoutout Bodega Underground Melbourne). One tipsy glance at the ceiling and boom. The lightbulb didn’t just go on, it exploded.

That retro 80s/90s aesthetic was perfect. This, I knew, was the look for Employee Disposal Program.

Phase 4: It’s Alive

Several months of bubble teas, coffees, late nights, and the occasional existential crisis later, the Employee Disposal Program was officially ready to face the world.

(Of course, little did I know then how much longer it would take just to wrestle marketing and this Kickstarter page into existence. But that’s a horror story for another time.)

The base game itself and both expansions, as of this campaign launch are designed (character illustrations are ongoing, everything else is ready), and thoroughly play-tested. Character illustrations are 50% completed and should be finished within 30-45 days from the end of campaign by our incredibly talented illustrator.

Manufacturing will kick off 6-8 weeks after the campaign successfully concludes (giving time to gather final feedback from play-testers, tweak the game, and complete the remaining illustrations), Then, it’s off to the printers and straight to your hands as soon as possible. We’re already contract locked in with an incredible manufacturer.

Please note that the timeline will be constantly updated as the campaign progresses to keep all backers up to date and informed.

To ensure accuracy, shipping costs will be calculated and collected after the Kickstarter campaign concludes, closer to our shipping date. This allows us to account for any fluctuations in shipping rates and provide you with the best and cheapest rates based on your specific location and order.

You will receive an email survey from our pledge manager a few weeks after the campaign to: 

• Confirm the items in your pledge.
• Add any additional items or expansions you might like.
• Finalise your shipping address.
• Pre-pay any applicable taxes and duties (like VAT for UK/EU backers or potential US tariffs) (only if applicable)

*Rest of the world shipping = $25

EU ZONE 1: (PL, ES, PT, LT, NL, IT, SK, FR, LV)
EU ZONE 2: (SE, CZ, AT, BG, IE, SI)
EU ZONE 3: (HU, BE, DK, EE)
ASIA ZONE 1: (Singapore)
ASIA ZONE 2: (Japan, Philippines, Cambodia)
ASIA ZONE 3: (Thailand, India)

Please note that we are unable to ship to the following countries: Afghanistan, Brazil, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen.