Would you rather...
An irreverent game of either/or that really has no purpose
Would you prefer a delicious fresh-from-the-oven baguette or a beautiful handcrafted Italian suit?
No follow up questions or clarification. Just pick the one you prefer.
I asked this very question to my husband Sam in July 2014 while visiting family in Dingle, Ireland. We were waiting for his dad to finish some errands in town before we all drove back to the cottage he’d rented for the summer. And because I refused to pay for an international phone plan in those days, my brain had time and space to be bored, hence the nonsensical question.
I kept going: “Sneakers or Trees?” “Concrete or Jumping?” “Coffee or Window?”
That summer, we played my very specific and decidedly inane this-or-that game whenever we had a few minutes to kill. I’d play with strangers at cocktail parties in lieu of awkward small talk. Or with friends on long weekend car rides. The best playmates were young children who had no difficulty going with their gut (unlike adults who tend to agonize over even the most inconsequential decisions).
Without meaning to, I’d built in two constraints that made this version more engaging than a typical either/or game:
1) The pairings were so completely unrelated by design
2) No asking things like “would I have to choose this forever?” or “what kind of sneakers?”
Rapid fire, intuition, this or that.
We called it Bread or Suit.
Sam and I returned to Bread or Suit over the years with the intention of turning it into a game online: a simple flow where the user is presented with two items to choose from with each round consisting of 10 choices. At the end of the round, players could choose to continue playing or end the game. And of course the first choice in Round 1 is always bread or suit.
This sat squarely on the “Totally Unnecessary Side Project” shelf that I promised myself I’d get to someday.
Twelve years later, with some unstructured time on an extended vacation and access to AI, I mocked up V1 of the game with minimal effort. I didn’t need to hire anyone to build the code or source the imagery.
It’s incredibly simple but achieves exactly what I was hoping it would: a lovely & amusing little game that makes players smile. Good luck getting through all 20,000 pairings.
There are no wrong answers.* There is no point. And sometimes, that is precisely the point.
Play it at: www.madcapfactory.com/breadorsuit
*unless you pick suit 😜
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Love it! Remind me to tell you about overrated / underrated one day!