Plan ‘B’ for four CSB/SJU graduates sent them to the ‘Doghouse’ to develop game

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made it an uncertain time to be entering the job market.

But four recent College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University graduates are using the current upheaval as an opportunity to take a risk and lean into the unknown.

Hanna Degen, Owyn Ferguson, Margaret Kosir and Zach Kennedy each had summer employment plans laid out.

But when those opportunities were altered or disappeared as a result of the economic conditions caused by COVID-19, the four (who were all members of the Entrepreneur Scholars Program on campus) elected to plunge full-time into a business venture first developed by Ferguson and Kosir as an E-Scholar project.

Specifically, a party game entitled “Doghouse,” which they now hope to market to a wider audience.

“It really got started in the fall of 2019,” said Kosir, who had planned to spend a year volunteering in Nicaragua following graduation before those plans had to be cancelled as a result of the pandemic.

“Through the (E-Scholars) program, everyone was tasked with starting a unique business. Owyn and I partnered up and decided why not do something fun. So we created this based on games we all play with our friends when we’re just hanging out.”

In the game, players take turns rolling the die and picking from one of six decks of cards – each based on separate games popular at parties. There are no winners, but one or more losers per round are sent to the doghouse where they face a consequence decided upon in advance by the players themselves.

The six categories are as follows:

• “Throw a Bone,” in which the person drawing the card reads a “most likely to” statement and sends the fellow player they deem most fitting that classification to the doghouse.
• “Dogfight,” in which the drawer reads two options from the card and the players debate which is better. The drawer then calls for a vote. The side that loses is sent to the doghouse.
• “Doghouse or Dare,” in which the drawer reads a dare from the card and selects a player to complete it. If that player refuses, they are set to the doghouse.
• “Bark or Bite,” in which the drawer reads an action from the card, and all players who have never done that are sent to the doghouse.
• “Breeds,” in which the drawer reads a category from the card, and moving counter-clockwise, all players must come up with different examples (i.e. animals – dog, cat, lion, tiger, etc.). The first player who fails to do, or repeats an example that has already been given, is sent to the doghouse.
• “Teachers Pet,” in which the drawer reads a prompt from the card that applies to them (i.e. ‘What would my last words be’) and the other players give their answers. The drawer then selects the player they deem to have given the least-accurate answer and that player is sent to the doghouse.

Ferguson and Kosir already found a sample market by playing the game with their friends and said the reception they got was overwhelmingly positive.

“It really is a fun conversation starter,” Ferguson said. “You know when you play it, it’s going to be a good time.”

Still, neither Ferguson nor Kosir thought about taking the idea further until the onset of COVID-19.

“Once (in-person classes at CSB and SJU) got cancelled (last March), and a lot of the other opportunities we were looking at started to get postponed, we thought why not add two other members and give this a try,” Kosir said.

So the pair reached out to fellow E-Scholars Kennedy and Degen, who were both enthusiastic about coming on board.

“I had a job lined up at an investment/financial services firm in the Twin Cities, but I lost that because of COVID-19,” said Degen, who in the past has run her own jewelry business, meaning she had valuable experience into how the process of getting such an idea off the ground might work.

“That’s when Owyn talked to me and said ‘Hanna, maybe you’re just meant to be an entrepreneur.’ ”

 Kennedy, who has handled designing the look of the game itself, also joined up. And the work proceeded, even with each of the four participants in separate locations. Ferguson was at home in the Bahamas, though he returned to the U.S. this month in preparation for spending much of the next year in Israel as part 2020-21 Benedictine Volunteer Corps cohort.

Kosir has been at home in St. Paul, Degen has been living in Brainerd and Kennedy has been at home in Maple Grove.

“We each had to take a personality test when we started in E-Scholars,” Degen said. “And I bet if you looked at each of us, we’d all fall into different quadrants. But that means we all have different skillsets and things we do well.

“So we’ve been able to work together really well as a team.”

The foursome recently launched a Kickstarter campaign that will run through Sept. 3. It marks the first opportunity for anyone interested to purchase the game, as well as a chance to raise needed capital.

The goal is to raise $16,000, in part to cover the costs of producing the game at a facility in Shanghai – a site chosen because of contacts the group established while on an E-Scholars trip to China last year.

“I think being in the E-Scholars program, and just being part of the community at CSB and SJU, helped give us the confidence that we can move forward and take on a project like this,” Ferguson said.

“We’ve had so many people who’ve been willing to help us and that really speaks to the network of support you become part of here.”