Sell Me a Sasquatch

Sell Me a Sasquatch is the U.S. title and theme chosen in BOARD GAMES 3: What’s in a name? for the Planet Money and Exploding Kittens card game inspired by [[MarketForLemons|The Market for Lemons]]. In the source, the game turns Asymmetric Information into partial-information trading: players can hide parts of deals, bluff, distrust one another, and create party-game disorder from a serious economics paper.

The title matters because it makes the product more than a ruleset. “Sell Me a Sasquatch” gives the game a memorable sales phrase, a collectible creature market, and a cover-art direction that Jamie Wolanski reads as promising for Retail Shelf Appeal. The source also treats the name as a constraint because Sasquatch may not be equally recognizable in international markets.

Key Claims

• The game’s economic core is adverse selection and hidden information, but the retail product needs humor, theme, and a quick promise.
• The Sasquatch direction beat generic object-swapping and car-pun alternatives because it felt more coherent and fun to inhabit.
• The title connects Product Naming As Positioning to Cryptid Theme Legibility: the product sounds like a playful market before the buyer understands the mechanics.
• The source presents the U.S. title as decided while leaving European naming or localization as an unresolved Cross-Market Naming Friction problem.

Connections

• Planet Money and Exploding Kittens - show and game company behind the project.
• The Market For Lemons and Asymmetric Information - economics concept converted into gameplay.
• Product Naming As Positioning, Retail Shelf Appeal, and Game Mechanic To Retail Product - product-development concepts illustrated by the game.
• Cryptid Theme Legibility and [[TheXFiles|The X-Files]] - cultural memory behind the theme.