Saint Valentin – Original Strategic, Educational and Relational Board Game

Saint Valentin is an original strategic, visual, relational, and educational board game created by Doumbia Amara in Côte d'Ivoire, Africa. The game combines tactical movement, spatial reasoning, observation, anticipation, decision-making, player interaction, and symbolic heart formation within an accessible and engaging game environment. Designed for 2 to 6 players and recommended for ages 8 and above, Saint Valentin transforms the universal symbol of the heart into an interactive strategic mechanism. Players move complementary character cards across a numbered grid board and attempt to bring cards together to form complete hearts. Through these formations, players can obtain rewards represented by “Pink Flower” cards, while the conquest and reconquest mechanisms create additional strategic interactions between participants. Beyond its entertainment value, Saint Valentin has a strong educational and pedagogical dimension. The game is designed as a learning-through-play experience in which players develop cognitive and social skills through direct manipulation, experimentation, observation, and strategic decision-making. The game encourages the development of spatial perception and visual reasoning by requiring players to analyze the positions of cards, distances, movement possibilities, orientations, and potential heart formations on a grid-based environment. Players must continuously observe the board and identify configurations that may create strategic opportunities. Saint Valentin also promotes logical thinking, anticipation, concentration, planning, problem-solving, and decision-making. Each movement can influence future possibilities, requiring players to evaluate consequences, compare different options, manage risks, and adapt their strategy according to changing game situations. The game further supports learning through experimentation. Players can test different strategies, observe the consequences of their choices, correct unsuccessful approaches, and progressively improve their understanding of the game system. This active-learning approach makes the game potentially suitable for educational activities where reasoning, strategic thinking, creativity, and problem-solving are encouraged through play. Its relational dimension also contributes to the development of social and interpersonal skills. Players must observe opponents, anticipate their actions, adapt to changing situations, respect rules, manage healthy competition, and recognize opportunities created by other participants. The conquest and reconquest mechanisms create an evolving interaction in which each player's decisions can influence the possibilities available to others. The educational potential of Saint Valentin may make it relevant for families, schools, educational institutions, extracurricular activities, educational game clubs, cultural and community centers, strategy workshops, and organizations interested in learning through play. The project can therefore be viewed not only as a board game but also as a potential educational and cognitive development tool, combining entertainment with observation, spatial reasoning, strategic planning, logical analysis, creativity, concentration, adaptability, communication, and decision-making. The project currently includes an original game concept, a functional physical prototype, a complete official rulebook, an established visual and symbolic universe, original game mechanisms, and development potential toward professional publication and production. This Zenodo record presents the general concept, educational value, game universe, components, mechanisms, innovations, and development potential of Saint Valentin. The complete technical rules and certain detailed development elements may be provided separately to interested partners, publishers, manufacturers, distributors, investors, educational institutions, or collaborators. Creator / Inventor: Doumbia AmaraCountry of origin: Côte d'Ivoire – AfricaContact: studiojeuxamara@gmail.com For information concerning collaboration, publishing, production, distribution, educational use, investment, partnership opportunities, or access to the complete game rules, please contact the creator directly at studiojeuxamara@gmail.com.