Burnout: A Ruthless Game About Surviving Work & Your Sanity

Welcome to Burnout

Dear Overworked Friend,

Burnout is a ruthless party game about surviving work without losing your sh*t.

You compete with your co-workers for the only available promotion spot. Your main objective is to grow your Reputation while protecting your Mental Health. Sabotage, work smart, or go on leave … do whatever it takes to get ahead.

Over six chaotic weeks, you’ll take on high-stakes Projects to boost your Reputation. But manage your Mental Health carefully. If you Burnout, it’s a major setback!

On your way to the top, you can play nice or play dirty. Choose to backstab your co-workers, change the scope of Projects, or work smart to protect yourself from sneaky betrayals. Navigate chaotic Company Announcements and snag Annual Leave to save your sanity as you aim to secure the only promotion available.

First time on Kickstarter

Key Features

High Tension, Maximum Drama

Every move can improve or wreck your Reputation and Mental Health. It’s a nail-biting sprint that goes down to the wire, full of sabotage and intrigue.

With unpredictable projects, shifting alliances, and weekly rule changes, no two games unfold the same.

Strategy Meets Sabotage for Epic Game Nights

Backstab, defend, or twist the rules: hand management is everything. Draw your hand carefully from a choice of three types of Action Cards. Smart plays can shift the balance, creating moments you’ll remember.

Highly Relatable, Ruthlessly Fun

With satirical copy and real-life scenarios that hit too close to home, Burnout will keep everyone laughing at the sheer absurdity and chaos of corporate life.

Beyond the game, it’s a playful reminder to take care of your own sanity.

Simple Rules, Multiple Strategies

We developed Burnout to be easy to learn for new players, but have enough depth for experienced players to try and test different strategies. There’s always a new way to play.

Played at Real Tables, Worldwide

From local board game fairs to SPIEL Essen 2025, Burnout has been played, tested and refined with real players across 7 countries, delivering plenty of laughter, a little chaos, and zero quiet rounds.

How to play

Download the rulebook

What's included in Burnout?

Note: Final artwork and components may vary slightly.

Reward tiers

Note: USD prices listed are approximate and may vary marginally due to exchange rates. Final artwork and components may vary slightly.

Add-ons

Note: USD prices listed are approximate and may vary marginally due to exchange rates. Final artwork and components may vary slightly.

What's in the Booster Pack?

Stretch goals

All Stretch Goals have been unlocked, including 10 KS exclusives! Apart from the first three, all remaining Stretch Goals were selected by voting through campaign updates.

Social goals

1 Social Goal was unlocked! We also included some of the Stretch Goal items into the Social Goal voting so that everyone will still have a chance to select the items they wanted.

Reviews

Shipping estimates

Shipping costs (as well as any tariffs, VAT or other regulatory taxes) will be calculated and collected on the pledge manager around October 2026, closer to our delivery date. All estimates below are based on current rates and may change due to factors such as currency fluctuations, tariffs, fuel surcharges, and global events.

What is the pledge manager, and how does it work?

The pledge manager is just a platform that helps us collect shipping fees, manage orders, and confirm your details (like your address). Through the pledge manager, you will be able to:

• Confirm your pledge
• Add any additional items you would like
• Share your shipping address
• Pay for shipping costs
• Pay for taxes and duties (if applicable) in accordance with regional laws

How we're trying to keep shipping affordable

We've set up a hub model to make shipping as affordable as possible for our backers. Rather than shipping every order directly from Singapore or from one location, we work with trusted regional fulfilment partners to store and ship games closer to you. This means shorter shipping distances, lower costs, and faster delivery.

That being said, we're also balancing against quality and trust. We've got even cheaper quotes, but after researching reviews, we've decided not to proceed with those fulfilment companies.

We also absorb a portion of the shipping costs ourselves. We've done this deliberately to make Burnout as accessible as possible for backers around the world.

Our regional fulfilment partners are:

• United States & Canada: Fulfillrite
• UK & Europe: Zatu Games
• Australia & New Zealand: Aetherworks
• Asia: VFI Asia (tentative, to be confirmed post-campaign)
• Singapore: Team Board Game
• Rest of the World: To be confirmed based on the locations of backers

As we get a clearer picture of the number of backers and their locations, we hope to negotiate better rates and further reduce costs!

Timeline

We will keep all backers updated monthly throughout the process and communicate any changes as early as possible. We will also be posting weekly updates in a Facebook group which all backers will get access to once the Kickstarter campaign ends.

Team & Story

First off, we’d like to say thank you for stopping on this page.

The topic of mental health in the workplace is deeply personal to us. The truth is, much of what happens in the workplace affects our well-being in ways we don’t always notice. A passive-aggressive email, an unreasonable deadline, or an “urgent request” at 6 pm; these small things add up.

Yet so many of us brush it off, laugh it away, or just don't talk about it.

We wanted to create a game that isn’t just fun. It’s relatable. At its core, it’s a reminder that the struggles of modern work life are a shared experience, and that it's okay to talk about them.

We hope Burnout is a small step towards normalising those conversations, one chaotic game night at a time.

How we treat ourselves and others can make a real difference. We hope it sparks conversations, laughter and … maybe even a little self-reflection.

Take care and stay sane,

Suren, Jannis & Ester

• Core Team: Ester, Jannis & Suren (above)
• Illustrations and Art: Jennifer
• Rules Art: Oksana