Water Cooler Games
Water Cooler Games served as the web's primary forum for "videogames with an agenda" — coverage of the uses of video games in advertising, politics, education, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment.

The site was maintained at watercoolergames.org from 2003-2009, where it was edited by myself and Gonzalo Frasca. It is now archived here in full.
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HGTV Interior Design Game
by Ian Bogost June 30, 2008
categories: Advergames , Casual Games

HGTV has a reality show called Design Star, which is apparently like American Idol or The Apprentice but for interior design. They have an advergame up that's actually, miraculously vaguely related to the theme of the show. It's called Design Star Shuffle, and it's basically a reskinned version of the puzzle boardgame Rush Hour. Instead of moving cars, the player moves sofas and other furniture.

It's not a bad idea, and a reskin of a proven design is probably better than a crappy new one, as is so often the case with film and tv advergames. But it's disappointing that HGTV didn't attempt to simulate the actual rules of interior design in some way. I suppose a feng shui game would be the most obvious solution, but it doesn't necessarily jive with the series. In any case, it's a missed opportunity to let viewer's try out the expertise required to win the contest, rather than just to push furniture around.