Quick Play
The simplest way in — deal five cards, share a story, connect the triangles. The elaborate rules live under Standard and Advanced.
How to Play
Deal out five cards to each player.
Eldest starts by placing the card with the highest amount of Joypoints on a surface and Shares a brief story about the subject on the Card. Then that player collects another card from the common deck (all players maintain five cards throughout the game).
The other players Listen and at the end of the Happiness™ story the player to the left of the eldest connects for their turn — or any player may create a Bummering (stealing joy away): placing your BUMMER Card adjacent to the Card Shared (as long as the triangles match and Connect). Then the Bummering player Shares a BUMMER experience related to that short story subject and collects both Cards to add up the Joypoints at the end of the game. This game play can be used or not depending on your strategy (updated information available online).
After the elder played the first Card, if no one wanted to BUMMER it, then the person to the left of the elder goes next, places any Card that Connects to the first Card played, and Shares a related Happiness™ story.
Two Ways to Collect Joypoints
There are two ways to collect Joypoints to win the game:
- One is by Bummering.
- Two is by creating Euphoria.
You create Euphoria by sharing joy together by Connecting 5 Cards for true Happiness™. A Euphoria happens when four adjacent Cards Connect to one Card on all of its four sides. Those five Cards together create a Euphoria, and the player who Connected the five sweeps them off the surface to collect all of the Joypoints at the end of the game. (Some Cards may be stranded like islands, which is normal.)
Simple Summary to Start Playing
- Deal 5 Cards to each player from the sorted 60 deck
- Elder starts & Shares; other players Listen & Connect… and possibly BUMMER
- Create Euphoria
The purpose of Happiness™ is to Share, Listen & Connect.
Win the game as you Share the best moments of your life to gain Joypoints while occasionally Bummering.
Concentrate while you Listen to the Happiness™ story to learn about one another better and Connect.
Happiness™ — Share. Listen. Connect. — Idea Forge Studios