Indie Designer's Journal #16 Single Card Challenge!

[@perplexingruins]

reminds me of the business card rpg thing that came out this year, published by Long Tail Games! We all submitted an rpg on a business card, and was published as a box of like 50 business card games

[@jasonrudolph657]

I looked up this RPG game and ended up purchasing the PDF download to print the book myself. I'm excited to look into it. KZbin is amazing.

[@natew.7951]

I also immediately assumed they'd do a booster pack with like the top 9 or 18 games when I saw the contest

[@TheDungeonDive]

This is great! Love the challenge.

[@perplexingruins]

fascinating challenge! thanks for posting this Jason

[@MrJankTv]

Yep, you hooked me. I’m going to start designing something. I have a few ideas floating around now.

[@kararatcliffe7899]

Now that all the games have been submitted and available to view for the contest, it is really interesting to see all the different creative ways people went about their game submissions. One guy did 18 different games! My husband and I came up with about 16 concepts, but only had time to flesh out about 12. Really excited to see how it all turns out!

[@jasonglover6615]

I figured there would be many designers submitting multiple games. 18 is a lot!

[@n20games52]

That's just crazy! I'll have to give it a try!

[@jasonglover6615]

Right?! I am pretty intrigued.

[@Bennnist]

What about using some dice and a random book for a kind of RNG dungeon crawl? Roll numbers to turn to a certain page and word to give items random flavour text. Might need some work to make it a somewhat compelling game though.

[@jasonglover6615]

I think that could be a fun storytelling game idea!

[@francisd8650]

I'm going to attempt a form of "I split you choose" mechanism with a bunch of pre-drawn lines! Do you think we're allowed to ask players to provide a pen and paper? (For scoring and such)

[@jasonglover6615]

I know that a pen is allowed, but not sure about paper. It says change or buttons are allowed, so maybe use them for scoring?

[@epicunderworlds5693]

Couldn't you technically put a qr code on it that leads you to the rules?

[@robbywings]

I just drew up 4 quick games, but I'm wondering... Is it acceptable to have miniatured versions of existing games as your submission? As two of mine are versions of existing games I've shrunk down. Thx.

[@Shua01]

I am finishing up my entry, but the rules are the biggest challenge for me. Gonna have to strip it down a bit more. Gonna have to come out with advanced rules after the contest.

[@jasonglover6615]

Rules and a game on two sides of a single card is a tall order. Best of luck!

[@Genghis-Pawn]

It'd be interesting to see someone try to incorporate a "dexterity" element -- whether that means (a) asking players to chuck the card around their house, measuring distance to household "landmarks" as a measure of performance, or (b) having players flick/slide the card across a table and using distance-from-edge to determine some kind of skillcheck, or (c) going for some kind of spin-the-bottle type situation and using the card's ending orientation as a check, or (d) whatever. I'm not saying this kind mechanic alone would be a winner, but it's something you could do with a single card that could -- if made thematic -- kick a design up a notch...

[@jasonglover6615]

I single card does lend itself to the idea of a dexterity game. Maybe the card is stationary, and folks are trying to flick pennies onto it, or other small objects?

[@smallfurrygames]

Step 1: Use your phone to photograph these rules for later reference. Step 2: Cut up this card. 😉 ✂️ 🃏

[@jasonglover6615]

This is a brilliant idea. I think that would be fair. I do not think a link to an online PDF of the rules is okay, but this makes perfect sense!

[@madebyroro]

I (sort of) used this same trick for some of my entries for the challenge - the full rules are included, but after the card is cut up, the QR code is positioned to always be intact so the rules will always be accessible with a smartphone :)

[@epicunderworlds5693]

Also is this contest still on?

[@lockedlake]

They say "the play area must be on the card" I guess it's not "legal" to use the outside sides of the cards as storage ?

[@jasonglover6615]

I think that would be okay. Like if you wrote "gold" or "health" on the edge of the card and had players stack pennies next to the card to represent those. I think that is what you are asking?

[@lockedlake]

@@jasonglover6615 Yes or other items stocked like a "spaceship cargo" or "woods / stone" etc. Because with a poker card, if you need to track everything on a card, ouch.

[@natew.7951]

QR codes for rules. The contest says you can request players use phones for cameras, so putting a QR code that links to a full page of rules seems allowable.

[@pkarguth]

I was thinking this as well.

[@pkarguth]

"Full rules must be included in the game. You can provide links to other sources, but players need to be able to learn how to play your game just by reading the rules that come in the game." After reading this I think a qr code could be used for a video playthrough but rules should still be on the card somewhere so someone can learn it if they only have the card and nothing else.

[@natew.7951]

@@pkarguth I think that's an ambiguous ruling that could be interpreted to allow QR codes with rules. Maybe it will be disqualified, but one could argue that the full rules are included in the game. You could even argue that it's a legacy game (which was specifically allowed) and the only rule you need to know to play the first game is "scan this QR code". And other rules will come up later. But it might be against the spirit. I don't think it is clearly disallowed. Edit: probably best to check with JT first, good call out

[@jasonglover6615]

I thought about this as well, but would think it is not allowed. I think the challenge is getting everything on both sides of a single card. Maybe it is a loophole, but likely would hurt you in the voting.

[@TheGameCrafter]

@@pkarguthyou are correct. Rules cannot link to a QR code only. You must be able to play the game without the code. You can include a QR code for extra info though.

[@MelvLee]

Love this! I think the difficulties will be having all the rules included in one card given how precious the space is! I personally would use out side of the card to track any status. Something similar to my Business Card Dungeon Dive but maybe just the dungeon encounter (and the other side as rules + town phase etc.)