Contest: help me with an urban exploration travel game - round 2

in #contest7 years ago (edited)

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I'm designing a card game for exploring urban places. It's 80% complete, and I'm looking for help with some fresh new ideas for ways to navigate urban environments, interact with people and places, and learn about yourself and your friends by doing so.

All SBD generated by this post go to contest winners.

@doctorcrypto won round 1, winning 15 SBD including a 5 SBD bonus for making card images and offering an additional entry:

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But don't worry, you don't need to do that to play.

All you need for a valid entry is text:
Title: _____________ Description: _____________

To suggest a card, you'll need to understand the game a little more. Here are examples of Atlas cards we've all ready designed that are really fun:

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What is Atlas?

Atlas is a card game for exploring urban places. It takes you to places you would have never found on your own, it gets you lost in places you thought you knew, and it encourages you to interact with the urban environment and the people in it in fun new ways.

Throughout the game, you map your experiences, and you get some fun ideas for reshaping your relationship to the cities you visit and the cities you call home.

At the end of each game, the players have made a map of what they did. This unique representation of the players' imaginations and their adventures is what really makes Atlas special:

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How do you Play Atlas?

2-3 people play on a team together in an urban environment. The Navigator selects a card, the group does what the card says, then the Cartographer draws what everyone did on a map. Once a complete turn has been recorded, players switch roles.

Some cards tell you how to move about in the city, some tell you how to interact with a stranger. Some cards have you perform an activity, find something in particular, or interact with the urban environment in different ways. More examples of fun cards:

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CONTEST RULES

All SBD liquid rewards generated by this post will be distributed to the winners. Upvote, resteem, promote, etc. to grow the prize pool for everyone!

A qualifying entry will have both a card title and a description.
Title: _____________ Description: _____________

I will select up to 3 winners who have come up with card ideas I like the most, so read about what makes a good card below for the best chance to win.

  • For 1 winner, that person gets 100% SBD generated by this post.
  • For 2 winners, first gets 66% and second gets 33%.
  • For 3, 1st gets 50%, 2nd gets 30%, and 3rd gets 20%.

You may submit as many entries as you like. You might even get multiple prizes. Entries for this round are closed when the rewards for this post close.

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What makes a good card?

Atlas is all about encouraging people to explore urban environments while being present with their imaginations, emotions, and social selves in unfamiliar, fun and creative ways. We want it to be playable in any city in the world.

Atlas is meant to encourage people to explore their own ranges of comfort and discomfort. Cards that offer opportunities to do this are great, especially ones that can be interpreted and played differently by people with different comfort ranges.

We want this game to be accessible to a lot of people, not just the most adventurous. Cards that are too scary or ridiculous or take people out of their experience of playing the game are not good cards.

While a card might offer room for interpretation, the directions should be clear, not confusing. We don't want the thought "What am I supposed to do?" to take players out of the game.

We like cards that encourage people to be aware of their bodies, their feelings, and how each are effected by the urban environment. We don't like cards that rely on players interacting with their technologies, like smartphones, though we do like cards that draw players' awareness to the way that technologies influence their experience of traveling about.

We like clever titles. Descriptions should be as short as possible as they have to be fit onto a printed card.

Whew. Thanks for reading! Hope you have fun with this!

~jared~

PS the first image is Atlas of Friendship, a painting by Richie Rhombus, who is co-creating the Atlas card game with me.

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I love the idea of this game! This sounds like a great way to rediscover the city that you live in. Here are my ideas for some cards.


Title: Nature Detective
Description: Take 5 minutes to find some hidden pieces of nature in your surroundings.

My idea with this card is to get the players to see that even though they are in an urban environment, nature is still around them. Even if it's just a glimpse of the sky between buildings, some insects on the ground, weeds popping up between cracks in the concrete, or a squirrels in a park, we sometimes forget that nature is all around us even when we are in an urban setting.


Title: Fake History
Description: Find an interesting building, landmark, or area and create a fake history of what happened there.

Even though we may not know the history of the city we are in, we take take a guess at what it used to be like. You can be as realistic or dramatic as you want. It can be fun to make up stories about the world around us.


Title: Go Against the Grain
Description: Walk in the opposite direction of the majority.

Sometimes you just need to go where everyone isn't going. You may find empty streets, old abandoned buildings, or quiet places away from the hustle and bustle of urban life.


These are excellent suggestions for cards, @kr583! Way to set the bar high.

Thank you for also including your thought process with the cards you suggested, that also really helps.

Wow !!! It's a great idea this game !!!
I will take some time to think about ideas and I will come back to share them !!! Have a good day!

Thank you!! Excited to see what you come up with :)

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