I find the Everdeck[0] to the the most elegant and interesting implementation of the super-deck concept. The sreator has explored and taken ideas from many other deck systems[1].
Remotely related to something I was wondering yesterday: outside of 'house rules'-type variations, are there major changes to common games that are viable, popular and catalogued somewhere? e.g., add a few pieces and turn Monopoly into a zombie horde game, or change Scrabble into a dungeon crawler or Uno into a space RPG.
I have read novels written by engineers. More often than not, they are unreadable. They fail to understand why people read (or write). They are an engineer's idea of what a novel should look like.
In the most loving way possible and as a software engineer myself, this is an engineer's idea of what a deck of cards should look like.
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I have read novels written by engineers. More often than not, they are unreadable. They fail to understand why people read (or write). They are an engineer's idea of what a novel should look like.
On the other hand: Greg Egan ([1], [2]) is a mathematician and novelist. His novels are sometimes considered to be barely readable (if you are not part of his audience). On the other hand: he does seem to understand why people read his novels - he knows his audience. :-D Readers praise his novels for the worldbuilding (though commonly the story is considered to the weaker side of many of his novels).
So I do imagine that such engineers who write novels perfectly know why people read - they just write for a different audience. :-)
Nevil Shute was an engineer and he wrote some well respected novels like the nuclear war story On the Beach (made into a movie twice), A Town like Alice (made into a film and TV series), and No Highway (sometimes called No Highway in the Sky after the title of the film based on it), which actually deals with aircraft engineering and the problems involved in designing early jet airliners.
It seems though like these are kind of a tool for a “game engineer” to prototype a game though. Not just a deck to keep around the house for general play.
It baffles me that this isn't mentioned in the page, but a deck like this is extremely useful for testing while designing a new boardgame. They are very versatile and can likely emulate whatever wacky system you come up with for your game, which means you can iterate without having to print a new deck new each time.
I love it I really do. Great concept and nice site.
However. Its hilariously unrealistic. Just memorize these 500 simple glyph's and become a master of conceptual game design and you can play anything with this deck!
The hard part is not the deck. Its finding another person that will actually learn all this so you can use it,lol.
Yeah I think one of the funniest parts is that it doesn't even include the standard heart, diamond, club, spade suits. Picturing trying to explain to my grandma which suit is which as she begs for a normal deck of cards.
I agree that the main pain point is teaching new users how to use the deck. I wrote such detailed documentation because this project is very niche, and I thought board game geeks would love all this knowledge. However, after completing it, I realized it’s overwhelming for a quick “Getting Started” guide. To address this, I’ve been thinking about creating a video tutorial on how to use the deck and writing a separate simplified manual, something more accessible for casual users.
My next challenge is that I’m not making any profit from the deck right now. I’d need to lower production costs, invest in branding/marketing, and figure out distribution. Basically, find a publisher or handle it myself (probably through crowdfunding). I feel like I’ve got a validated MVP because real people are buying it, and with some improvements, it could reach a broader audience. Any thoughts or advice on this?
I feel like you need to pre-populate some of the tiles with popular games. How you do this without running afoul of copyright is up to you. Maybe you use synonyms (good/evil/devil instead of liberal/fascist/hitler), have a variety of werewolf/mafia characters, etc.
Then this can be marketed as "20+ games in 1" in airport giftshops, the idea being that you expand the market well beyond board game enthusiasts and prototypers to casual gamers.
If this were a product from someplace that doesn't respect copyright at all, each card would likely just be a grid of miniaturized original cards from various games and some mapping/instruction cards, and maybe a crappy smartphone app.
Is gumroad or PayPal not available in Spain? Feels weird to WhatsApp someone to buy the cards. Anyhow, the design is deliciously complex. @Op, can you play briscas with these cards?
We do have PayPal, and that’s what I usually use (along with crypto). I chose WhatsApp because the volume of sales is so low. I print the deck in batches when I accumulate enough orders, and using WhatsApp/email allows me to text customers when their deck is ready. It’s pretty rudimentary, I know, haha.
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[0] https://thewrongtools.wordpress.com/2019/10/10/the-everdeck/ [1] https://thewrongtools.wordpress.com/2017/10/15/features-of-f...
More like repurposing games to play other existing games rather than the overhaul you're talking about.
In the most loving way possible and as a software engineer myself, this is an engineer's idea of what a deck of cards should look like.
On the other hand: Greg Egan ([1], [2]) is a mathematician and novelist. His novels are sometimes considered to be barely readable (if you are not part of his audience). On the other hand: he does seem to understand why people read his novels - he knows his audience. :-D Readers praise his novels for the worldbuilding (though commonly the story is considered to the weaker side of many of his novels).
So I do imagine that such engineers who write novels perfectly know why people read - they just write for a different audience. :-)
[1] https://www.gregegan.net/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Egan
I think you read novels by bad writers, who happened to be engineers.
That being said, I love the page. The layout, use of colors and the content.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevil_Shute
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The first paragraph says: "The DIY multideck is ideal for traveling, prototyping new games, and trying games before buying." (emphasis mine)
However. Its hilariously unrealistic. Just memorize these 500 simple glyph's and become a master of conceptual game design and you can play anything with this deck!
The hard part is not the deck. Its finding another person that will actually learn all this so you can use it,lol.
* https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/39987/one-deck (my own attempt)
* https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/59655/rainbow-deck
But for something different, I suggest looking at the Decktet, https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37301/decktet , which is an unusual multi suited deck, which people have ported games to use.
Then this can be marketed as "20+ games in 1" in airport giftshops, the idea being that you expand the market well beyond board game enthusiasts and prototypers to casual gamers.
If this were a product from someplace that doesn't respect copyright at all, each card would likely just be a grid of miniaturized original cards from various games and some mapping/instruction cards, and maybe a crappy smartphone app.
Here's one I peek at from time to time: http://wiki.decktet.com/introduction-to-the-decktet
Yes, you can play briscas: https://diymultideck.mauri.app/games/spanish-deck/ (and also any other common deck)