38. Designing winter card games

Ah, the artistry of a good game. Small cards, detailed illustrations, fun prompts. A moment to get caught up in play and mischief with friends and family. Clean fun. I get kicks out of designing games even though I'm actually not a competitive person. In this post, I'm sharing some of the winter card games that I designed for an upcoming family holiday vacation.

Earlier this year I read a book called The Power of Fun by Catherine Price. In the book, Price consolidates anecdotal research of fun moments into three elements - playfulness, connection and flow. Each element has a list of different categories. Reading about these three elements and analyzing the categories helped me to understand what exactly I find "fun" and why I'm so attracted to making games.

(I recommend doing the Power of Fun assessment tool to unlock your own elements of playfulness, connection and flow. To start, you describe the times you laughed till you lost your breath or felt in the flow. You learn the different elements of playfulness, connection and flow. And finally you work backwards from your stories to tease out the categories that create fun for you. It really helped me understand what I laugh at and even quelled some friendship compatibility questions I've been knocking around in my head.)

My fun stories pinpointed that in playfulness category, I enjoy silliness, creativity, intellectual stimulation, challenges, games, absurdity, and a little bit of uncertainty. (I like a bit of improv, but I like knowing there are easy rules and limitations.) I especially light up brainstorming how things fit together and then making things myself. This is a big reason why I can't stop myself from making art, and it bleeds seemlessly into why I also enjoy making games. It hits almost every single one of my categories in "playfulness" elements! No wonder I'm delighted by it!

In my own journaling, I also hit upon an a-ha moment about vulnerability when it comes to games. At face value, a game highlights our talents, tests our luck, maybe even bares our flaws. But at a deeper level, the act of playing a game is a symbolic gesture of commitment. It's a love act of togetherness and quality time. Players let go of other responsibilities and instead circle around a game with the purpose and a mission of active participation.

In essence, the game is actually a gift of true presence. Even the tangible elements grounds everyone to right here, right now. Hold your cards. Toss the dice. Walk your marker down the map tiles. Everything, everywhere outside of the game collapses into itself - one dimension, one timeline, one focus. This is a sacred thing in a time where our attention is pulled in infinite directions. Makes me burst into a sunshine smile just thinking about it!

For all these reasons and more it's hard to play a game if you don't feel safe with the other players. So, when I design games, I truly focus on ways to make it a comforting safe experience, maybe intellectually stimulating but always generous. I try to make games that help people to share deeply, or allow people to be playful together. And I always lead games with as much cooperation and supportive encouragement as possible.

(I'll just note my bias that yes, I'm a sensitive type who values deep friendships and fostering a cohesive vibe so this is probably just my own personal preference with games. To be quite frank, I've been at too many tables where games are just a way for people to one-up each other. When games are designed for the kill, it's perfectly normal for that kind of insecurity to surface. But I really can't stand the sick scared feeling I get when competition erodes the safety of the group. I'm just not made for those kinds of experiences.)

So in anticipation for this holiday vacation, I pulled together some card games that I can easily transport to our final destination. Now that the younger ones in the family are bit more grown up and can join in, I can take the games into a more challenging level. So I thought about story-sharing and vulnerability experiences around some classic winter themed elements. Here are the four card games:

Guess the Movie - I collected movie quotes from all of our holiday favorites - Muppets Christmas Carol, Scrooged, Elf, etc. The goal is to guess the movie based on the quote. Even better is to name the character who said it!

There is a choice here in how to play the game in a supportive way, ranked from 1 to 3 in incrementally increasing tension.

1. Play individually: one designated game leader, everyone/anyone can shout out the answers, each player collects their own points for an ultimate winner

2. Play 2 teams: with a designated reader for each team reading the card for their team (if they can't get it, allow the other team to guess)

3. Play everyone helping 1: one designated player and everyone else gets to see the card and help the player by any means necessary (charades, giving character info, describing movie moment)

Would You Rather - a list of experiences with different christmas characters, or different christmas situations from the movies or life. E.g. Would you rather have your tongue frozen to a metal pole OR have your holidays canceled by your boss? The goal is to get people to choose sides.

It's a great game for moving around a bit. With kids especially it's fun to designate a side of the room for each answer so they have to physically walk/skip/jump to the other side of the room to "stand" in that answer. I adore playing this with my family since my dad hates hypotheticals and it turns into a hilarious situation of trying to convince him to come to terms with a particular answer.

Never Have I Ever - a list of experiences of situations or mishaps that are common during the seasonal time. Having a crush on a particular christmas character, make snow angels at midnight, overindulged on a dessert, etc. This game is for sharing vulnerability so it's an opportunity to expose cheeky heartfelt memories about previous holidays.

This game can foster some playful movement. On TV shows they have people lifting paddles or raising their hands as a way to say yes or no to a question. But for family gatherings, it can be uniquely wonderful to switch up the answer process - maybe people can stand up or sit down as an answer. (Great for the glutes!) Or you can make it subtle to have people move cutlery at the table as a "yes" answer. OR if you are a family or group of friends that feels safe for touch, you can even make it cumulative touch experience where each "yes" answer is a one finger on the person's shoulder next to you, culminating with all fingers on their shoulders and then shifting closer to each other, etc. until you are all in a big group hug. Ha! Could be hilarious!

Pictionary - a classic game which I filled with a list of items that are commonly found during the seasonal holidays. Snowflakes, boots, cookies. A quick slab of paper and some big markers and voila - you have yourself an excellent drawing game.* Of course, if there's no paper you can just turn it into charades. Then it becomes a whole new level of physical play to be a little more expressive with movements - an excellent choice to add a little extra silliness!

*I always bow out of these games if I'm with people who don't have drawing chops. As a designer/illustrator, my brain is primed to think in images and my hand-eye coordinating is well practiced. It can be intimidating and not nice to draw with others if one person has an imbalance of skills in a game. That's not fair or fun. Again, this is one of those moments where I'm hyper aware of the experience and the people around me. Ultimately, the point of a game in my opinion is vulnerability and connection so I find it perfectly fair to bow out for the sake of group ambiance.

For the design of the cards, I whipped up some quick little winter animal illustrations. Winter rabbits, penguins, polar bears, and mooses. I almost went with deers, but it quickly competed with the moose and I really fell in love with that moose face! I chose a gorgeous dusky blue for the first game and then decided a monochromatic scale of the blue for each deck would easily look elegant and coordinated. I made a quick exploration of art deco motifs to round out the whimsical bordering for each of the cards - this way each deck of cards is distinctive and memorable and cute to boot!

Confession time: I designed this all a long while ago so I'm super jazzed that I'm gonna be able to play with the family this time! Normally I make the games just beforehand and that naturally makes me privy to the answers. So I gracioiusly bow out or take the reigns as game leader calling out the cards or directing the game. (Again, I'm hyper aware of my role as game designer and I want to be fair to the players!) But this time, dear friends, I'll be able to join in the shenanigans because I designed all four decks back in June of 2024! Thank you past-me for being so proactively thoughtful. Yay!

These are the card games I'll be bringing on vacation. It's a one-off game experience that I'll probably only use this one time because like any game, the more you play, the easier to recall the information which shifts the game from a novel experience for everyone and turns it into a strategic competition instead. So I personally prefer to just "retire" games for a while. Stash them away and let the game rest!

Sometimes with enough distance of time, you can bring back an old game and you can reawaken the freshness for everyone! So maybe next year I'll bring these back out and we can play again. But knowing me I'll get back to the dreaming up a new game in no time. As someone who is constantly building new things, I find it perfectly wonderful to let go of old games so I can make room for fresh new games to come!

cheers to game-making for the sake of togetherness,

smarti