Kickstarter is releasing its first card game, and you can get it for free at PAX Unplugged
Ask weird questions in Blow My Mind, designed by TEAM3 studio.
Crowdfunding giant Kickstarter has made a card game - and you can pick up a copy for free at next week’s PAX Unplugged convention.
While Kickstarter is known for hosting endless crowdfunding campaigns for tabletop games, upcoming card game Blow My Mind marks the first time that the crowdfunding company has published its own game.
The card game has been created to promote Kickstarter creators exhibiting at board game convention PAX Unplugged next weekend. Disclaimer: PAX Unplugged organiser ReedPop is the owner of Dicebreaker.
After collecting the game’s starter pack (which includes five cards) from the Kickstarter booth, PAX Unplugged attendees will be able to collect the remaining 45 cards for the game by visiting booths around the convention’s show floor. The participating booths are marked with a Kickstarter goose, matching the crowdfunding company’s own stand - making it a wild goose chase, geddit? Each stand will also offer a stamp, which can be collected and exchanged for a pin badge and custom d20.
As for the game itself, Blow My Mind is a light party game in which players answer a series of card prompts - each with a question designed to spark debate. Each round, one person reads the prompt to the group, before the players offer their ideas for consideration.
The prompts range from tabletop-specific nods to general dilemmas. For example, whether a hot dog counts as a sandwich, if dropping dice counts as rolling them and how a goose would wear pants. The person who provides the most mind-blowing answer wins the round, signing a dedicated signature space on the card to immortalise their ingenuity.
Behind the game is tabletop design studio Forever Stoked Creative, which previously designed party game TEAM3, and comic artist Marie Enger, whose illustrations adorn each card.
Blow My Mind’s gameplay was inspired by discussion-on-a-scale party game Wavelength, with co-creator Matt Fantastic recalling that the designers asked: “How can we make that weird discussion vibe the singular focus of a game?” The game was designed before being picked up by Kickstarter to use as a promotional tool at conventions.
“Everyone loves to argue about things, and who doesn’t want to get into it over if a hot dog is a sandwich?” Fantastic said. “But we also wanted to make sure it was a chill conversation and not about actually winning an argument due to your aggressive debate skills.
“Ultimately we’re trying to help make connections; between people, between people and creators, and between Kickstarter and the community. It’s been really cool to see how just asking a simple question can get people talking to each other and vibing in ways they wouldn’t have otherwise.”
“It’s meant to encourage discussion, creativity, and wild ideas - similar to Kickstarter,” added Kickstarter’s head of games Jonathan Ritter-Roderick.
Kickstarter told Dicebreaker that, for now, the game will only be available at PAX Unplugged, but may appear at other events in the future.