Blue Highway Games up on Queen Anne Ave is a wonderful little cozy game shop. I love going and checking out their extensive game library with my dad. It is located right next to Caffe Ladro, which is perfect for grabbing a quick bite or a warm drink, and then playing a fun game or perusing the aisles at Blue Highway. They have a large range of games, including small card games and ginormous 15-hour games, roll-and-writes, and role-playing games. Some of my favorite games that I have at my house are ones that we first played there. They also have a bunch of events like recently they had a 24-hour game fundraiser and a family game night. They have local game designers come to demonstrate their games every once in a while. For a little bit I was in their kids Dungeons and Dragons group. They have a snack fridge where if you’re doing an all-day game event, where you could get a soda or seltzer and some chips (for a small price, of course). They have plenty of games, (I mean, they’re a game store, game stores have to have games!) but some of you might be more of a puzzle fan - they have those for sale too! They also have logic puzzles, fidget puzzles, marbles, dice, and models. This is one of my favorite places on Queen Anne Ave, and everyone there is super nice! 

 

Since Blue Highway Games has a whole selection of small card games, I was inspired to share with you a fun way to create your own card games quickly! If you have completely no idea whatsoever about what you want to create, please feel free to roll some dice and use the tables below! All you need to generate your own game is a six-sided die and a coin for flipping. For each option, roll the die or flip the coin, and then go to the answer that has the same number you rolled or face you flipped. If you don’t want it random, you can just choose from these ideas. If you just want to try it out, I would recommend a 10-20 card deck, but if you have some time and you want to work on it a lot, I recommend a 64 card deck. Once you choose your rules, (either from the tables or from something you were already thinking about) you should write them down so you don’t forget. To make a game more engaging, you can also make small tokens for players to use. 

 

Table #1 Main setting 

1. City 

1. Space 

1. Ocean 

1. Forest 

1. Home 

1. Quantum Drift (anything abnormal and interesting) 

 

Table #2 Main Idea 0.1* 

1. Food  

1. Sport 

1. Architecture 

1. Art 

1. Animal 

1. Machine 

 

Table #3 Main Idea 0.2* 

1. Thread Craft (sewing, embroidery, cross stich, ect.) 

1. Christmas 

1. Stuff That People Do In Space 

1. Metro 

1. Story 

1. Planet 

 

*Choose which table has the most interesting topics, or roll on both 

 

Table #4 Cooperative? * 

Heads: Cooperative 

Tails: Competitive 

 

*Cooperative games are ones where all the players work together toward a common goal. Competitive games are where each player tries to win on their own. 

 

Table #5 Tokens? 

Heads: Yes tokens 

Tails: No tokens 

 

Inspirational Ideas: 

Cosmic Threads: you are a wombat, floating in the vast cosmos, trying to embroider the stars. But your thread keeps floating away! Try to create the most beautiful patterns with new threads, while stealing from other wombats. Possible rolls: Quantum Drift, Animal, Thread Craft, Competitive, no tokens. 

Coral: you and your friends are marine biologists studding coral reefs. Get the most pictures of fish as well as getting coral samples. Possible rolls: ocean, animal, co-op, yes to tokens. 

 

After building your game you should ask a family member or friend to play-test it with you to see if there need to be any tweaks, and then once you are sure that it has good rules, then is the time to share it with others. If you don’t want to create your own games but want to play games that I was inspired by, some of those are: Hippo, Gotown (pictured above), Bandito and Bandita (separate games), and Winston. 

I hope you enjoy this fun way to create your own games! 

 

Pictured above are some of my favorite games that we have: Rory’s Story Cubes, Next Station London, Gotown, Floor Plan, and Twice As Clever.