Connections

Connections is a game about communication, association, and how we all see the world a little differently. To win you will need to find clever connections between disparate photos, and understand the connections others have found. 

The game is structured much like charades, where each round one player will provide clues and the other players will guess, where the goal is to guess as quickly as possible. In this game clues are provided by organizing a deck of photographs, and guesses are made by revealing cards from this deck. Points are scored for each card viewed to find the target card, low score wins.

This game is further exploration of a concept I am fascinated with, mindsets and how people think. While I have mush to say about this topic, particularly from an educational or puzzle game standpoint, the goal for connections was simply to expose how different people thing, by forcing them to interact with each others natural organizational systems. I can see many applications of this, from installations with a rotating player base to an icebreaker to online or app versions, but for now I have stuck to a simple pdf ruleset, to allow anyone to experience the game. I think being played by a group of friends, informally with the pictures on their phones for next to no cost is where the game will thrive.

I would like to thank my playtesters, both my classmates and my family. My family in particular showed me the true nature of the game, where my parents could instantly determine where any card was, without really understanding why. That to me showed the nature of a committed relationship more than anything I have ever seen. Finally thank you to my wonderful wife.