Project Description

This project doesn't officially have a name, so I named it after the first card in the project, the only one to be deployed to much success.

I should probably explain the project. I bought a pack of 500 76x127mm (3x5 inch) index cards. I love index cards (although I wish they weren't lined) but I rarely use them. Hmm, how can I incorporate them into a project?

I quickly made a design:

http://harry-lee.com/upload/spy.pdf

And, on the spur of the moment, printed out 10 copies, cut them out, and stuck them onto index card.

Come Monday I was ready to spread my seeds of sneakiness and espionage! Into unsuspecting pockets, math books, binders and bags and jackets.

The next day I followed the trails of the cards I had released. By talking to the people I had given the cards to, I tracked most of the cards and found, with much satisfaction, that a majority of them had been passed down at least three times.

The most successful story is of the card passed from student to student three times before ending up in a math teacher's jacket. The teacher found it and gave it to another maths teacher, who inserted it into a student's corrected test before giving it back to him. The card passed hands once again before I lost track of it.

By these results, I can conclude that given the right people playing, this card can be quite fun.

So I did a bit more. But since I can never quite tell the difference between the "Detailed Description" of the project and the "Show us your project!" section, I'll just continue my little expository ramble down there...

Inspiration

A very long time ago I read about a game called "Bite Me", by Gamelab (the other games they designed for GDC were also amazing). I was fascinated by the social dynamics of such a "card game", and when thinking of ideas for a project, I recalled the rules of "Bite Me":

The goal of the game was to not have a Bite Me card at the end of the conference. You get rid of a card by approaching someone and ask them "Are you playing?" If they said "Bite me!" then you were stuck and couldn't give them the card. But if they said anything else you handed them the card. Now they were bitten and had to try to get rid of the card.

I was inspired by this concept and from it grew "The Sneaky Card" (for want of a proper name), which proved to be a successful 'game' in itself.

Who will enjoy this the most?

Fun loving people! Those who enjoy a little quirkiness, and especially those who wouldn't throw away a mysterious card they found in their jacket (placed by someone else).

The Project

Right, so. I decided to make some more designs. I asked the good friendly players of SFØ for more suggestions.

I created a little interactive flash (mainly because I was bored) which can be found here. There were many more designs and plans! Such as:

Categories:
BLUE cards test your audacity and chutzpah.
YELLOW cards require sneakiness and espionage skills.
RED cards involve finding things - and not just objects.
GREEN cards are about goodwill and giving to others.
PURPLE cards will plague your brain with puzzles.
ORANGE cards challenge you to create art with purpose.
SILVER cards are information cards.

Card designs:
Defeat somebody in a duel.
Your objective: Get revenge. Give the revengee this card.
Your objective: reverse hustle someone. Forcibly give them money, then give them this card.
Give this card to somebody without them knowing.
Your objective: Get this card signed by a celebrity, then pass it on to someone else.
Make someone lose the game. Place this card as a trap for somebody else.
Find this card's exact double.
Find the object circled on the list. When you have found it, cross it off and circle a new object, then give this card away.
Place this card someone highly visible but hard to reach. Your objective is complete when someone has removed the card

Give a gift to somebody, along with this card.
Make somebody laugh.
Return a lost item to it's owner, along with this card.
Find someone who needs cheering up. Give them this card, and something to cheer them up.
Add one word to the story on the back, then give this card to someone else.

----

Alas, the only physical artifact ever produced was the yellow spy card - I ran out of motivation and had moved on to my next project. Perhaps it was better that way... Unconsciously following the adage, "Quit while you're ahead", perhaps?

Slightly unrelated footnote:

Also, not quite in this project but related because I created it at the same time: I designed two "game cards", which had rules for very interesting psychological games written on them. I'll enclose them here, because I enjoyed coming up with the games and the cards: http://harry-lee.com/upload/game.png

Right, very late, must sleep. :)