Designing for Change
Games are a fantastic medium for play, curiosity, connection, and learning. Sam designs analog/tabletop games that provide thinking frameworks to address creativity, embodiment, and the ways people and systems engage.
A tiny creativity instigator, developed in collaboration with and available at Galileo Games.
A collection of zines originally funded on Kickstarter in Feb 2024 as part of #zinequest. Games and other tools evolve in purpose and use over time. This is particularly true of tarot, a card game developed in the 15th century that has modern uses from psychology to collaborative art. One of the earliest hacked games, we've continued that tradition by imagining new uses and new interpretations with a focus on techniques that support meaningful conversations, deep collaboration, hopeful inerpretation, and community building and repair.
The Old Ways Must Go uses any tarot, oracle or imagery deck to engage people in critical conversations about repairing and rebuilding outdated, toxic, or harmful systems.
The Optimists Guide to Tarot
A deck-neutral and inclusive guide to the traditional tarot interpretations with a grounded yet fiercely hopeful twist.
In Good Company: Tarot Templates for Two or More
A series of frameworks to holding meaningful conversations with loved ones and collaborators, using the concept of spreads AKA card layouts to create structured, clear pathways for vulnerale conversations.
Games available for download at https://nerdsomatics.itch.io
Print copies available from Galileo Games
A game about archival control, power, credibility, and how narratives change over time. Players take turns making changes to a shared narrative, as each turn more of the source material erodes and fades. Who will decide what is true? How do our own experiences and beliefs engage with source materials?
With applications from academics to archivists, from intelligence analysis to critical thinking for high schoolers and beyond, White Space challenges us to think about what inhabits the space in and around the text of our most cherished stories.
Publication pending, playtests available to select groups and gaming events.
You can look for Sam's games and other collaborations at https://nerdsomatics.itch.io