Upside-Out is 2-4 player card game.

It's a game I designed for Global Game Jam 2020 to solve issues I frequently see in many card games, namely, that players are just waiting for their turn the entire game, getting distracted and bored.

Upside-Out hinges on the twist that the general card has 2 effects: one facing you and one facing away. Each effect is upside-down on the card relative to the other, so the card is reversible; one effect will be readable to you, the holder, while the other is upside-down. When played, the effect facing you applies to you, while the effect facing away from you is applied to everyone else. In this, you are never just waiting for your turn; something is always happening to you every turn.

The Cards

The cards are available to download either as individual PNGs, or as a Word document that simply needs to be printed (in black-and-white) 3 times. The cards can then be cut out.

Rules

The rules are available for download, but here's a copy of the rules anyway:

Upside-Out

A 2 – 4 player card game

Designed by Gunnar Clovis for Global Game Jam 2020

For ages 10+

Estimated play time: 15 to 30 minutes

How To Set Up The Game

Print out the card sheet 3 times. Each of the 28 cards should have 3 copies in the deck, for a total of 84 cards. Cut out these cards, and shuffle the deck thoroughly.

There are 4 terms to describe the field in a game of Upside-Out:

• Deck: a shared stack of cards that all players draw from. This is normally face-down unless a card effect changes this.
• Discard Pile: a shared stack of cards that all players discard their cards to. This is always face-up.
• Hand: each player has a distinct hand of cards that they use to play. It is normally held by the players and always kept hidden from other players.
• Secrets: each player can have up to 3 secrets laid face-down in front of them. These secrets act as a player’s health, traps, and last line-of-defense. Players may not interact with their secrets unless explicitly allowed to do so by a card effect. Reordering your secrets means to alter the left-to-right ordered positioning of your secrets, while reorienting your secrets means to flip the up/down orientation of your secrets. To reveal a secret means to flip it over sideways (so the orientation is not changed), activating its effect as if it had been played.

To begin a game, each player is dealt 7 cards from the shared deck. Then each player sets 3 cards face-down in front of them as secrets, ordering and orienting them as they choose. These choices cannot be changed without an explicit card effect.

How To Start Playing

The first player to tell the group a personal secret about themselves goes first. If no player at the table offers a personal secret within 30 seconds of this phase, then the player who was most recently alone for at least 6 hours goes first.

We recommend giving the first player a large token, coin, or other trinket to represent that it is their turn. As play continues, players will take turns moving clockwise from the first player, passing along this representative turn token. This turn order is important, and may be periodically reversed by a card effect.

Play will continue around the table until only one player is left remaining in the game as the winner, after all others have been knocked out by losing all 3 of their secrets.

What To Do On Your Turn

On your turn, you have 2 options:

• Draw a card from the deck, or
• Play a card from your hand

You may only choose 1 of these options; your turn then ends and the game continues to the next player’s turn. You must choose 1 of these 2 options.

If you choose to play a card from your hand, you may play any non-special card, but only one card in this way per turn.

You play a non-special card by laying it face-up in front of you, oriented up or down as you choose. All non-special cards have 2 sides with distinct effects. Each side is reversible, so that when 1 effect is right-side up readable facing you, the other side is upside-down facing away from you.

When you play a card, you carry out the effect facing you according to the card text, then the effect facing away from you is carried out by all other players, in turn order from you. After a card’s effect is resolved, it is sent to the discard pile.

When multiple card effects occur during a round due to plays, secret reveals, or special cards, they are resolved in order-of-play (i.e., if a played card reveals a secret, the played card is fully resolved and discarded before the revealed secret is resolved at all). Special cards take some exception, as some negate the effect of a card instantaneously, however any additional logic (such as forcing the caster to follow an effect instead of you with Mirror) are still resolved in order-of-play.

How Do I Play Special Cards?

You may play special cards at any time they say you can according to their text.

For example, Mirror and Counter can be played at any time a player casts an effect against you, reversing or nullifying the effect respectively.

What To Do When The Deck Runs Out

When the deck runs out of cards to draw, flip the discard pile upside down, shuffle it, and use it as the new deck.

What If There Are No Cards Left To Draw, Set, Donate, etc.?

If you are asked to draw a card from either the deck or the discard pile and none are left to draw, or you are asked to set a card but you do not have any cards in your hand to set, or if you are asked to donate a card but you do not have any cards in your hand to donate, etc., the effect is immediately cancelled and no further action is taken on your part.

What To Do When Asked To Discard More Cards Than You Have

Often in Upside-Out you will be asked to discard more cards than you have in your hand. This is important to moving a game forward.

At any time when you are asked to discard any number of cards, you may reveal a secret in lieu of any number of cards remaining to discard (this is similar to the special card Decoy’s effect). You must do this if you can’t discard the necessary cards.

What Happens When A Secret Is Revealed?

When a secret is revealed by flipping the card sideways face-up, it behaves as-if it had been played. You carry out the effect facing you, then all other players carry out the effect facing away from you in turn order. The secret is then sent to the discard pile.

The secret waits for all previously played cards to be resolved first before its effects are carried out.

You may not replace a revealed secret unless explicitly permitted to do so by a card effect.

If you have no secrets remaining on the field when a turn ends, you are removed from the game. This repeats until only one player is left remaining and crowned winner.

Future Changes

The Upside-Out card game is a very rough prototype, and I consider it a very successful prototype. It's had a fair amount of playtesting, all of which positive, just reaffirming some needed changes.

• The wording on many cards and the rules needs to be changed to be more clear.
• In general, text needs to be reduced to make reading faster.
• Many cards need to be deleted / replaced / nerfed / changed for balance and gameplay speed reasons.
• In a final version, all cards should be named, colored, and decorated with distinctive artwork so that their effect could be more quickly identified once a player learns the game a bit. Players were able to naturally mostly memorize the card effects after a few games with this first draft, so increased distinctiveness (and simplicity) I think could make the game much easier and faster to play after a few onboarding games.
• In a final version, all cards should be printed on thick, durable, non-see-through standard card material, and all cards should be printed with a back that identifies the orientation of a card at all times. A simple design with a red arrow pointing-up and a blue arrow pointing-down would suffice. This would make handling the cards far easier and prevent cheating and accidental mistakes.

Credits

The game was solely designed by myself, and the cards/documents were also just made by myself, hence why they look so bad haha...

Thanks to the UNLV Global Game Jam 2020 participants for helping me playtest.

Thanks to Will, Keyan, and Katie for being my models for the silly little photos!

Will: https://fierclash.itch.io/

Keyan: https://keyan-hatefi.itch.io/

Katie: https://littlemiist.itch.io/