Hey, it’s September! Sanity twinkles on the horizon; is it a mirage of false hope, or the faint honest shine of a distant true beacon? Time will tell. Things have at least temporarily slowed down enough, and I am for the next ten minutes inspired enough, for me to eke out a chunk of game design thinking. Since it’s not a Monday, I don’t feel beholden to my usual traditions (lol) and so today will be unabashedly about the arrow of inspiration that has lodged itself in my spongey grey matter. A new game design contest from Button Shy! Billed by them as a seemingly impossible challenge: An 18-card game with 18 identical cards, and no other components. They seem to think this is impossible; I think that it’s certainly a limiting constraint, but all the more fun for it. So this is just going to be a free-for-all of thoughts on some concepts and/or gameplay that could be done with 18 identical cards. Orientation: If you use the sides (4) and corners (4) of a card, and double it for