Welcome back to our 18-Card, Use 9 Per Game Challenge! After the first round of judging we’ve cut the field from 96 total entries down to our Top 12. We didn’t know quite what we’d get with this unique challenge, but the one thing we definitely received was variety: the range of themes, mechanics, and player counts made our judging process a fascinating one. We’ve been trying something new by slowly announcing the finalists on social media over the past 2 weeks, and it’s been great to see the level of interest and excitement that each of them have generated because so few of them feel similar in any way.

For each entrant, our panel of 3 primary judges (Dustin Dobson, Ian Howard, and Jason Tagmire) evaluated the pitch videos and print-and-play files to find the most interesting, unique, and thematic games. From there, we discussed our top picks to figure out which ones would continue to the next round of judging. We sent that set over to our panel of 4 secondary judges (Andrew Basile, Mike Mullins, Roshni Patel, and George Tagmire), who ranked the list based on similar criteria. With this many eyes on the process, we feel comfortable that we found some really excellent games. This is a great Top 12 and we’re happy to share them all together here (in alphabetical order) along with a bit of insight as to what captured the judges’ interest.

Astronotl

Erica Pinto

Axolotls…in space! What’s not to like about this cute and characterful co-operative game about spacebound amphibians trying desperately to repair their damaged space station? While we don’t judge the production quality of pitch videos, this highly-polished video is worth mentioning because it expertly showcases both the game’s family-friendly theme and the highlights of play.

 

 

Bad Robots

Marceline Leiman

This quirky 2-player game of pizza-making robots starts simple enough: draft cards from a central row, choosing only the leftmost or rightmost card, and add it to your tableau. From there, it layers in an interesting resource management system that sees players trading in bots for resources they can use to upgrade their robot chef team, then peppers it all with an exciting mix of unique actions that turns these culinary cogheaps into something truly special.

 

 

Crownfell

Mike Berg

Ever wonder what might happen if Chess discarded the bulky board and all those unnecessary extra pieces? Wonder no more! Crownfell takes some of the core ideas of Chess and radically rethinks them, granting each “piece” a highly unique ruleset that’s at once evocative and tactical, to create a sleek 9-card game of strategic movement where every combination of cards feels potentially game-breaking in the best possible way. It may be Chess-like, but Crownfell transcends its classical roots to form something new.

 

 

Everything Machine

Connor Wielgosz

Deduce the correct combination of categories in this co-operative game of careful clues! Everything Machine breaks one of our cardinal rules by providing players with a 3x3 grid to work with, but the big twist here is how the grid is used. Rather than manipulate the cards themselves, the guessing team asks the eponymous Everything Machine to provide a clue that fits each of 3 hidden categories in a line, using those clues to guess at the categories themselves. With elegant rules and even a handful of included scenarios, Everything Machine feels like the perfect solution to a dull party.

Lexicovery

Lucas Stark

Lexicovery has a straightforward premise: it’s a competitive word search for 2 players. Of course, the simple answer isn’t always the correct one. What elevates Lexicovery is its shifting arrangement of central goals that push players to find words that fit multiple categories. But it’s the mind-bending challenge of rearranging and overlapping the three cards in hand to create entirely new combinations of letters (with which to find those words) that turns Lexicovery into something truly inspired.

 

 

Out There

Kyle Day

The search for intelligent life takes a new form with Out There, a 2-player game of aliens seeking the right planet in a star system. Players move their alien ships around the system, investigating planets to determine whether they meet the criteria they’re looking for while simultaneously interfering with their opponent’s plans. With its clean visual appeal and limited information, Out There promises an astronomically good time.

 

 

SHAPER

Mark Tuck

Turn words into pictorial clues in this party-style cooperative game of strange shapes! Guess 12 correctly to win, but be careful as missed guesses will remove cards from the game, making future rounds more difficult. This easily understood concept is married with a visually engaging design to create a clever, highly replayable experience in just a handful of cards. 

 

 

The Daily Weather

Ian Tarter

The Daily Weather has one of the most unusual hooks we saw in this challenge: play a unique puzzle each day based on the current date! Overlap cards to not only complete the puzzle, but achieve a high score that you can share with your friends (or rivals) for bragging rights. We’re fascinated by the intersection of games and rituals, so it’s no surprise that The Daily Weather stormed its way into the finals.

 

 

The Spelling Boo

Nick Huster

We certainly didn’t expect to have two word search games in our Top 12, but when designers come at the same concept from such different angles it’s hard to pick just one! The Spelling Boo is a cooperative word search game that requires placing cards to complete successive word goals across 8 rounds of play. With each successive card, the possibilities for potential plays increase…but so does the difficulty! The Spelling Boo offers a charmingly strategic take on an uncommon genre and earned its spot in the finals.

 

 

Train Crane

Michal Peichl

Train Crane is a surprisingly slick solo game of lining up trains for big payoffs. Part of the game’s appeal is undoubtedly in the limited action options: each turn, the player chooses to either deploy a card or connect one, then adjust their trains accordingly. Games that turn simple choices into complex outcomes are often ones that work well at smaller card counts, so we just had to find out if Train Crane could deliver the goods.

 

 

Wild West Tycoon

Steven Smith

Take a trip back in time with Wild West Tycoon, a solo game of optimizing your frontier town. Place cards into your town tableau, including optionally rotating them, to create scoring opportunities based on several different elements. Of course, you’ll also have to manage your poker hand, as determined by the bottom side of your placed cards, to really maximize your points. Wild West Tycoon’s combination of a familiar theme, straightforward gameplay, and clean dual-use cards definitely made for an appealing package for our judges.

 

 

Wolfpack

Scott Allen Czysz

This meaty solo game about guiding a dwindling wolfpack through dangerous challenges makes great use of the 9-card restriction, limiting both your pack of 7 wolves and your 2 goal cards. The slow winnowing of wolves from the pack is what really makes it stand out on both a thematic and mechanical level, suggesting a natural sense of progression and shifting difficulty as play continues. While Wolfpack may be one of the more complex finalists, those small touches can go a long way to making it feel accessible and engaging.

Congratulations to all the finalists of the 18-Card Use 9 Per Game Challenge! For those who didn’t make the list, keep your eyes open for the next challenge. We’ll be announcing the winners of this one on or before March 15, 2025. To stay connected with the Button Shy community, and get all the updates on this challenge and more, please join the Button Shy Discord here: https://discord.gg/aUBMvnu