Steady. Stay steady. It’s just a game. Forget about those weird noises you heard. Ignore the tension in your lungs, holding in your breath because even the slightest movement might betray you. It’s just a game. Look at your cards. Not that one. It’s just a game. Don’t think about your racing heartbeat or your sweaty palms or those little hairs on your neck standing up all in a row. Fake a smile. Relax. It’s just a game. It’s just a game. Right?

The challenge this time is Design An 18 Card Game... About Fear!

Fear is a difficult thing to simulate in a game: after all, it’s hard to feel that anxious tension when you’re the one making decisions. The environment for most board games – a well-lit room, a group of friends – is the exact opposite of the things that usually make us afraid. Fear is also extremely personal: what terrifies one person might have no impact on another. Many designers have tried to make games about fear, and now it’s your turn to give us all the thrills, chills, creeps, and dread you can muster. 

That said, there are a few things we definitely do NOT want to see. First, we’re not looking for gory imagery or text. Gore is grotesque, not scary. We’re also not looking for extremely realistic or serious fears: we know that the real world can be an awful place sometimes, and our games typically offer a respite from that. Be very thoughtful about real-world conditions or situations that affect people, such as mental health disorders, violence, etc. Lastly, there are a few tried-and-true ways to express fear in games: push-your-luck and deck destruction are both relatively common. Try to think beyond those two mechanisms to see if you can find a new way to show us fear.

We invite you to join the community behind these awesome games

Let’s give you a place to share your ideas or designs, ask questions, look for playtesters, and get feedback from other designers. The Button Shy Discord server has a whole section for designers and a subsection for each of our contests. Visit it here and join along: https://discord.gg/aUBMvnu

Questions & Answers

Q: Can I use both sides of each card for gameplay? 

A: Yes.

Timeline

Submissions will be accepted until November 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM EST. This post will be updated with a submission form roughly halfway through the challenge. 

The winner will be announced on or before January 15, 2027.

Submission Requirements

Fill out the following form with the below information. You must provide all of the requirements below, including a pitch video, in order to qualify for judging.

SUBMISSION FORM: [to be posted later]

• Game Description: Including Designer Name(s), Game Title, Player Count, and Brief Description of the game play.

• Print-and-Play File: This should include the rules and game files. We recommend formatting the PNP at 9 cards per page with no bleed, or gutterfold. This makes it significantly easier for us to print and test them. The file can be hosted on either your own site, or a public one like Dropbox or Google Drive, or included as an attachment. IF YOUR FILES HAVE PERMISSIONS, PLEASE MAKE SURE THEY ARE OPEN SO THAT WE CAN SEND TO OTHER JUDGES.

• Short Pitch Video: No more than 1 minute. This doesn't need to be any more than a handheld phone video, but we just request to see some visuals of the gameplay. We do not need a full play through or anything fancy. WE RECOMMEND YOUTUBE OR VIMEO. WE WILL BE USING SOME VIDEOS IN OUR RESULTS POSTS.

Prize

The winner will receive $100, paid via Paypal. All entries may be considered for publication by Button Shy Games (and if so, will be offered a contract with royalties like any other design that we publish).

The following ideas and mechanics are suggested against. These are things we see a lot of, are hard to market, or which conflict with games we already publish.

• Dexterity

• Trick Taking

• Clones of Button Shy Games. A big one is Sprawlopolis (map-building games with a 2x2 grid on the cards)

• Games where you make and rearrange a 3x3 grid for the whole game

• Games where you set up 3 lanes and compete head to head across the lanes 

• Games where players simultaneously reveal cards, compare them and that's it

• Roleplaying or storytelling games

Rules and Restrictions

• 1 submission max per person. This includes your own designs and designs with a partner / group.

• Designers must be 18 years or older to enter, unless co-designing with a parent or legal guardian.

• All submissions should be complete and playable.

• All designs remain the intellectual property of the designers.

• Only graphics required for gameplay are needed for submission. This is not an art challenge. We will not be evaluating the artwork or graphics of submissions in any way to determine the winner.

• AI-generated content and artwork is not permitted. We understand that some people consider AI an appealing tool to deal with any design aspects they find difficult. However, we strongly believe in the importance of human creativity and human effort, and entries will not be judged on the quality of their creative writing or artwork. 

• The game must be exactly 18 cards.  

• Cards must be poker size, not square. 

• Each submission should be for a single game only (no game systems or multi-decks that support multiple different games). Additional modes, such as a solo mode, are acceptable.

• The players cannot write on/mark the cards, cut them, or modify them in any other way. Transparent or otherwise nonstandard cards cannot be used.

• You may not use or require any additional components, including the typical Button Shy wallet packaging or boxes, in this design. Players should be able to track any relevant information using the cards, or in their heads, without calculators or paper. 

• Rules, including diagrams, must fit on 2 pages of a US Letter document with a minimum font size of 10.

• Designs must be original works that do not infringe on any intellectual property.

• Submissions must not be available for sale through any retail, secondary or print-on-demand market and may not be currently under consideration for publication by other publishers.

Disclaimer

We may feature the game images and submission videos on our website and social media. We will not be providing feedback on all entries, but hopefully seeing the finalists and winner will show why specific games pushed through the competition. We plan to keep our comments positive, and highlight why a game won instead of why a game lost.

Good luck everyone!