Select is a game created by a group in our 247G class which is very similar to Cards Against Humanity, but instead of submitting cards to answer a given prompt, you must select a photo from your camera roll. Given the explicit prompts, I think this game has a similar target audience to CAH as well, young adults. You need at least three players for this game to function. One of the players acts as a judge each round, leaving two different options to judge with this minimal amount of players. But the more players who join in, the more funny submissions there are to judge, and I could see around 10 players still enjoying this game.
Mechanics:
The judge begins as the person who has the most recent picture in their camera roll and moves to the next person counter-clockwise each round regardless of the winner of that round. There are cards to pull to determine the prompt, and what section of one’s camera roll the players can draw their submission from. For example, one prompt was to choose your best mugshot and the type-card was to select from your screenshots folder. Here was my winning submission for that round lol:
Types of fun:
CAH and Apples to Apples, when I was a bit younger, were some of my favorite games to play with friends, and I must say that this student-made game blew both of them out of the water in terms of the types of fun objectives achieved. Especially in the areas of fellowship and (self-)expression, sharing your own saved photos, videos, and screenshots allowed you to explore your past collected media and share with others what you find and used to find funny. The experience is entirely customized by what you currently have and can find in your Photos app, meaning the game will be different each time you play with new people. Plus, given the huge amount of freedom in selection versus only having 8 or so predetermined “funny” cards to choose from, you really got to see the individuals in the group’s sense of humor. It’s a fun game to reminisce and share moments of your life with others, and I definitely intend to play with other friends as soon as the print – n – play is published!
Funny/vulnerable moments:
By sharing your own personal photos and memories, this game provides opportunities to allow players to get very vulnerable with each other and share things they wouldn’t normally share with people they just met. For example, one prompt was to share a photo that you never want to see again. Another player shared a photo from spring break that still haunts me at night, but it was the undisputed winner and made everyone pause before bursting into intense laughing spasms. This sort of response ups the ante for all the other players who want to win. It’s definitely still a competition game, and as the rounds went on, people started sharing more and more vulnerable content that was more likely to win the round rather than playing it safe. Within the magic circle, people felt safe to share their authentic selves and make others smile in the process.
Areas of imporvement:
The time limit was 45 seconds per round, which was rather limited for finding the funniest picture possible. Allowing more time would possibly result in funnier rounds, especially for the more specific prompts.
Also, for some of the rounds which required you to find a picture from a specific year, players complained that they didn’t have any pictures from 2016. This would be fixed by having those players simply choose from the oldest year they have represented in their camera roll.
