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Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

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Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#61

Post by bena »

It just seems like a bit much for not enough.

You are asking each player to carry around this "plinth" and however many cards would be necessary to play the game in question. Do the cards start on the plinth, then go to a common area? Are games played with connected plinths?

You say "MTG meets Yu-gi-oh meets Pokemon meets Tamagotchi" but I don't really see that here. You're putting pictures on plastic cards.

And with no actual game in the two years this has popped up here, you have a real problem. Because it looks like you have a toy rather than a game. And not a great toy either, to be honest. I'd focus less on marketing and articles and more on coming up with at least one proof-of-concept game.

Because the game is what's going to sell the hardware. There's no way you're going to push many units with only the promise of game(s) in the future.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#63

Post by edye »

bena wrote: post #61

It just seems like a bit much for not enough. You are asking each player to carry around this "plinth" and however many cards would be necessary to play the game in question. Do the cards start on the plinth, then go to a common area? Are games played with connected plinths? You say "MTG meets Yu-gi-oh meets Pokemon meets Tamagotchi" but I don't really see that here. You're putting pictures on plastic cards. And with…

To set the record straight, I was the one that reached out to the creator to get his story, because I thought the cards were cool. He would not have spent the time doing this interview if I hadn't asked him to.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#64

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

bluGill wrote: post #14
xipho wrote: post #10

Nice. I've thought of various similar applications (probably because I saw such somewhere). For example conferences require lanyards with passes attached. Most contract with some company to handle all their creation, then also require you (more or less) to use their app to get a schedule, etc. Why not create a generic, re-usable pass (like OP) that attaches to your lanyard, has some basic features at a glance (schedu…

Is this really better than physical cards? There are electronics here, and electronics tend to go obsolete fast. If the old one is obsolete in a year or two there was so little reuse that everyone is better off with old fashioned paper/plastic. You would have to commit to not coming up with a better model every year - but if you do that someone else will compete by coming out with the better model instead. Which is t…

Make it hackable and they'll probably be around forever.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#65

Post by johannes1234321 »

foobarchu wrote: post #48
xipho wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just paper, perhaps at least run the numbers? Though I completely agree it's likely more environmentally costly. My initial thought process evolved from coming back from yet another conference, and tossing yet another lanyard (colorful plastic, metal clips) and plastic covering into the garbage. I have done this probably around 50 times. So think replacing 100-200 of these for an academic, far, far more for…

One of the hurdles you would have to overcome is convincing all of the conferences to go with these reusable e-ink badges. Let's say all the organizers are convinced...why not use a common, non-electronic badge instead, since you have everyone agreeing to a common standard anyway? Perhaps something simple where the conference organizers can print out a paper slip (recycled paper even!) that you insert so they get som…

There is still the main purpose of those things: Verifying people are allowed to enter.

That is (aside from sponsors, who want their logo there) a reason why it looks as it looks and having it somewhat different from event to event.

A shared programmable batch would require scanning them while entering each room, which creates bottlenecks at doors and more effort as each door needs staff and tech (and as soon as you have staff and tech at each door you can also provide all information there, thus the gain of being able to share information into the badge is gone) and you get to privacy issues.

And then half the badges people bring are broken and most participanta didn't ever have one/lost it/forgot it.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#66

Post by foobarchu »

johannes1234321 wrote: post #65
foobarchu wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the hurdles you would have to overcome is convincing all of the conferences to go with these reusable e-ink badges. Let's say all the organizers are convinced...why not use a common, non-electronic badge instead, since you have everyone agreeing to a common standard anyway? Perhaps something simple where the conference organizers can print out a paper slip (recycled paper even!) that you insert so they get som…

There is still the main purpose of those things: Verifying people are allowed to enter. That is (aside from sponsors, who want their logo there) a reason why it looks as it looks and having it somewhat different from event to event. A shared programmable batch would require scanning them while entering each room, which creates bottlenecks at doors and more effort as each door needs staff and tech (and as soon as you…

I feel like the paper slips solve those problems already, in the same way they are solved today with single-use plastic badges.

The plastic ones can already be forged, switching to paper wouldnt make it any easier as long as you don't publicize what it will look like in advance.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#67

Post by fragmede »

jonahss wrote: post #44
nerdjon wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds more like a legacy style board game than an actual trading card game. Which seems to me like the better implementation of this technology, anything else due to its digital nature just feels like it is going to be exploited making any value disappear completely. I think this would be an amazing idea for a legacy style game, especially since it opens up the possibility of resetting the game and it really si…

Ah yeah. TCG is just a quick way to explain it to people so they get what I'm going for. I personally dislike the whole "rarity" aspect of TCGs, though it was fun when I was a kid. Living Card Games like Netrunner are more fun to play IMO. My elevator pitch usually goes something like: MTG meets Yu-gi-oh meets Pokemon (the RPG) meets Tamagotchi.

No Sabacc?

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#68

Post by ramses0 »

jonahss wrote: post #44
nerdjon wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds more like a legacy style board game than an actual trading card game. Which seems to me like the better implementation of this technology, anything else due to its digital nature just feels like it is going to be exploited making any value disappear completely. I think this would be an amazing idea for a legacy style game, especially since it opens up the possibility of resetting the game and it really si…

Ah yeah. TCG is just a quick way to explain it to people so they get what I'm going for. I personally dislike the whole "rarity" aspect of TCGs, though it was fun when I was a kid. Living Card Games like Netrunner are more fun to play IMO. My elevator pitch usually goes something like: MTG meets Yu-gi-oh meets Pokemon (the RPG) meets Tamagotchi.

Tamagotchi is the best metaphor. Take a look at this old school BBS game "The Pit" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK69uCBtI18

Could you do a janky version of "Street Fighter" where your dude (and assistant/second character) both had permanent stats + inventory + needing to "rest" or "heal over time" to recover after the battle? Same, but it's more of an RPG "character card + inventory card" vs. "opponent character + opponent inventory"?

The concept of 1x$100 base, and 4x$15 playing cards seems approachable (vis: MTG booster packs).

Definitely look to have some sort of replaceable / lay-in play mat (see the little cards on this toy: https://www.amazon.com/VTech-80-178200-Drill-Learn-Toolbox/d... ). You could have a "Street Fighter" 2v2 playmat, or "Texas Hold-em" flop/turn/river mat. "Scan the QR Code, bluetooth connect to the base, load the 'game' into the device's memory", and then you're phone-free (forever) to negotiate between the base and the cards.

You're "missing" some sort of cover/door on the cards themselves (eg: configure the base station for texas hold'em, and how do you "shuffle" the two player cards w/o revealing their values to others?

Actually, what you should do is to put some sort of pin-pattern on the top that can be accessed from the front or the back (eg: four pins "as rivets" on left and right sides, two pins on top/bottom), so you could "load" or "shuffle" the card face up or face down.

Face-Up + buttons 1/2/3 => the display changes, you take your action, etc.

Face-Down + buttons 1/2/3 => the display changes, but the result is "hidden until revealed".

Another useful tool would be to allow some sort of spinners/selectors on the "cards" themselves (vis: el-grande's spinners: https://boardgamegeek.com/image/105293/el-grande ).

Being able to have some sort of dumb switches or a rotating selector on the cards themselves that are then "read" by the base station will let people do their thinking and take their turns "in their own hand" is super powerful (eg: let people select punch/kick/block on the cards in their hands vs. having to "dock" the card and only then being able to select punch/kick/block) is super-important to enable a smooth-flowing game instead of a novelty toy.

Overall, there's tons of cool options with it!

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#69

Post by jonathankoren »

It reminds me of the old West End Games / Legends description of the game sabacc in Star Wars. Instead of being played with normal paper cards as seen in Solo, the players received cards with screens on them At certain parts in the game, the cards would randomize. '

A completely baroque way of playing, but fits with a world where actively powered antigravity technology has replaced wheels.

Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)

#70

Post by egypturnash »

jonahss wrote: post #55
egypturnash wrote: post #54

Nice layout of the connection pins, though I question your number assignments. :)

Haha, guilty. But! The actual wires assigned to each pin correspond to the Sephirot. Keter is VCC and Malkhut is GND, etc etc :P

Awrite that makes up for that then. :)
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