Maker Faire Bay Area 2023
Wyldcard
Home: California, United States
E-ink trading cards which can change! Wyldcards are small plastic cards with e-ink screens (like a Kindle). When placed onto a plinth, the image on the card can be changed by a hidden computer. The cards also contain a memory chip, so they can store stats, moves, and keep changes and status effects from one game to the next. Plug your plinth into your friend’s and play against them. I think these cards have the potential to unlock a new paradigm of tabletop gaming. They are rooted in the physical world, but can implement complex game mechanics Based on an idea I had in 2014 and built in my spare time over the past three years, Wyldcard was upvoted to #1 on Hacker News and I'm wrapping up a crowdfunding campaign for a devkit.
https://wyldcard.io
Additional Project Photos
Maker
Jonah Stiennon
A software developer by trade, I'm an engineer of all mediums and an inventor.
https://www.wyldcard.io/What Inspired You to Make This?
In 2014 I worked for a company, building open source software for testing mobile phone apps. We had hundreds of phones in the office, and at one point I picked up a stack of iPhones and spread them like a hand of cards. 'Wouldn't it be cool', I thought, 'If each of these phones displayed a playing card on their screen, you could shuffle a deck with the press of a button'. Wyldcard is born of this idea, though it's gone through a few design changes to make it more practical and economically feasible. E-ink playing cards which can change! For implementing a game, I draw my inspiration from what I wished existed when I was in middle school. Pokemon, Yi-gi-oh, Card Captors, Angelic Layer……
