128 Character Games

A couple months ago Zach Gage started an awfully fun little thread with this tweet:

Dear internet, here is a crazy challenge for you. Design a game prototype where the rules fit in <=128 characters, tweet it w/ #128CharGame

This is well after the fact, and it looks like the hashtag has a life of its own, but I collected these favorites at the time:

• Players 1 and 2 buy $10 worth of food at Taco Bell, without revealing orders. Players exchange food; first to finish wins. (qubitsu)
• Two players clasp each others hand and stand on one foot. First player that touches raised foot to ground loses. (blefler)
• Players 1 an 2 each hide a 6 in length of scotch tape on a visible surface within the home. 1st to find the other’s strip wins. (bigGUNSfowler)
• Pass nerf 6shooter around w single dart, Russian roulette - kill self, -1 pt, live 1 pt. Aim at others & hit: +3pts, miss -3pts (Shnayke)
• Present 3 statements to a friend, two are sarcastic. Friend must guess which is real. (BrianNumberOne)
• Player take turn poking holes in a piece of paper with a pencil. First one to cause a rip that connects two holes loses. (Andy_Makes)
• 2+ players. Tape paper to backs. Get as many papers as you can. If your paper is taken, you lose, and your papers are out. (mikesmallhorn)
• Race with other players to get a high five from a stranger (urustar)
• During a pub night steal as many coasters as you can. If a player spots you, they win the coaster (urustar)
• All at once point to player with most perceived privilege—highest count out. Whittle to 2. Like Survivor, plead to jury of out. (jaimewoo)
• I pick a letter and a word it starts. You pick a 2nd letter and a word started by our 2-letter sequence. So on until stumped. (jefffal)
• Players wager for right to add rules of play. Wagers won by breaking previous rules. Game won by breaking fewest rules. (mc_frontalot)
• Three players each fight to gain possession of one soccer ball, then kick it between the other two players. (Blinkity)
• Everyone gets a blank A4 page at 9am. Person who has the cleanest, nicest page at 5pm wins. Play at work; sabotage encouraged. (hbmuscat)
• On GO!, teammembers try to change into each others clothes as quickly as possible. Audience wins. (TehSuckerer)
• “find the spoon” text your friend a picture with a spoon hidden but visible, they have 1 min to text you back where it is (banjaloupe)
• Players try to guess an objects color as a hex value, take a photo & use eyedropper, closest wins (netgrind)
• Do a Google image search on your phone. Hand it to a friend, 3 guesses what search was for. Object is to stump that person. (herebejoshua)
• 2 Players stand back-to-back w/hands at sides & count down from 3. On “Go” players try to touch other’s belly button (phoenixashes)
• Draw 9 dots on a piece of paper. Alternate putting fingers on dots. First player who loses grip on a dot or cannot play loses! (helvetica)

I kicked in the game Milk:

• Spike/bounce odd object off the ground. One-hand catch=1 pt. Touch it but don’t catch it, -1. Tackling ok after touch/bobble. (jimbiancolo)

(Only reference I can (easily) find to Milk is here from the great thread describing games Ultimate Frisbee players have invented/adopted/improvised over the years.)

Oh, just noticed Zach collected a ton of ‘em at his site, cool!