The Idea

This game of mine was originally created for my board game rental service, and that’s how it’s now making its way into the collection of free, downloadable print and play games. The goal is the same: for it to reach as many people as possible, for players to share it with each other, for me to have a rough sense of who’s playing my game—and maybe even to connect with them.

And of course: no manufacturing, no shipping, only as many copies exist as there are people willing to play it. Let’s be mindful of the ecological footprint of playing.

CONTRAST was inspired by an interesting work from one of my favorite game designers: Reiner Knizia’s 2019 two-player gem, Chartae. I find it fascinating when I can trace my sources of inspiration—and often, undeniably, they’re other designers’ games.

What I personally missed from Knizia’s game was the ability to traverse the shared map you’ve built together. I carried that thought with me until I finally sat down to design: I made it more abstract, added new shapes, and introduced new mechanical elements: flipping tiles (and thus memory), and of course, movement with roll-and-move.

That last one is one of my favorite mechanisms—precisely because it’s such an old, often-dismissed mechanic, and it’s incredibly exciting to see if we can breathe something new into it (my favorite positive example of this is Deep Sea Adventure).