Twice a month, Georgia and Miriam give themselves one hour to devise an original game concept based on a prompt. Below is an overview of our mindful memory game, In The Clearing.
THE ELEVATOR PITCH
In The Clearing is a short, travel-size, mindful solo puzzle game about landscapes and mind states. The player creates, then gradually deconstructs, a grid of cards in which they must find and remove matching pairs of words, eventually leaving the field blank except for a refreshing view.
THE LOOK
This is a simple and minimalist game which features calming natural landscapes and a gentle, flowing type face. The components include:
- 20 durable card sleeves
- 20 Background cards
- 20 “upper” Word cards
- 20 “mid-level” Word cards
- 20 “lower” Word cards
- 3 Life tokens
All cards are the same size, but have different sections of transparency.
Background cards each feature a natural landscape in soft, calming tones: a clearing in a forest, an alpine meadow, or a waterfall.
Word cards each feature one word, which is in the upper third of the space (for upper Word cards), the central third (for mid-level Word cards), or the bottom third (for lower Word cards). Each word present has exactly one match in the entire deck. Word cards also have a tab present which aligns with their word, to aid setup and to allow them to be easily removed from sleeves.
Words are related to emotions, memories, or states of mind, for example:
– Name, Mistake, Joke
– Anxious, Angry, Laughing
– Crowded, Silent, Work
Upper word cards are completely opaque, while mid and lower level cards always have the entire space above the word transparent (so the top third for mid-level cards, and the top two-thirds for lower cards).
THE AIM
Initially the player will create their challenge by placing Word cards into sleeves, then they will create a face-down grid which they must try to de-construct by remembering the location of matching word pairs. If the player can remove all the Word cards without running out of Lives, they win.
SET UP
The Background cards should be pre-inserted into sleeves. Now, without looking, the player inserts an upper Word card into each sleeve so it obscures the landscape beneath.
The player creates a 5×4 grid of cards and inserts proceeds to choose a mid-level and a lower Word card to insert in each card sleeve. They may choose to do so randomly or to follow their own whims or associations. When a card is complete with a Background card and three different Word cards, it is turned face down. The three Life tokens are placed face-up next to the grid.
TURNS
When the entire grid is prepared and all the cards are face down, the player begins taking turns. They choose a card to turn face-up, and now must find another card which carries a matching word. If their second card choice has a matching word, both the Word cards carrying that word are removed from their sleeves, and the cards turned back face-down. Otherwise, the player loses a life. On subsequent turns the player may not choose a card they chose the previous turn.
SUMMARY
The player continues making matches and removing Word cards in pairs. The card sleeves grow progressively emptier as play goes on. When upper Word cards are removed, part of the landscape beneath is revealed. The player may need to forget their previous associations or create new ones in order to continue making successful matches. Finally, when all Words have been matched, all that remains is to “clear the way” by matching the pairs of landscapes, removing their cards from the grid entirely and leaving an empty table.
WHAT’S UNIQUE ABOUT THIS GAME?
In The Clearing is a solo game designed to help the player enter a calm and focused state. The player creates their own challenge tailored to their own thoughts or worries. The game’s mechanics simulate cognitive training by encouraging the player to continually break old associations and form new ones.
Big Crow Games 