Teen's free award-winning 2009 game "Sneaky Cards" redeveloped by fans and relaunched


Back in 2009, we partnered with Institute for the Future to hold a "Digital Open" contest for teens around the world. One of the winners was Harry Lee, a 16 year old from Melbourne, Australia, who created a game called "Sneaky Cards" that "spread the seeds of sneakiness and espionage into the unsuspecting pockets, math books, binders and bags and jackets of his schoolmates."

Over 300 people in the Sneaky Cards subreddit have worked to turn Sneaky Cards into a fully realized game, with new designs, decks and bonus packs. The game is free to download under a Creative Commons license. Harry Lee has blessed the revamp, headed up by a designer named Cody Borst.

Sneaky Cards is about creating fun and creative social interactions, breaking up the tedium of everyday life. SneakyCards.net is the platform for the Free Print-n-Play game with multiple decks and variations of the game. Focused on instigating fun and expressive social interactions. Everyone is free to download, print, and share the game as it is published under a Creative Commons license.

There are a few variations of gameplay depending on the type of deck you have, the main goal of the game is to get rid of all your cards by following each cards own rule set. This can be done with the Classic Deck over the course of many days, and during everyday life. Alternatively you can play the game competitively with each player having a Mini Deck and the winner is the player that can complete all the objectives first. The game works best in common social environments. Places like malls, school campuses, offices, conferences, camps, youth groups, parties, and other public places. In most situations there is a player who is playing the game and a non-player who is not. With the player interacting in some way with the non-player.

Example: A card in the deck might say “YOUR OBJECTIVE: Give this card to somebody without them knowing. If your target catches you giving this card to them, you must take back this card.” in this case you must find someone and reverse pickpocket them by placing the card on their person.

Sneaky Cards