Game Designer, Professor, Optimist

Trending Topics

Trending Topics is a folk game made by robots.

Trending Topics is a game of subtle conversational sabotage that can be played anywhere, anytime, and while doing other things! It’s simple: mention your secret topic in the natural flow of conversation, and if you don’t get called out, you’re trending! The one with the most topics trended at the end of the party, business meeting or awkward family reunion wins. Oh, and robots came up with these topics.

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Robots?

I created Trending Topics on a long weekend with friends. It was ridiculous and fun! But we ran out of topics! So I trained a GPT-2 algorithm to help me come up with thousands more. I do a lot of yes…and-ing, curating, and playtesting with these topics, because it comes up with some really weird stuff.

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It’s a card game…

Trending Topics is a limited edition 1000-card game. By limited, I mean that there’s one copy. If you want one, let me know - maybe I’ll make more!

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…and an online game

You can find a simple version of Trending Topics online, for free, designed for maximum enjoyment on mobile phones. It’s available at trendingtopics.fun.