A Local Guy Created A Smartphone Game That Wants You To Look Up Not Down

• Len Kendall
• The first “season” of Cartegram

Smartphones have become an incredibly diverse platform for game designers, but most don’t go beyond the screen. The result? Lots of people looking down at their phones rather than out at the world around them. Local game designer and digital strategist Len Kendall wanted to create a new way for smartphone users to incorporate apps like Instagram into a game that would require people to explore their surroundings and to share their discoveries with friends and fellow players. As Kendall points out in a promotional video, the game, called Cartegram, is sort of like Choose Your Own Adventure, but for the digital age.

The games aren’t terribly alike in terms of their mechanics, but Kendall says Cards Against Humanity was an influence. “In an age of mobile games, they made something physical, tangible, and superfun,” he says.