Wild Combination is a fast-paced card game for ideatoin that challenges players to use technology to solve real-world problems, generating unexpected and innovative solutions. At Connected we have designed many of these decks for different domains. Over the course of several months, Connected collaborated with the Civic Tech Toronto community on a special edition deck focused on the idea of the smart city, an important subject during a period when Toronto was negotiating with Sidewalk Labs on the future of the cities eastern waterfront.
A small team at Connected collaborated with members from the Civic Tech Toronto community over multiple hack nights. We designed, tested and iterated on our deck and then beta-tested a prototype deck at the Code For America Brigades Conference in Philadelphia. The most recent version was debuted at the 2017 YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) event held at Toronto’s Metro Hall in December, and has since made its way to LA’s Civic Tech community.
The purpose of this edition of Wild Combination is not to generate the ideal solutions. However, by clustering similar ideas concepts tend to emerge that are significantly more useful than any one concept alone. Most importantly what Wild Combinations aims to accomplish is that it encourages everyone to understand that there are a wide variety of solutions to any given problem.
How It Works
There are three categories of cards: scenario cards, technology cards, and user cards. Participants take one card from each pile and try to construct a solution that meets the requirements on the response form. If a player becomes stumped, they may exchange out cards until they find a combination that works for them. When everyone's had time to fill out a solution card you can discard the combo and draw a new set of three. Repeat until you have enough answers to have a discussion around the emergent themes that connect the solutions. Cluster answers based on their similarities to one another and categorize them.
Example Play
A play draws 3 cards from each deck, together they form the following combination:
