4 33

This was a group game design challenge during my studies at Les Gobelins. The goal was to create a physical game based on the composition 4'33" by John Cage. This composition is a 3 movement piece which is entirely made up of silence (and lasts, as the title suggests, 4 minutes and 33 seconds). It is usually "played" by a symphonic orchestra.

The idea we extracted from it was that of a large number of people assembled to create silence. Therefore, the game is about socially creating silence.

The goal of the game is simple : be the first player to discard all your cards. In order to do so you have to play musical notes card in the right order. All cards are played face down, while announcing (or possibly singing) which note it is.

It means players can bluff and, most importantly, call others' bluff. This can happen at any time, and each time a bluff is called the last card played is revealed. The player who bluffed, or the one who called bluff when there was none, has to draw cards as punishment.

The game includes silence cards. When those are played, the player doesn't say anything, and no other player is allowed to say anything afterwards (or else they draw cards) except to call someone's bluff. Players being either forced to play silence cards or bluff, tension gets high and someone will eventually have to bluff. All the balance of the game depends on the ratio between silence cards and notes cards.

You can download the rules (in French) HERE.