On Poetic Tides: A Poetry-Prompting Adventure
A downloadable game
On Poetic Tides charges you, oh brave (but perhaps not-so-wise) seafarer, with creating a poem fully from scratch using 20 cards from a standard deck, a pen, and some paper (or something else to write with/on). The game is meant to be played solo, but you can simply take turns flipping cards and writing your own poems with the shared prompts, then share them with one another after. Or heck, pass your poems back and forth and co-write them! Just like poetic license lets you use words as you see fit, you can use this game however you see fit.
Note: there's a new zine version of this game out now :D I think this version is superior to the others in both layout and content (the game is the same, but I think I rephrased things a little better there). If you happen to have the ink to print it, I highly recommend it. I'll do a low-ink black-and-white version in the future eventually but I have no idea when lol it's been busy these days 🤷♀️
I don't know the technicalities about copyrights and stuff, but please feel free to hack this game (as in, use the format here but change the theme, art, and prompts to make your own version). If you do, please let me know (you don't have to, it'd just make me happy!), and please feel free to upload it anywhere and charge what you want for it. While not required, please include community copies and/or a demo (as I did) for those who can't afford it, and please link to this version from whatever page you create for it.
Upcoming fixes:
- A low-ink black-and-white version of the four-page zine
Angel made her own version of this game! Hers is about space exploration, being alone and searching out a habitable planet as Earth nears the end of its days.
Other Writing Prompt Games
You can check out all of our journaling and writing prompt games here, as well as some of our solo games below:
Find Out More
Learn more about On Poetic Tides on our Patreon. Or come chat about it on our Discord server!
All of our posts are free aside from some exclusive polls. We share news, updates, behind-the-scenes design stuff, and more. Plus, each of our releases is either free for a limited time or has community copies; if you become a free member of our Patreon, you’ll get an email when we release something, and if you’re quick enough you can get everything free!
Paid members help fund our creations and can get all of them as they come out, answer polls to help shape our future creations, and even get games and zines printed and mailed to you monthly in North America.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $2 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copy
These community copies were provided by our Mail Club patrons! A huge thanks to Dora Duvall, John, Rochelle B, Zedd 4 Rocker, Teddy, and Panicked Lizard who each provided 5 community copies 🧡
Development log
- On Poetic Tides: Now in Zine Form!Oct 23, 2022
- Brent Jans is streaming the game tonight!Oct 20, 2022
- On Poetic Tides is being streamed tonight!Sep 08, 2022
Comments
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On Poetic Tides is a very short, sweet little game that has you write poetry about your adventures on the high sea!
The game starts by having you write one stanza as an opener explaining who you are and what you are doing out on the high waters. For each substantial line you draw a card which will tell you what to write about, and if it has a positive outcome or negative.
I wrote about a bunch of undead pirates searching for their souls and eventually ended with them imprisoned forever in a jail. You can read it HERE
Oh wow!!! This poem is really epic, you did a fantastic job with it! I really appreciate you doing this with the game :D I'm gonna share this everywhere, it's so awesome! I love the way you show which card went with which line, and you really created not only a story here but also a genuinely good poem with solid rhyme and meter!
If there are any other games you're interested in doing a playthrough for, let me know at CataclysmicKnight@gmail.com and I'll send you a key for whatever you want 🙌
By now, the poetries I end up with are so cringy it almost looks like it was intended... Which is kinda fun on its own) I will probably write some short stories (instead of poetries) using the same framework as well.
ROFLMAO cringy sea poetry sounds incredible, honestly.
But with that said, heck yes to writing short stories instead! I hope your short story sea adventures go well (or so terribly badly that it's entertaining) ⛵
- ✨Beth
I typically only write poetry (of varying quality) while deep in depressive spells, but this game was a fun exercise in getting back into practice for the sake of writing poetry for fun again! Even if the luck of the cards meant my poor sailor named Gold found nothing of the sort
I'm so glad you enjoyed it, and so sorry that Gold found absolutely no gold whatsoever 🥲 I'm incredibly bipolar and I can absolutely relate to writing while depressed. I really hope you do embrace and harness the power of poetry as a form of expression for fun again too (I'm actually quite out of practice myself, and it led to me creating this in the first place!)
- ✨Beth
DorkLordCanada streamed a playthrough of our game! Check it out here: