Love at First Sight

Love at First Sight
Designer:	Invisible Playground
Year:	2011
Players:	Even number. Best is 24. Scales well from 12 to 40.
Stuff required:	Pens and cardbox stripes with numbers and ribbons.
Crew required:	One.
Preparation:	2 hours (12 players).
Time required:	15 minutes.
Place required:	Small to medium sized outdoor area with poles or hedges. Benches and some real couples on it are a plus.
Activities:	Hiding, running, lurking, sneaking, flirting, sitting, holding hands.
This is a playable game - it's finished, tested and ready to play.
This game is made available under an Attribution-Noncommercial Creative Commons licence. (What does this mean?)

You're a lonely number looking for that special someone. Find your true love, have as much sex as you can, don't let your heart be broken too often.

Preparation

🎥 Watch this instructable video to get started!

Every player needs a pen and a card that they can wear on their foreheads. In the center of the card is a four digit number. You can use your own numbers or use ours (see below). It is a good idea to use stickers for the numbers or mark them by something tangible (small holes should do), so that players can feel when they are covering the number with their hand. To the right and left of the number, mark two fields: one for "true love" and one for "desire". In the desire field, draw three small hearts. Remember to make the strings that tie the cards to players' heads longer as you think they should be. Some people have surprisingly large heads. For the playing area choose a small or medium sized, semi-closed area with plenty of small hiding places like poles, trash bins, small trees or hedges (remember: the players only need cover for their foreheads). Before the start of the game mix the cards, let the players pick one, give them a pen. Tell players to write down their number onto their palm so they can remember it and remember them to be careful when putting the card on their heads, others might try to peek. Wait until everybody is ready before you start the game.

Player Instructions

You're a lonely number looking for true love (and as much sex as possible).

After you have received your number, hide it from the other players, find a safe spot and write the number down. Now put on the number (don't put it on upside down :) and wait for the starting signal.

You have to hide your number but you must not use your hands to cover it (see two exceptions below). Hide behind bushes, behind poles, look to the floor, look up in the sky. The number is your identity ... be careful to whom you reveal yourself. In the beginning you have three hearts of desire, if all of them are broken, you cannot continue the game. You're emotionally empty.

(further rules to explain see below)

Rules

The english and hungarian rulecard.

There are three possible interactions between players:

• One-night stand

Seducer +1 heart of desire / Seduced -1 heart of desire

If you find out the number of another player, you can call his number out to have a one-night stand! He must stop and come over to you. Both of you may now cover your numbers with your hands. The seducer gets one of heart of desire and the seduced looses one. Only draw in the "desire" field. Watch out: If you loose all of your desire, your heart is broken and you are out of the game!

• Affair

Each gets or looses 1 heart of desire

To have an affair, convince another player to sit down on a bench with you. Once sitting, both of you may cover your number with your hand. You now have to show each other your numbers. If the numbers match, it’s true love! (See below). If not, then you’re just having an affair. Depending on how the affair goes, each of you can draw or cross out one heart of desire (it’s up to you to decide).

• True Love

Get True Love Heart

When two players find true love on a bench, both draw a big heart into the others "true love" field. They may now get up and move around the playing field holding each other’s hand while hiding their numbers. Beware: Once you let each other go, they cannot reconnect in this way.

Every player can only have one interaction per game with any player. Yes, that means that the seduced can never ever seduce the seducer.

Possible variants

• If the players are of the minmax type affairs will always end badly. In that case use a static outcome of +2 for affairs.
• Use three identical numbers instead of two to twist the true love meme: One third will find their true love too late. This will accelerate the first phase of the game.
• Use less starting hearts to enhance the difficulty, use more to encourage casual players to experiment more.
• The "referee" should never take time to seriously. This is no sport. The time constraint is in here to create a flow. If the players need a little more time or a little less, give it to them. Just remember to announce the last two "minutes" and the last 30 "seconds".

Numbers

The numbers are semi-random, produced by atmospheric noise, ordered to ensure best playability.

For 16 players:

5841, 5361, 5426, 5876, 7326, 7586, 7461, 7831.

For 24 players:

5841, 5361, 5426, 5876, 7326, 7586, 7619, 7249, 2689, 2179, 2861, 2351.

For 32 players:

5841, 5361, 5426, 5876, 7326, 7586, 7619, 7249, 2689, 2179, 2853, 2463, 9823, 9543, 9861, 9371.

For 40 players:

5841, 5361, 5426, 5876, 7326, 7586, 7619, 7249, 2689, 2179, 2853, 2463, 9823, 9543, 9365, 9245, 3815, 3975, 3761, 3951.

For 48 players:

5841, 5361, 5426, 5876, 7326, 7586, 7619, 7249, 2689, 2179, 2853, 2463, 9823, 9543, 9365, 9245, 3815, 3975, 3764, 3254, 8174, 8294, 8931, 8751.

The scheme is kind of:

5 8 4 1      a x1 y1 b <---
                           |
5 3 6 1      a x2 y2 b     |
                           |
5 4 2 6      a x3 y3 c     |
                           |
5 8 7 6      a x4 y4 c     |
                           |
7 3 2 6      d x5 y5 c     |
                           |
7 5 8 6      d x6 y6 c     |
                           |
7 4 6 1      d x7 y7 b     |
                           |
7 8 3 1      d x8 y8 b >---

Oh, one last rule: the digits of a number should not repeat.

Photos and Videos

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(These are the ten most recent Flickr photos of Love at First Sight. To add your own, just add the "ludocity:game=loveatfirstsight" tag to your Flickr photos.)

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Design and Play history

Love at First Sight was created in 2011 as part of the Nyugati Game Set by Invisible Playground, working out of Field Office Budapest at PLACCC Festival.

It is loosely inspired by the Hungarian youth camp capture the flag game War of Numbers and the game Heartbreaker by Charley Miller.

Other games from the Nyugati Game Set

• Unwanted Entities
• Shadow Surfing
• Love at First Sight
• Sea Level
• PoorVille
• The complete Nyugati Game Set