"NAME that BOOK!" the TITLE by AUTHOR game

#500

OK — this one is a bit of a cheat…
No punny author name… no book title either.

But I make the rules around here, and this is a MASSIVE milestone: the FINAL, 500th “particle”!

The bottom of the barrel has been well-and-truly scraped— and I’m done thinking up new titles and authors. Five-hundred is enough, don’t you think? Time to move on…

…to building Name That Book!, the next phase of what I’m building here at TITLE by AUTHOR — an actual, physical playing card game you can hold in your hands and share with your favourite people (ages 8+). Several prototypes have been living out in the world for a while. I’m now at the fine-tuning stage with the rules and the game components themselves.

My weekday posts will continue as usual (Mon–Fri). But now, every past title will come back to haunt you. No more brand new ones, true, but they’re no longer just front covers with weird titles and punny author names — we’ll revisit them as real looking books… books you can imagine sitting on your own bookshelf. And these are the kind of images that will appear on the playing cards! So you, my Substack readers, will be getting a sneak preview of the game’s contents!

I hope you like what’s coming tomorrow — April Fool’s Day 2026. And I’ll be sharing more about the playing card game in the months ahead.

If you know people who enjoy board games and card games — people who like laughing together, putting the phones down for an hour, and having some properly raucous fun — I’d love your help spreading the word about this unique game. Tell them about this Substack, tell them about the game.

Some game testers say the feel is similar to the blockbuster game Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity. I’ll take their word for it. Success on that scale would be unimaginable!

I set up a simple website for non-Substackers at namethatbook.com. People can sign up for updates on the game and find out about the next crowdfunding campaign. As soon as we get enough traction on that website, we’ll launch... so tell your friends to sign up, either at namethatbook.com or here on Substack.

If (and when) our next Kickstarter campaign is successful, the first packs of Name That Book! playing cards could be in the hands of excited new players by the end of 2026.

Thanks to all the game testers who have already put the game through its paces over the past year or so. The feedback has been invaluable. And thanks to you all for sticking with me on this strange, long, and very enjoyable journey. There’s still a lot of work ahead. Wish me luck!

And stay tuned for updates on the game’s progress. I hope you’ll support it.

— Simon