What in the Word?!

A language-learning card game made for the 2026 Global Game Jam.

The game is played with a deck of 64 cards, featuring 8 images, across 8 lesser-known languages: Basque, Finnish, Romanian, Nahuatl, Maori, Sardinian, Icelandic and Esperanto.

Players can swap with the display to try and gather five of the same image, or language. They can also discard cards from the display, either to keep searching for the cards they need, or to block their opponents from completing their set first.

RULES:

• 5 cards are deal to each player, and 5 more go face up in the display
• In clockwise turns, players can take one action from the following:
  • Swap one of their cards with a card from the display
  • Swap one of their cards with the top of the discard pile
  • Discard a card from the display, replacing it with the top card of the draw pile
• When the last card is taken from the draw pile, the discard pile (minus the last card discarded) is shuffled and made into a new draw pile
• The first player to reach 5 of the same image, or 5 of the same language wins the game.