Who doesn’t love a pocket-sized game?! I originally started this list as a Twitter thread, to see how many of my games would fit into my (reasonably sized) jean pockets. Turns out… quite a few!
1) Sprawlopolis
Let’s start with an easy one. Same applies with any @buttonshy game, and Sprawlopolis I think is many people’s favourite for its variety and puzzley nature.
2) Hanabi
One of my all time favourites. A simple twist (literally) on card games with coop deduction and hand management. You can play super seriously, or not, depending on the group’s mood. If you like deduction at all you should try this game.
3) Insider
It’s 20 questions with a “traitor” of sorts. One in the group also knows the word and has to steer people towards the answer (but subtly, so they don’t get caught!)
If nobody gets the word everyone loses.
4) No Thanks
Yes please! Set collection with a twist. The points are bad, but only your lowest in a run scores.
Spend your limited chips to skip taking the card, or send a card you want around the table to potentially collect more chips, if you dare!
5) Similo
Try and get your friends to guess which character you are, by gradually eliminating cards on the table.
Super fun to mix and match sets. Is Dracula unlike a Giraffe? Is Cleopatra like the Cheshire Cat? 🤷
6) The ELL deck
(aka Wibbell++) a deck with two letters, a suit and a number on each card. Over 25 games have been designed for the deck by @stuffByBez and others (including a couple from me.)
If you like word games this is a must!
7) Love Letter
The game that started many people’s love for tiny games.
A handful of cards, each a character with a special ability. Second-guess what the other players are holding to stay in the round and hopefully come out on top!
8) Modern Art*
“So you like auctions huh? Well have I got a game for you *slaps roof of box* this game has got all the different auction types you could want with some market manipulation mixed in for good measure!”
9) Hero Realms
One of my favourite deck building games, there’s a tension as you try and build up combos based on what comes out of the market. Head to head, and I also highly recommend the coop expansion!
10) Belratti
You’re cute animals putting together art exhibitions. Use the artwork cards to get your team members to guess which paintings to include, and which are fakes.
11) One Deck Dungeon
So much game in here! Roll handfuls of dice and use powers to manipulate them as you overcome monsters and traps, and try and level up enough to take on the final boss.
12) Jaipur
This gorgeous two-player game focuses on managing the flow of resources and sets in your hand, and picking the best time to reveal new cards in the market. Also a bonus game of “spot the panda!”
13) Rocky Road à la Mode
Compete as ice cream trucks collecting some of the best multi-use cards I’ve seen. Simultaneously ingredients, customers, truck upgrades and bonus points.
This, plus the action track and cute artwork make this game really pop!
14) High Society
This game has one of my favourite “aha!” moments in games. Bid on the points cards and multipliers, or bid to NOT take the negatives. Two catches: you can never make change on a bid, and the person who spends the most *automatically loses*
15) Hive Pocket
Considering the name, this should have been earlier!
Try and maneuver your insects around an ever-shifting hive of connected bugs that each move in different ways. Surround the enemy queen to win. A super tight strategic abstract game you can play anywhere.
16) Schotten Totten
Build mini poker hands as you try and dominate a Scottish battleground. Win an overall majority or three adjacent columns.
Quite a contrast between the thinky basic game and the comparatively chaotic advanced game, that introduces special ability cards.
17) Coup
“I’m the Duke” 😉
A fantastic blend of strategy and bluffing, claim roles you have in front of you, or risk being called out to take a better action.
Try and be the last person standing as players are knocked out by abilities, or getting called out.
18) Wee Whimsical Creatures
Someone impersonates one of the creature cards on the table and everyone else has to guess which one it is. A game where people can’t help but come over and see what’s being played.
And there’s a coop mode, always a bonus!
19) The Great Heartland Hauling Co.
Pick up and deliver condensed down to its most vital elements: Planning routes, managing fuel and optimising your cargo space. Lots of game in here!
20) Sail to India
Expand your merchant navy and try to collect a wide variety of goods in this superb little Euro game. The multi purpose cubes you gain are used as ships, money/points trackers, upgrades, trade goods, etc.
Once you get this concept the game really shines.
21) Oh My Goods!
Gather resources from a variable market, convert them into better things with your buildings and manage your worker(s) to take strong or weak actions. All in a deck of cards!
The solo expansion campaigns are also v. good!
22) Welcome to the Dungeon
Some bluffing and hidden information means you’re never quite sure if going through the dungeon will be good or not.
That feeling when every other player passes quickly and you’re stuck going in is great (but also terrible 😄.)
23) Illusion
The optical illusions on these colourful cards make placing them correctly in the row a challenge.
It’s not how you score though. Get a point by declaring something in the row is incorrect, or if it’s correct you give the point away.
24) Bandida / Bandido For such a tiny game this takes up SO much table space. Try and place cards that block all the exits as you work together to stop the bandit escaping.
There’s a bit of luck in your card draw but it feels great to create a loop, cancelling a bunch of exits.
25) Sushi Go.
Pick a card and pass the rest on. A lovely interplay between the risk of starting a new set, taking a few guaranteed points, trying for a majority or aiming for end game scoring.
All with the super cute artwork of anthropomorphic sushi friends!
26) Rory’s Story Cubes
These charming picture dice are the perfect little prompts for a huge variety of storytelling games.
Some of my best memories of gaming have been the hysterical laughter from stories made with family, with running jokes and willful misinterpretation ☺️
27) 6 Nimmt! / Hornochsen*
Manage your hand of cards and battle against group-think as you try and select a number that is least likely to complete a row.
Try to be the player with the fewest points once someone has reached the limit.
*these do differ a bit
28) Tussie Mussie
In this I-Split-You-Choose game you’re trying to make the best combination of flowers for your arrangement (based on Victorian traditions.)
The twist: one of the choices is face down, leading to bluffing and double bluffing galore!
29) Timeline
This super simple trivia game can be played anywhere, with anyone, making it a fantastic game to travel with.
Simply place the historical/cultural event in the right spot in the timeline correctly, or you have to draw a new card. Empty your hand first to win!
30) P for Pizza
Build a pizza pyramid of correct answers as you quickly complete increasingly difficult categories.
Flip a card to reveal the next challenges: three new categories and letters – a fruit beginning with J, or a string instrument starting with N etc.
31) Tiny Epic Quest
Load your adventurers up with tiny cute magic items and send them around the map on quests.
Push your luck as you advance through quests, defeat goblins and learn spells to be the best quester around.
(This one only *just* fits)
32) Mottainai
Would your brain melt if every card did four things and had a unique special ability?
The short answer is yes, yes it would.
This, paired with the delightful theming of making soulful Japanese trinkets makes for ludonarrative dissonance of the very best kind.
33) Yogi
Simple, immediately engaging and always hilarious.
Contort yourself with ever-increasing restrictions as you try to keep your arm against your body, a finger touching your neck and a card covering one eye. All at the same time.
And now it’s your turn to draw a card.
34) Playing Cards
In terms of sheer numbers this tiny package surely has the most variety built into it.
As well as the traditional games many people already know, there’s a raft of excellent lesser known / modern designs (e.g. Eleusis, Briscola Chiamata, Regicide, Skull…)
35) Detective: Dig Deeper
This standalone expansion case for Detective sees you transported back to 70s USA in the midst of a politician’s murder.
With Rob Daviau’s always impressive narrative style you’ll feel the desire to wear flares and paisley almost immediately. So good!
36) Dobble / Spot It
Super approachable game. Each pair of cards has a single symbol that matches, due to some impressive mathematical work behind-the-scenes (check out Matt Parker’s video)
Several ways to play, but usually the person who “spots it” first is coming out on top.
37) Echoes
Test your listening skills with this mystery game. Scan each item card to hear a snippet of sound, and try and piece together fragments of the event in question.
It’s lovely to explore and interpret the clues in this way, and brings a really unique play experience.
38) Star Realms
Build up fleets of spaceships in this deck-building combo-fest.
Invest in one particular faction, and you’ll be able to unlock extra effects when played together.
Each faction has a distinct feeling, so pivoting towards one as the market allows is v. satisfying.
39) Pugs in Mugs
In this adorable card game you’re collecting sets of cute pugs.
There are a few special moves you can do to search for a card you need in other player’s hands or in the discard.
Once you have enough pugs you can complete your set to gain an all important mug.
40) Tiny Epic Galaxies*
Manage your space empire, improve your dice engine, and build new ships to explore and claim planets that give you unique abilities.
This game takes yahtzee dice rolling mechanisms and sends it stratospheric!
*also comes in an ultra-tiny tuckbox version for smaller pockets
41) Quicky Grabbing Creatures
This speedy game challenges you to quickly determine what shares the same head, body or legs. If 2 adjacent match any part, you lose!
Turnips* allow you to take anything afterwards, but grab too many of THOSE and you’re out!
*other veg available
42) Bananagrams
This speedy scrabble-like game asks you to make an increasingly large web of words, with more difficult letters.
Once you run out of tiles you can force everyone to grab a new letter. If there’s nothing left in the middle and you use all your letters you win!
43) Kariba
This cute Knizia game features animals chasing each other away from a watering hole.
Once three or more of an animal are played, you collect and score the next highest animals. And of course the mouse chases away the elephant: completing the natural cycle of bidding.
44) Castles of Burgundy – the Card Game
This mini version of the classic Feld game condenses the central concept of the board game into just cards, roughly half the play time, and about double the table space!
Build up the best dukedom to win.
45) Mint Works
This refreshingly small worker placement game uses teeny minty workers, and cards form placement spots.
Gather plans/building cards that give you special bonuses and/or points.
Also gives you the option to play against different AIs in the solo game.
46) Egge on Thine Face
In this bluffing game you must all declare the same type of egg, whether they’re rotten, raw, or fresh.
Depending on how convincing everyone is helps you decide which one to quickly grab when they’re revealed.
Alternative title: “The Yolk’s On You” 😂
47) Seasons of Rice
In this twist on a tile laying game, you’re connecting sections of rice paddy that zig-zag across the cards
Draft with your opponent and a shared market to best fulfill the scoring objectives, as you create a landscape of complete fields.
48) Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
This speedy matching game takes snap to its silliest level as you each say aloud the next item in the titular list.
If they match, or there’s a special card flipped there’s some action to perform, like slapping the deck, chest or table.
49) Tiny Epic Pirates
This sailing, trading and plundering game challenges players to bury their treasure stashes before the end of the game, as well as maintain a crew, watch out for enemy ships and ride stormy seas.
Features a variable rondel of actions!
50) Monopoly Deal
Want that Monopoly feeling but without the arduous process of roll and move, free parking cash injections and family feuds?
Monopoly Deal takes the core property set-collection element of Monopoly and presents it as a light, tight-playing card game.
51) Overstocked
This card-tile-layering game from Play For Keeps sees you managing your warehouse full of classic toys, and also adding to a stock market of hype. Be careful though: too much hype and those toys score negative!
And that’s it! 51 tiny games to take everywhere with you. Hope you found something new that piques your interest.
Microdot Games 
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