Shorthand
A party word-guessing game in the Celebrities / salad-bowl tradition: one deck, three escalating rounds, inside jokes by round three.
One phone, one bowl, three rounds
Everyone’s cards go into one shared bowl, and the same deck plays through three rounds that get harder as they go. By round three you’re not guessing the card — you’re guessing the memory of how your friend flailed at it in round one. That’s the whole magic of the format, and Shorthand is built to get out of its way.
How it works
- Build the bowl. Everyone writes cards from their own phone — scan the room’s QR code, type, done — or pass the host’s phone around and write them there. Add curated decks on top: modern pop culture, absurd & funny, family-friendly, and crowd science.
- Round 1 — Say anything except the name itself. No spelling, no rhymes-with.
- Round 2 — One word. Exactly one. It works because everyone met every card in round one.
- Round 3 — Charades. No words at all.
- Throw the card where it goes. Fling right: got it. Fling left: back in the bowl. Skips are free and unlimited — the energy stays up.
- The recap fixes table disputes. After every turn, a recap screen shows each card as it was marked, with tap-to-flip correction for mis-swipes.
What makes it different
- True three-round, same-deck play. The format that makes the game great, done natively and polished.
- Variable card points. Cards are worth 1–3 points by difficulty — harder cards earn more.
- Fair endings. When the bowl empties mid-turn, the clearing team opens the next round with only their leftover time.
- No ads. No accounts. No tracking. Nothing interrupts the game once it starts. The party is the point.
Play it
Shorthand is in private beta on iOS via TestFlight, with App Store and Google Play releases to follow. Want in on the beta? Email us.