Keepsake games ask players to become makers, crafting a tangible narrative object as they play. The cards, feathers, keys, bits of twine, and handwritten letters of keepsake games are not merely tokens to be moved around, but are permanently altered in the process of play. The result is a unique artifact, preserving a history of the collaboration between designer and player. In this hands-on workshop by award-winning game designer Shing Yin Khor, we will explore what it means to create games that invite people to make, learn about the role of ritual in game design, and prototype several games together.

Shing Yin Khor is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans graphic novels, live installation, puppetry, and analog game design. They make games centered on the bridge between physical making and traditional tabletop RPGs, kind and awkward emotional connections, and new traditions and rituals. Their work includes the embroidery and map-marking keepsake game A Mending, the time-travel epistolary game Remember August (winner of the 2022 IndieCade Tabletop Design Award), The Gentle Oraclebird (IndieCade 2019 and 2020) and co-designer of the solo journaling keepsake game Field Guide to Memory.