How do I generate a card game with the Wikidata Card Game Generator?

Updated

Go to cardgame.blinry.org, find the Wikidata entity ID (a number starting with "Q") for the topic you want, paste it into the search box, and click Generate. The tool then builds a printable Top Trumps–style deck of 32 cards from Wikidata items related to that topic. You don't need an account or any setup — you just need a valid Q-ID and a topic that has enough structured data on Wikidata.

Step 1: Find your topic's Q-ID on Wikidata

The generator works from Wikidata entity IDs, not from plain topic names. To get one:

  1. Go to Wikidata and type the singular form of your topic into the search box (for example, "chemical element" rather than "chemical elements").
  2. Open the matching item.
  3. Look near the top of the page for the entity ID, which starts with Q.

For example, the ID of chemical element is Q11344.

If you pick the wrong item or a plural/disambiguation page, you'll get a different (or empty) set of cards, so check that the item you opened is actually the concept you mean.

Step 2: Paste the ID and generate

  1. On cardgame.blinry.org, paste the Q-ID into the input box.
  2. Click Generate.

The tool fetches Wikidata items that are instances of arbitrary subclasses of the topic you provided, finds the properties that occur most often across those items, and selects the 32 cards that have as many of those properties filled in as possible.

Starter topics to try

The site suggests these topics if you just want to see how it works:

Topic Notes
capital Cities that are capitals
metro system Rapid transit networks
country Sovereign states
astronomical body Planets, moons, stars, etc.
island Landmasses surrounded by water
hackerspace Community workshops
computer model Hardware/device models
telescope Observing instruments
card game Games played with cards

Why some cards are missing data or images

The deck is only as complete as Wikidata itself. If a card comes out with gaps, the site's own suggestion is to add that information to Wikidata — the generator will pick it up on a later run. This also means two runs on the same topic can differ over time as Wikidata is edited.

What it's built on

The generator was made for the Wikidata-Workshop 2019 in Ulm by bleeptrack and blinry. The source code is on GitHub, where you can suggest ideas or report bugs.