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What is Wikidata Card Game Generator?
Wikidata Card Game Generator is a free browser tool that turns a Wikidata topic into a printable Top Trumps–style card deck. You give it a Wikidata entity ID for a category—chemical elements, islands, telescopes, metro systems—and it builds a set of 32 cards from items in that category, using the properties most commonly filled in across those items.
How it works
- You find the topic's Wikidata entity ID (a code starting with Q) and paste it into the generator.
- The tool fetches items that are instances of the topic's subclasses.
- It finds the properties that occur most often among those items.
- It selects the 32 items with the most of those properties filled in, so each card has data to compare.
- Missing data or images can be added directly on Wikidata and will improve future decks.
What it is good for
It suits teachers, workshop hosts, museum or library activity leaders, and Wikidata contributors who want a quick, tangible way to show what structured open data can do. Because the deck is generated from live data, it works as a demonstration of Wikidata's coverage and gaps: a topic with sparse properties produces weaker cards, which makes missing information visible.
Trade-offs to know
The output reflects Wikidata's contents, not a curated game design. Popular, well-documented topics produce better decks than obscure ones. The 32-card selection favors completeness over balance, so some cards may be stronger than others. Anyone expecting hand-tuned artwork or balanced gameplay will need to adjust expectations or edit the data first.
A concrete example
A teacher preparing a lesson on chemical elements can use the element entity ID (Q11344) to generate a deck, then print and cut the cards. Students compare values such as atomic number or discovery date, and the class can discuss why some elements have more complete Wikidata entries than others.
If you want to try it, start with a broad, well-populated topic, generate a deck, and check whether the cards have enough comparable properties. If they don't, either choose a narrower or better-documented topic or add the missing statements to Wikidata. Related open-data tools include Wikidata itself and GitHub, where the project's source code is hosted.
How do I create a custom Top Trumps game using Wikidata?
You create a custom Top Trumps-style deck by finding a Wikidata entity ID and pasting it into the generator at Wikidata Card Game Generator. The tool then builds a deck automatically from that topic.
The basic steps
- Go to Wikidata and search for your topic, using its singular form — for example, "capital" rather than "capitals".
- Find the entity ID near the top of the page. It starts with Q, such as Q11344 for chemical element.
- Paste that ID into the generator's search box and click Generate.
What the generator does with your ID
According to the site, it fetches Wikidata items that are instances of subclasses of your chosen topic. It then looks at which properties appear most often across those items and picks the 32 cards that have the most of those properties filled in. This is why some cards may lack data or images: the selection favors well-populated items, but gaps still appear.
A practical consequence: if your topic is too narrow, you may get few usable cards; if it is too broad, the deck may mix items that feel unrelated. The generator's own suggested topics are a good starting range — capital, metro system, country, astronomical body, island, hackerspace, computer model, telescope, and card game.
Fixing weak cards
The site suggests adding missing information to Wikidata if your cards come out incomplete. That is a real trade-off: the deck quality depends on how well the underlying Wikidata items are maintained. For a classroom or party game, checking the generated deck before printing is worth the few minutes, since a card with blank stats plays poorly.
When to use it
This suits a quick, free, no-design-skills deck for a known topic, especially if you want something tied to open data. If you need precise control over which items appear, or consistent artwork, you would likely need a different approach. For browsing Wikidata itself, see Wikidata.
A useful next step: try one of the suggested topics first to see how a finished deck looks, then swap in your own entity ID once you know what a good result looks like.
What kinds of topics work best for generating a card game?
Topics work best when they describe a category with many concrete members and plenty of shared, comparable attributes. The generator builds cards from Wikidata items that are instances of subclasses of your topic, then favors the properties that appear most often and picks the 32 items with the most of those properties filled in. So breadth and data density matter more than how interesting the topic sounds.
Good candidates
- Physical categories with measurable traits: chemical elements, astronomical bodies, islands, telescopes, computer models. These tend to have numbers, dates, sizes and images attached to each item.
- Institutions and systems: metro systems, countries, hackerspaces. They usually share a predictable set of properties such as inception date, location, operator, capacity or area.
- Games and media: card games, board games, films, albums. Release dates, player counts, designers and genres recur across items.
- Living things and named objects: animals, plants, spacecraft. Taxonomy, discovery dates and dimensions give you comparable stats.
Weak candidates
- Very abstract concepts: love, justice, time. They have few instances and almost no shared numeric properties.
- Narrow or niche topics: a single local club or one obscure artifact. There may not be 32 qualifying items, so the deck comes out short.
- Topics defined by relationships rather than shared attributes: "things influenced by X" may return items with little in common to compare.
- Anything with sparse Wikidata coverage: if most items lack images or key facts, the cards feel empty.
A practical test
Before generating, open the Wikidata item for your topic and look at how many items link to it as an instance or subclass. If you can count well over 32 and the items have obvious shared fields, the topic will work. If you struggle to name ten, pick something broader.
A useful next step is to start from the examples on the generator page — chemical element (Q11344), country, island, telescope — and then narrow or shift the topic while keeping the same structure. For instance, "telescope" works; "telescope at a specific observatory" probably does not. If your first attempt produces thin cards, the page itself suggests the fix: add the missing facts or images to Wikidata and regenerate.
How does the generator decide which 32 cards to include?
The generator picks the 32 items that are best documented in Wikidata for your chosen topic. It does not curate cards by hand or by popularity.
The selection logic
- Collect candidates. It fetches Wikidata items that are instances of the topic you entered, including arbitrary subclasses of it. So a broad topic like "chemical element" pulls in a wide set of related items rather than only the most obvious ones.
- Find the common properties. Across those candidates, it counts which properties appear most often — the fields that most items actually have filled in.
- Score and rank. Each item is judged by how many of those frequently occurring properties it has filled in.
- Take the top 32. The 32 items with the most of those properties filled in become the deck.
The practical consequence: the deck reflects data completeness, not fame. An obscure item with a rich, well-maintained Wikidata entry can beat a famous one with a sparse entry. Images count too, so items with images tend to fare better.
What this means for your topic
- Narrow, well-modelled topics (capital, island, telescope) tend to produce coherent decks, because their items share a predictable property set.
- Broad or loosely modelled topics can produce a mixed deck, since "instances of subclasses" may sweep in items of very different kinds.
- Missing data is fixable. If a card you expected is absent or looks thin, adding the missing statements or images to Wikidata can change the outcome.
A practical next step
Generate a deck, then scan it for gaps. If a card is missing fields you know exist, look up that item on Wikidata and add them — then regenerate and compare. That loop is the fastest way to see exactly how the ranking responds to data quality.
For background on the data source itself, see Wikidata.
Can I fix missing data or images on the generated cards?
Yes. The generator pulls its card data straight from Wikidata, so the fix happens there, not on the card generator itself. The page says it plainly: if a card is missing data or images, you can add that information to Wikidata.
How the fix works in practice
- Find the Wikidata entity for the card's subject. Entity IDs start with
Q, and the generator's page shows how to locate one (for example, chemical element isQ11344). - Open that item on Wikidata and add or correct the missing property — an image, a measurement, a date, whatever the card left blank.
- Regenerate the card game. The generator selects cards based on how many of the most common properties are filled in, so adding data can also change which 32 cards get chosen.
What to expect
- Your edit helps anyone using Wikidata, not just your card deck.
- New or changed values may take a little time to appear, since the generator reads from Wikidata rather than storing its own copy.
- You will need a Wikidata account to edit, and image files normally live on Wikimedia Commons and are then linked to the item.
- If the problem is a property the generator never uses, editing will not bring it onto the card.
A concrete scenario
Suppose you generate a deck about telescopes and one card has no picture. Look up that telescope's Q ID, add an image statement on Wikidata, then regenerate. The same card should now show the image, and the deck's card selection may shift slightly because that item now has more filled-in properties.
If you would rather report a bug in the generator itself than edit data, its source is hosted on GitHub, as noted on the page. For background on the data model, see Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons.
Is the source code available for modification or bug reporting?
Yes. The page states that the source code is on GitHub, with an invitation to suggest ideas or report bugs.
What that means in practice
- You can inspect how the generator works rather than treating it as a black box.
- You can file bug reports or propose improvements through the project's GitHub repository.
- If you want to modify it, the GitHub repository is the place to start; the page does not spell out a license or contribution process, so check those details there.
A useful next step
If you have a concrete problem, describe the topic you searched for, the Wikidata entity ID you used, and what went wrong (for example, missing properties or images). That gives maintainers something reproducible to work with. If you would rather improve the underlying data than the code, the page suggests adding missing information directly to Wikidata.
For context on the data source, see Wikidata.
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