Shifting Islands

You’ve crashed on an alien archipelago. Those who once lived there seem to have left the place for quite some time, but the equipment they left behind is still functional. Your only hope to escape is to warp yourself on an alien ship in orbit around the planet. To power up the warping device, you’ll need to restore power to the whole archipelago by switching on the generator on each island. But this will also reactivate the alien security system, which will block some of your paths. You’ll need to learn how to use the aliens’ technology to shift the islands and navigate this maze. Overview: A maze game in which you rotate and shift cards around in a 3x3 grid to open up new paths. The maze gets more difficult to navigate as you get closer to your goal, but you can always retrace your steps. Replayability: Mazes are randomly generated by the initial shuffle, and 4 modular variants let you adjust the complexity of the game as you desire. Players: 1 Duration: ~30 min Components: 9 poker-sized cards The rulebook (3 pages) Any kind of pawn (optional, to keep track of your position) 4 coins of any type (optional, to keep track of which variants you're playing with) Shifting Islands is an entry in the 2026 9-card Nanogame Print and Play Design Contest .