The Mind adds a custom soundtrack to its social experiment card game

Wolfgang Warsch’s card game The Mind is filling the silence of its psychic number-counting challenge with music.

An upcoming new edition of last year’s divisive social experiment-cum-card game subtitled The Sound Experiment will include a custom soundtrack for players to listen to as they once again try to lay down their cards in numerical order without uttering a word.

The soundtrack comes on a CD, adding the extra meta-challenge of trying to find a CD player in 2019. On the disc there are two tracks composed specifically for the game; the first is described only as a way to “immerse yourself in The Mind universe”, while the second apparently “takes you on a jungle adventure”.

The tracks do feature an optional extra challenge that applies more pressure to the players around the table, as they can choose to try and finish a game of The Mind before a gong sounds for the second time during the tracks and the music ends.

The rules are otherwise the same as the standard game, with players advancing through 12 levels and getting more cards to try and place in order without losing all their lives.

“As you engage in this experiment, you can experience The Mind in a new dimension,” the rulebook says. “Integrate the music into your game and you will experience The Mind on a new level.”

Despite its love-it-or-hate-it reception, The Mind has been showered in plaudits, being nominated for the Spiel des Jahres last summer and currently in the running for the As d'Or game of the year prize.