Carmel 14-year-old develops card game inspired by city’s roundabouts

CARMEL — There is a card game that is catching the attention of thousands of people in Hamilton County — and it’s all created by a 14-year-old.

“We live in Carmel. There are actually over 100 roundabouts over here, so why don’t we make a game about roundabouts?” Franklin Vrtis said.

Vrtis is a freshman at Carmel High School. Over the summer, he developed a card game that was inspired by City of Carmel’s roundabouts. He said he spent about two hours a day designing the game. Virtis also had help from his dad.

“I did all the artwork. We made some tweaks before the finished product,” Vrtis added.

Vrtis showed WRTV how to play the game on Tuesday.

In "Roundabouts," players take turns drawing one card at a time and placing it on a table. All the cards are a quarter of a roundabout with entrances, exits and some have bonuses on them.

The game ends when all the cards runs out. Whoever has the most points wins. The end game?

“Everyone works together to create a city full of round of roundabouts,” Vrtis said.

There is one catch to the game though.

“Sometimes it follows the rules of the roads. But oftentimes, you’re going to have roundabouts that have only exits or only entrances. Either you are stuck in the roundabout your entire life or you have to get there by foot,” Vrtis said.

Roundabouts is the second game that Visionmonster, the company Franklin and his dad are part of, has completed.

"My goal in life is to make something that lives longer than I do," Vrtis said.

Franklin says he has a few new card games in the works.

The game can be purchased at All Things Carmel. Dan McFeely says the community support has been amazing.

"We have sold 5 dozen more games in the past couple of weeks – it’s really caught on,” McFeely, a Carmel resident, said.

The City of Carmel says there are nearly 140 roundabouts throughout the city - the most in the United States.