Anecdotally, Pistol Whip was the second most popular freeplay game at PAX East VR, after Beat Saber. It certainly drew more comments; it’s a very visually arresting game.
Every verb in tabletop gaming can be implemented via a card.
Cards can randomize. Shuffle 'em up.
Cards can hold state, tapped or flipped.
Cards can link to other cards, placed next to or on top of each other
Cards can hide information, flip them over, put them in your hand.
Cards can move into different spots, hand, deck, graveyard.
Dice can be replaced with cards.
Boards can be replaced with cards.
Pawns can be replaced with cards.
Currency can be replaced with cards.
You can print absolutely any image onto both sides of a card.
For Square on Sale, I saw that I could force a game end by running out of squares and that that was going to rack up a bunch of points. No one else was tracking end game conditions! Because buying takes two turns, those were two agonizing turns of me wondering if anyone would notice and attempt to disrupt. I was pretty safe after the first turn because I could have outbid anyone going after the buy had sealed the deal.
As the game advances, the number of squares that can be deployed with a single buy increases. That’s the new heuristic to keep in mind when tracking end of game.