Tarot smartphone apps

My tech support go-to guy is looking into building me a phone app for tarot readings. At this stage, we're looking at the app coming in a lite version that does a single card draw, and a paid app that does a three card draw. The single card draw app would be rather simple to put together - I would do a generic reading for each card and its reversed position, the readings would get loaded up into the app, and the user would simply ask his or her question and hit the button.

The three card draw appears to be much more difficult. Although it's simple to run three cards and the individual generic meanings, how do you tie all three cards together through an algorythm? I'm not really that keen to do every permutation of every possible three card draw, that would take an extremely long time indeed. I'm also faced with the question of using another persons art - I exclusively use the Deviant Moon for all my readings, how would I keep the app legal? Would carrying advice as to the cards used be enough?

I have no idea about the legal side of this, but if you're creating an app and including the three-card draws, I believe you'll have to write all of the combinations out. Whether that's what each card would be in for each position, or each position and also related to the other two cards, etc. Someone else might have a better idea, but I feel like that's just the nature of the beast :/

astrofeather said:

I have no idea about the legal side of this, but if you're creating an app and including the three-card draws, I believe you'll have to write all of the combinations out. Whether that's what each card would be in for each position, or each position and also related to the other two cards, etc. Someone else might have a better idea, but I feel like that's just the nature of the beast :/

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Okay... so... 78 cards with reversed positions included is... ummm... over three million different combinations, as when each card is drawn it reduces the factor by two, not one. 456,456 combinations if no cards are reversed, rather a few more if you include reversed cards. I really don't want to write that many readings. I checked a few tarot apps, and they just run three card spreads as individual card meanings, so I think I'll go with that

Not to be a bummer, but what would be "special" about your app that would make people buy it? There are already free apps that allow you to do full spreads.

I'll have to pile on the negative, unfortunately. You can't just use the Deviant Moon or any other deck that you did not personally create and stay legal merely by crediting the artist. You could probably get away with it if this was strictly for your own personal use, but then why bother with the effort of all the writeups?

Have you contacted the artist and U.S. Games (as the publisher) for permission? If you're planning on charging for your app, they'll probably want a cut of what you make. And they'd be smart to want to see a finished product before they granted final permission, since you have no track record producing such apps. That, of course, is assuming they'll allow it at all.

Before you put any more effort into this project, you'd better look into this. Otherwise, you'll almost certainly find yourself facing a lawsuit, and you'll have wasted your own and your dev friend's time.

astrofeather said:

I have no idea about the legal side of this, but if you're creating an app and including the three-card draws, I believe you'll have to write all of the combinations out. Whether that's what each card would be in for each position, or each position and also related to the other two cards, etc. Someone else might have a better idea, but I feel like that's just the nature of the beast :/

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The Celtic-Cross Tarot reading option at tarot.com has meanings for each card in each of the different positions of the Celtic-Cross. It was a monumental task undertaken by Christine Payne-Towler. Then they rewrote the text to give specific meanings for Love and Work meanings and I don't know what else. I did something similar for SELF Magazine using three-card readings with a different emphasis for Romance, Career, and General (dailies). I only did the upright meanings and I didn't combine cards, although the position meanings lent themselves to being easily integrated. Each nuance or additional factor multiplies everything exponentially!

closrapexa said:

Not to be a bummer, but what would be "special" about your app that would make people buy it? There are already free apps that allow you to do full spreads.

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This, rather. If you can't tie cards together using algorithms, I think you'll find that the apps that have done so will win out over yours every time.

If you want to use Deviant Moon, the only legal thing would be to ask the artist for permission. He's here; ask. Without that permission, you'd be wide open for a lawsuit.

In his place, as I think he has already allowed an app using, it, I'd be surprised if he wanted another - but I've no idea how artists feel about these things.

If you are going to create this you will either need permission from a deck creator, images that are in the public domain, or a deck that you create yourself.

It sounds like the secret sauce is that you are going to write out interpretations for the positions. This will make it more attractive for the audience who is not experienced with tarot as experienced readers already know how to do this. With that in mind, you are going to need to make it very inexpensive.

The Fool's Dog has an incredible suite of Tarot apps that let you do quite a bit (full text from companion books, tarot journal, many spreads, create-your-own-spread functionality. Those only cost about $4.00 each.

Thanks for all the replies. Yeah, would definitely have to use original art - could use the Cyberpunk Tarot deck that we're creating maybe, plus that would also be good for advertising the deck. I don't really have answers as to what would make the app special, but one thing I've noticed with a lot of the tarot apps currently out there is that they are over complicated and poorly written. This obviously isn't true for all of them, but a selection I downloaded had very poor English, and too many button presses. Will continue to think about this.

Well it need not be technologically unique, you could make it work for you as a kind of ad. You can do what you said with three cards, as a free download from your site as an apk file, and have the app suggest a link to get a full reading from you. Hype up the meanings as your own unique slant on them. An interactive business card.