Our team wanted to make a game about gerrymandering and a zero-sum game. We identified key values around guilt of playing a corrupt system, competition in order to win at all costs, and the dehumanizing of a data-driven top-down system. These values led us to create a competitive 1v1 game where both players take turns gerrymandering a limited map. The gameplay loop consists of resource consumption as the players use their limited tiles to take up more space on the board. The key objects in the game are the pieces the players buy, the party tiles on the board, and the cards to influence the board. The pieces interact with the board tiles as they cover them and the board tiles determine who wins the district by identifying which of the parties won based on the votes in the district. The key arc in the game is understanding that the pieces represent districts and seeing the district cover up an opposing party’s votes in the name of winning the board. Its followed by a competitive loop where the players progressively lose resources and are challenged to keep the other party down.
