Do the cards feel engaging?
One of the main goals of our game is to keep the players entertained. If the players at any point feel like the cards are repetitive or boring, then we either need to change the cards themselves or change how they’re used in the game. To achieve this, we may need to experiment with a variety of different prompts and see which general categories of questions work well and which ones don’t. I’m guessing that as long as we have a “balanced” deck of cards, the players will remain engaged.
Should we do freehand or pre-selected answers?
Currently, we believe that freehand responses to the card prompts will allow for more creativity and engagement for our game. However, it’s possible that this thesis is wrong and that players will end up liking the ability to use pre-selected answers. Here, we can simply make another deck that contains pre-made answers (mostly just random things) and see if the game is more engaging that way. I suspect that the freehand option is still superior since it dramatically increases the possible directions one can take (and is more in-line with the madlibs-eque design of our game).
How will judging work? Will the points be distributed all at once or at each round?
Although our game does not have a formal point system, we think that having a subjective judge to score the game will add to the fun and provoke discussion regarding the choices made during the game. Here, the prototype will simply be a variation of the judge mechanic where we either have the judge score solely at the end or at each round. I think that having the judge score at each round will ultimately be more engaging because it will spark continuous discussion throughout the game (although may slow the game down). Additionally, players may be able to pick up on the preferences of the judge through this immediate feedback.
