One of the direct competitor to our game is Just a minute. This is a fairly popular game that assigns a topic of discussion to players and they speak continuously on the subject for a minute. If a player speaks coherently and continuously during this time, they are awarded a point whereas if they stutter, hesitate or repeat themselves they get zero points. The game is designed to be humorous, with the topic choices ranging from niche subjects like wine tasking for beginners, to simple tasks such as making a cup of tea.
A key theme of this game is learning, and it is geared towards people who speak English as a second language, in order to help them build their confidence and coherence while speaking.
Some key mechanics in the game include the topic cards, a game board and die, which are used to gather points and to determine the turn taking. Each player gets a piece on the board, and for each point they get, they move forward in the board. The main objective is to be the first person to finish the board.
The game provides a sense of fellowship, where players with a common goal (improve their speech) are able to work together in a fun way in order to collectively improve their skills. It also creates a light hearted environment where users are able to learn about different topics, and improve their speech and confidence, outside of a classroom environment.
The visual design of the game includes a brightly colored board (mostly red and yellow) and similarly brightly colored topic cards. The use of bright and fun colors adds to the playful and easy-going feel of the game, and works to make it less intimidating to the players.
Just a minute is similar to our game as it has different topic cards that are distributed, a running timer and a point system that is dependent on the content that the user says. Our game, however, places a twist on these aspects by having an extra set of “lie phrases” , that the user must incorporate into a true story regarding the particular topic, and they get a point if their partner is unable to decipher what aspect of the story was a lie. As a result, our game utilizes bluffing as a key dynamic in playing.
