Short Exercise: What do Prototypes Prototype?

Our game puts players on an island after a plane crash and players must work together to escape the island.

  1. Will players actively discuss their choices before making a decision together when faced with multiple choices?
    • This is important to answer because this game is meant to get players talking and working together
    • We will make paper prototypes of event cards that present players with two choices and see how the players interact before making a choice
    • I predict that players will actively discuss the pros and cons of each choice (as long as we design the choices to not have a obvious better one) before they make a decision on which one to go with
  2. Will players be excited by the event cards they draw at each turn?
    1. This is important to answer because the turns are what get the players closer to the exit and we want the players to feel excited about moving forward in the game
    2. We will test this with a small set of events cards
    3. I predict that the players will be curious about what event they get next
  3. Will getting an assigned role and assigned relationships and assigned item(s) at the start of the game, and having to draw event cards at each turn, make the game too overwhelming to play as a social game?
    1. This is important to answer because we want to achieve a good balance of simplicity and richness so that the game is easy enough to pick up but also has replay value
    2. We will test this with a paper prototype consisting of role, relationships, items, and event cards
    3. I predict that the players are able to differentiate the function of each type of card because they resemble real life situations and concepts

 

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