My team is building a hybrid between Pictionary and Salad Bowl (Fish Bowl) where a player builds a prompt using Playdough and their team attempts to guess the prompt from the Playdough prototype.
Questions:
During each turn, should a player have only 1 prompt they are trying to build and if their team correctly guesses that prompt the turn is over, or should the player be able to build as many prompts as they can in the time duration of their turn if their team keeps guessing their objects correctly?
- This is an important question to answer because it will determine one of the fundamental dynamics of the game. If rounds are only 1 prompt, then the game is played on a per-turn speed. If rounds are as many prompts as a team can correctly guess, then the game speed isn’t as deterministic.
- To answer this question, we will have to make 1 prototype in each domain and play test them.
- My guess is that play testers will enjoy having the ability to build as many prompts they can with a slightly longer turn as opposed to 1 prompt per turn.
Should the only building-guessing paradigm be building the prompt with Playdough and having the team guess what the object is, or should there be others such as guessing the object blindfolded or creating the object blindfolded?
- This is an important question to answer because if the answer is yes, then the game might be more simple, but also bore players easily. If the answer is no, we will be required to play test other building-guessing paradigms to find a natural progression between rounds.
- To answer this question, we will have to play test different versions of building-guessing paradigms to determine if there needs to be alterations to the mechanic between rounds.
- I believe that players would enjoy 3 rounds where each round has a progressively harder building-guessing paradigm.
How much time is needed for a player to realistically build a good-enough prompt where their team can guess the object with sufficient difficulty?
- This is an important question to answer because the primary formal element of our game is having a team guess an object their teammate is building. We must have this formal element be enjoyable as the rest of the game depends on it.
- To answer this questions, our prototype will test different length turns in each of the paradigms proposed in question 1.
- For 1 prompt-per turn, I believe that 2 minutes is sufficient. For as many prompts as possible, I believe 4 minutes allows enough time to get multiple prompts correct, but not too much time where a single team can guess every prompt in the game.
