What do Prototypes Prototype?

Our groups original idea is a variation of the classic game of Pong. We are floating the idea of some challenge aspect involved with the game but are workshopping other ideas such as combining other popular party games into an ultimate one. We are also thinking about how the rules and set up of pong could change to adjust for our new versions.

1. Does adding more people to the game affect the experience? 
   1. Our goal for this twist on pong is to make it more social and so we may want to have more people play than the original 2v2. I’m curious if adding more people will slow down the game too much or make things more hectic. We still want the game to be one of challenge and skill so slowing down the game might not be conducive of that. Is there an upper limit to how many people could participate in this challenge version of the game? 
2. Are there different formations of the pong cups that would be better for our version of the game? 
   1. Pong is played in a traditional triangle pattern and this helps with balls slightly missing being able to fall into other cups. I am curious if this is relevant for our version of the game. We could attempt to play games of pong with different arrangements and take notes on insights from each of the different versions. Something may be revealed that would be helpful for our challenge aspect. 
3. What types of challenges will people be willing to do? 
   1. Challenges are going to be a central part of our game so we should prototype what types of challenges would be best in a typical pong environment. For example, will truth style challenges be effective if there is loud music playing or you are in a large group setting? We can test this by just writing down many challenges and categorizing them on some metric then giving these challenges out to people and seeing which category was most effective. 
4. How often should challenges happen? 
   1. Pong is typically a rhythmic, fast game where both teams only have one task and that is to shoot. I’m curious if adding challenges will interrupt the flow of the game making it not as fun. We could experiment with how often these challenges could happen to add a level of excitement rather than something that feels like a roadblock in gameplay.