What do Prototypes Prototype_Janet

Our team’s game is a murder mystery role-play card game. Below are my questions:

1. If given the option to create their own characters, will players take the initiative to do that or will they rather stick with the default set of characters the game provides?
   1. This is an important question to answer because it determines how we want to design the character cards and how much freedom of creation we want to give to players.
   2. If many players like to create their own characters, we need to set limitations on the strength of weapons or special abilities they have to balance the game.
   3. I can make some default character cards and some cards that have prompts for players to write their own answers. I can also have complete blank cards for players to create. I’ll compare how many of those cards are used by the players and how they played out in the game. 
   4. My guess is that if we give players some blank cards and allow them full freedom of creativity and expression, the characters might get too powerful and some players will think it is unfair. On the other hand, the default cards might be a little too dull for players. So, I think most players will appreciate having moderate freedom of creative customization.
2. How will players feel about revealing their information? How do they strategize what information they reveal? 
   1. These are important questions to answer because they influence the time length and the pace of the game. Also, revealing information is a key part of our game rule. 
   2. I can make a deck of cards that are relevant to information-revealing. For example, one card says “The person next to you will need to reveal one piece of clue they have.” And then I can see what that person chooses to disclose.
   3. My guess is that the players will feel fine revealing their information because they reveal based on the cards others draw from the deck. The players will also start by revealing non-essential information at first. 
3. How hard will the game be?
   1. This is an important question because ideally, I want to keep all players in the flow state and not want anyone to find the game too challenging because of the rules or their characters.
   2.  For this prototype, I need to integrate both role, implementation, and look and feel because they are both tied to how challenging the game will be for the players. I will figure out the game mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics (basically the working version of the full game) and ask players to try out the game. 
   3. My guess is that the difficulty level of the game will depend on what clue cards people draw and what special abilities each character has.