For this week’s critical play, I chose the getting to know you game Picolo. It is a game made by Marmelapp. The platform the game is on is an app, which is free on the app store. For this game, one person downloads the app, and the app gives different prompts that that player reads out to the group to follow.
As a drinking game, I think that this app is aimed toward people in their mid-twenties. I think this game is suited for medium sized groups of friends (5-10) that are hanging out and looking for a fun and somewhat spicy way to pass the time, perhaps at a pregame before going.
The game is quite simple in that the person with the app taps the screen and 1 of 4 types of prompts appears that must be followed by the group or the individual(s) named by the prompt. A player can avoid the prompt by taking a prescribed number of “penalties”.
The four types of prompts are as follows:
- general prompts which appear most often. These prompts detail a task that a player(s) must complete.
- “Tank, who do you think has taken more drugs in their life, Alex or Kira? They have to take 3 penalties”
- “Emma, send a voice message to the 8th conversation in you messages list. Or take 2 penalties”
- games that the group must play, and the loser must take a number of penalties. These games are things like a would you rather that everyone votes on or categories in which you go around and say different things in the particular category.
- “For or against wife beaters? Everyone vote at once, losing group takes 4 penalties”
- “Sauces. If you repeat, or can’t think of one, take a penalty. Alex, you start”
- “virus” prompts that force a certain player to do a specific thing for a few turns and take a penalty every time they forget. The app also displays a screen when that player is cured of their “virus”.
- “Kira, you’re Batman! Speak like him or take a penalty every time you speak” –>”Kira you’re not Batman anymore”
- maximum penalty prompts that force a certain member of the group to take the “maximum penalty” however the group would like to determine that (probably finishing their drink).
- “To the youngest player: how dare you be so youthful! Take a maximum penalty”
One mechanic that this game employs is that the game randomly generates names from the people that are playing to be tasked with completing certain activities described by each prompt. The dynamic that this creates is that each player is included in the game. There is hypothetically no one player that is targeted and/or excluded by the other players. This creates an aesthetic of fellowship because it strengthens the social network of those that are playing the game by making sure that everyone is included and able to enjoy the game together.
I think that this game is similar to truth or dare in that it asks people to do certain things or reveal certain things about themselves throughout the game (with varying levels of risk). I think that Picolo is different because it removes some of the stress/difficulty of coming up with prompts on your own while playing truth or dare. It removes the pressure from the players to do so by targeting certain individuals with different activities at random, making the game play run more smoothly. It also adds more variation to what occurs during the game by including things like games and the virus prompt cards that ask the players to do different things that may diffuse some of the tension and add more random fun to the game.
I had a lot of fun playing the game. It also includes different versions of the game for different situations that people can purchase for different kinds of game play. I would be very interested to try out some different versions of the game, especially the bar version which suggests that it may be more suited to play in a public setting. I would be interested to see the ways in which the prompts differ for the different packs.
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