Our game Tax Hero is a model of the American tax system, and how rich people exploited its rules to pay less than their fair share of taxes. Through the design process, I learned a LOT about taxes and how they work, but also learned how to combine narrative and game mechanics to model a complex real-world system. It was also important for us to highlight economic injustice and persuade players of its severity through gameplay, and by trying to do so, I learned about procedural rhetoric and how to embed it within the game play.
Within the game, the player interacts with a portfolio of properties, assets, stocks & salary, and applies different tax evasion techniques that will affect the risk level, the taxes, and the amount of liquid funds they have. One technique may lower taxes but raise the risk significantly, and another might raise liquid funds but increase taxes. Therefore, the mechanics interacted with each other in a way that required the player to strategize within the system to achieve good outcomes for all three metrics. At the same time, the narrative threading the rounds of the game pieced together a complete story, building up the character of both the player and the client. New levels unlocked different parts of the game. Combined, this afforded players the fun of challenge, narrative and discovery.
It was exciting to observe people play the game and becoming invested in the objective. It was also satisfying when some playtesters reported that the narrative was relatable, and highlighted the economic reality of an ever widening wealth gap. It was also the first time I’ve built a digital game, so having it live and deployed was extremely satisfying, even though it took many, many, many hours of coding. A challenging part of the project was turning our research on the specific techniques into interactions within the game, and I learned a lot about how to abstract away details while maintaining the realism and essence of these tax loopholes. With more time, I’d also like to have the game be even more educational and rigorous without sacrificing accessibility and playability. I think that would require better information design, which is something I’d want to learn more about moving forward.
