Our game idea: A twist on Jenga where players complete challenges before or during their turn to draw a block. There’s one sabotager who is trying to knock down the tower, and everyone else has to guess who this player is. People can also draw game cards that affect the entire game.
Questions:
- How can we balance the game cards and challenge blocks for all players?
Importance: This question is important because there’s two sets of game actions and two types of players. If we provide too many challenge cards that, for example, allow the sabotager to remove multiple blocks, this will give them too much power.
Prototype: We’ll experiment with having “neutral cards” that don’t give an advantage to any single player. For example, this could be “draw a middle block” or “skip your turn.”
Prediction: I believe that this prototype will make it harder for people to guess who the sabotager is, and at the same time, will prevent the sabotager from destroying the tower too soon.
- Is a cooperative mode better than a team vs. an enemy?
Importance: A team based game with Jenga blocks might be unfair or not engaging for the non-sabotagers.
Prototype: We will create a game where everyone is playing against each other, building conflict. This means everyone is trying to prevent the tower from falling, and the players who cause it to fall will end up as losers. People will still do challenges, but they aren’t going to try to help anyone else.
Prediction: This game system might make more sense and be more fair than having a team vs. one player. People won’t work together, but they will still try to manipulate and target each other to get people out.
- What sorts of challenges can we put into the blocks for them to be balanced while diverse?
Importance: We want the challenges to be balanced but also diverse enough to not make the game get old quickly.
Prototype: We’ll write challenges that affect how many blocks are drawn, set time limitations for a round, and alter the placement of blocks. This will provide multiple strategies for both regular players and the sabotager to try to win.
Prediction: With these challenges, I believe our game will incentivize more team building and give more information for people to work with.
