Short Exercise: What do Prototypes Prototype?

Our team (#29) is creating a game called Worrywrecker where players respond to a card with a prompt by stating something they are worried about. From here players takes turns making recommendation on how to deal with this players worry. It is intended to deepen social connection amongst friends and potentially strangers.

Can a game without a win condition still be fun?

1. This is an important question to answer since a game’s level of fun will determine repeated playability and how much players enjoy it.
2. We are going to build out a prototype that has different levels of intimacy and depth of questions. In level 1-2 questions will be more playful so players can answer with satire. Levels 3-5 will be deeper questions with more real world answers, prompting well though out responses. The goal here would be to have levels 1-2 be more of icebreakers and increase the level of “fun” while levels 3-5 increase the level of vulnerability and deeper social connection
3. There are games like apples to apples, cards against humanity and we are not really strangers that base themselves on card prompts and no win condition however the magic in these games comes in the quality of the questions. My prediction is that the mechanic will be sufficient for “fun” but that the quality of our questions won’t be there yet.

What is the best way to get different players to give their suggestion first?

1. This question is important because it proved to be a critical issue in our first play test. The person who had to respond to the “worrier” first (person to their left) was always the one that set the tone for the round (more satirical vs deeper answers). Additionally this person was sometimes put in an awkward position if they didn’t have an answer ready.
2. We can make a prototype where there is a spinner in the center and the person it points to first answers first. From there they continue answering clockwise as we had initially planned it.
3. I imagine that this could still create a scenario where the first person guessing is still in a pressured awkward situation so this might not be the best solution. A similar problem arises with any method of randomizing the first person to go. However if we select a dynamic where the first person ready answers this might take a long time and interrupt or extremely slow down the flow of the game. We haven’t figured out how to best solve this question.

Can this game be played by strangers and children, or should we direct it to only friends and people that already know each other.

1. This is an important question because our game might not be very enjoyable for people that aren’t ready to be vulnerable with one another. Since it would address themes of their past and anxieties for the future, it could be awkward and annoying for people not ready for it.
2. Rather than a specific change to the prototype I this the answer to this question lies more in playtesting. It could be valuable to play test with a group of friends and with 4 complete strangers. After the playtest we could ask directed questions around how they felt, how open/vulnerable they are generally and in the playtest and use those answers to determine the ideal audience for our game
3. My hypothesis is that groups of friends would find the game more enjoyable than a random group of players, however I still believe it is possible for a group of strangers to play on levels 1-2 for longer which will allow them to build a nice level of rapport and trust before moving on to the more personal levels (3-5). As in the first question the magic here has to come from the questions themselves so we do have to make a great effort when crafting them.