Artist’s Statement
“Cold War” is inspired by our love for both Capture the Flag and games like Werewolf. We wanted to create a physical game that supported social deception and allowed people to get to know each other. Dynamics-wise, we envision a game that is not too hard to get into and also acts as a puzzle that is fun to strategize around while not being too difficult or too easy. One of our goals is for players to keep coming back to try new tactics and plans. Thus we designed the game to support different strategies at different player numbers and different player styles as well. Another important goal is that we aim for this game to teach its players something and act as a learning tool while building relationships. For example, players can sharpen their teamwork and coordination skills as they learn the importance of silent communication and the risks and benefits of different team strategies, especially when dealing with spies. Players also learn to read social cues to deduce who is a spy and assess risk when confirming their suspicions. This social deduction skill and socialization skill is needed to negotiate out of prison and build community amongst players.
Concept Map
Below are three sketches of some core game mechanics, namely “Spies Capture a Flag,” “Player Suspects a Spy,” and “Breaking a Teammate out of Jail.” Each of these mechanics require the player to inquire their teammates about their honesty and true intentions, and to make decisions accordingly. Not only does this foster a paranoid dynamic, it encourages player communication and understanding of others’ signs of lying, their personalities, and their communication skills.
Initial Decisions
Initially, on the highest level, we wanted to make a game that encouraged teamwork and collaboration and discouraged multilateral competition. The main reason for this is that multilateral competition combined with the physical play aspect would make it that much more difficult to build relationships and get to know other players.
Rules
The objective is to obtain the opposing team’s flag and bring it to your team’s base. For spies, the objective is to capture both flags. Spies are revealed only during specific phases: At designated times, spies from each team will know each other’s identities but must keep them hidden from non-spies.
Dynamic Team Allegiances: Players may be on one team but secretly working for another, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and mistrust.
Spies’ Dual Victory Conditions: Spies aim to outmaneuver both teams to capture both flags simultaneously, making their gameplay strategic and subversive.
Initial Brainstormed Mechanics
Game Setup: Designate two team bases and a neutral zone. Each team’s flag is placed at their base, and spies are secretly assigned.
Gameplay: Teams try to defend their flag while attempting to capture the other team’s flag. Spies within each team work covertly to undermine their ‘own’ team.
Spy Reveal Phase: At specific moments, spies identify each other to coordinate without alerting the regular team members.
Throwing Mechanic: A unique element where players can throw the flag to their teammates, adding a layer of strategy and risk.
Players
Number of Players: 6-10 players for best experience.
Age: Suitable for ages 10 and up
Skills Built: Teamwork, strategic planning, agility, and social deduction skills for spies.
Player Interaction: Players engage in both physical and psychological gameplay, with direct competition in flag captures and indirect deception among spies.
Resources
Physical Flags: Two distinct flags represent each team’s objective.
Designated Field: An open area with marked boundaries for bases and a neutral zone.
Timer: To regulate the duration of the game and phases of play, including spy reveal and capture opportunities.
Objectives
Primary Objective: For teams, to capture the opposing team’s flag; for spies, to capture both flags.
Secondary Objectives: Maintain the cover of spies, create alliances, and execute strategies without detection.
Boundaries
Physical Boundaries: The game is played within a set field with clear markers for team bases and boundaries.
Time Boundaries: The game is divided into rounds with time constraints, including specific intervals for spy coordination.
Conflict
Main Conflict: Teams compete to capture flags while contending with internal subterfuge from spies.
Spy Conflict: Spies work to capture flags while maintaining their cover
Resolution Conflict: Successful flag captures by spies lead to team elimination which intensifies the latter half of the game.
Outcome
Winning Condition: A team wins by securing the opposing team’s flag at their base and spies win by capturing both flags.
Adaptive Gameplay: The game can be adjusted for difficulty, number of players, or duration by altering the number of spies, field size, or game rules.
Testing and Iteration History
We took the game Capture the Flag as the original inspiration: Two teams compete against each other to obtain the flags. However, to modify this existing game into something of our own, we realized an opportunity to incorporate social deception. Just like Among Us or Mafia, we realize we could have “Spies”. These spies could try to help out the other team. During the round, the USA team and USA spies within the Soviet team would open up their eyes to see each other. And the same case for the other team. Then, the games would begin. However, this led to a very quick game that didn’t lead to any excitement. These spies had too much power, leading to whoever acted first winning most of the time because of the overnumbering of people on offense compared to defense. We playtested this within a party of six, including us four, and it wasn’t fair immediately upon trying it out.
So then to iterate upon this, we wanted the spies to be a separate, third team (similar to how it is currently). However, the rules were different. 1.) The spies must capture both flags at the exact same time, or another team could have the chance to reclaim their flag again from the center. 2.) The spies on a given side, can pull their “own teams” flag. For instance, a Soviet spy can pull a Soviet flag within their own territory. When we tested with 6 people (including us), it was very hard for spies to win, but not impossible. We had one game out of six that the spies won; however, it was just by pure shock and surprise that the spies got both flags at the same time. We then realized we should remove the first rule and instead, once the spies capture a flag, that team is completely eliminated, and it is now spies vs. the other team. This made it a bit more fair because spies were now able to outnumber the other team, but spies had to capture a second flag. However, we realized the big issue of balance once again due to the second rule. At first, no spy was trying to pull their “own team’s” flag. However, after a few games, one person did it, and everyone else remembered this rule. Then it became that the spies would win every game because they were instantly able to pull their team’s flag within their territory, causing major chaos and disrupting the number balance. Spies would then instantly move to the second stage, where the other team had the spies still on their side and pulled that team’s flag too. It was a mess of everyone pulling each other’s flags first. We were playing this with 10 players (including us).
This led us to the second-to-last iteration of our game (the exact game we are submitting except for the throwing mechanic). It felt fair; however, some people said it was similar to Capture the Flag. So we decided to add a mechanic that allowed people to throw the flag instead. This completely changed the dynamics of the game. Now spies had a phase in the beginning where they could come up with a way to signal to each other that they were ready to attack. Then, they would perform that signal, capture the flag, and throw it to their other spy teammates. As long as the other person caught the flag, it was good to go. This meant that spies had a high-risk play they could make: throwing the ball: which could potentially lead to a winning play very quickly, causing everyone to be on extra alert for the spy. When interviewing people after the game (we played with both 6 players and 10 players), everyone agreed that this felt very different. Although the core concept is there, the experience of playing made the player’s dynamics completely different. Their mindset wasn’t on just capturing the flag, but also constantly thinking about who the spy was and what social dynamic there is. This caused a lot of mistrust within teammates, and overall, the balance of the game was very solid. Throughout six games, (three with 6 players and three with 10 players), there was an even spread of wins for all teams. After interviewing the players, they all agreed that this felt much more different than Capture the Flag, compared to our original concept (for those who played it prior), and that it felt very fair for all teams.
Overall, there was a lot of balancing that needed to be done to make it fun and engaging for all players, while still making it very different from Capture the Flag. In the end, after numerous playtests and user interviews, we finally have our own unique game: Cold War.
Final Prototype
Since it is a physical game, below is our updated “box” that would contain a timer, waist flags, and two flags for capture. The box also contains the rule sheet that was read during our final playtest outside of class.
