Yesterday, we decided to change directions on P3 and work on a college-prep game instead of a bill addendum game. The game, Helicopter Parent, like it sounds, is a where the player plays as helicopter parents who try to get all three of their kids to the most elite universities possible.
Some values of the games or things that the game wishes to teach/show are that happiness and autonomy are important for children. One of the ways the game accomplishes this is by having the players suffer almost zero negative feedback for making their children less happy (except maybe in the most extreme cases) but the player will obviously see the impact on the children and how it is bad. The win condition of the game is not directly this. Rather, it is to maximize the score compared to other players (other parents).
How do you accomplish this? A core loop of the game is the worker placement mechanic. I really like Viticulture and Istanbul (although Istanbul doesn’t have blocking so this definition is debatable) and we hope part of the fun this game will offer is in the form of fun strategic worker placement puzzles, as well as competing with other parents to claim good spots and optimizing which spots to claim. Another core loop in the game is resource management (getting, spending) to optimally get your kids to top colleges.
The core arc of the game, as hinted earlier, is the entry of the player’s kids into colleges. Throughout the game, as players go through the loops, they develop what we call the “4A” portfolio, with Academics, Athletics, Activism, and Arts to match with colleges. The players who best adapted their mental models to optimize the pathway to college are rewarded with the most elite college entries, while some kids (about two?) will not get into elite colleges and simply attend “non-selective state school” or potentially no college at all.
I and my teammates are very excited about this system game’s concept and fun through themes and mechanics.
Here is my mind map for the reading:
