Prior to this project, I had already been a part of a team which built a systems game: Sunnyvale, CA, which modeled the system of affordable housing projects and NIMBY-ism. There were several directions we considered for this project, initially spending some time on a game we called Addendum, which is about pork-barrel politics and negotiating with other interests to get a bill to pass with most of the benefits naturally being to yourself. After determining that that concept was too constrained and that the primary source of fun in the game was the flavor/humor instead of the mechanics themselves, we decided to pivot to our helicopter-parent-themed game, cleverly named “Helicopter Parent.”
From the beginning we had some very fun ideas for aesthetics and mechanics. Myself and Seamus were both fans of the worker placement genre but had not yet made a game with those mechanics, and we saw an opportunity to make a fun and humorous game from that. We modeled helicopter parents moving their children (the workers) from activity to activity and having them attempt opportunities and enter elite universities, with the goal of having the players (parents) get most bragging points for their children at the end. It was very fun to brainstorm what activities and opportunities we would have the children do. Later we found out we had room for additional complexity and decided to add the parent board to the game as well.
I really enjoy making games humorous and get a kick out of watching other people satirically role-play during playtests. Player quotes such as “why don’t you love your children?” – “It’s the game!!” and
“I want them to star in a movie but my children are useless!” come to mind.
In the project, we learned a lot about making worker placement games and keeping mechanics/dynamics interesting and non-static, looking at games such as Viticulture and Agricola for inspiration. I think our final product is a very fun game with interesting strategies and fun commentary on the system of helicopter parenting.
