Come up with 3-5 questions your various game prototypes might answer for P1.
For each question, include a sentence or two about:
- Why is this an important question to answer
- What type of prototype will you make to answer this question?
- What is your guess about how it will turn out? (the practice of prediction grows your intuition)
How might we motivate players to want to play the game over and over again / come back to the game?
This is an important question to answer because a game that players want to play over and over again is a game that players enjoy and feel challenged by (without it being too challenging, as we need a balance between fun and difficulty). My team is currently experimenting with a combination of Mafia, Spyfall, and Fakin’ It from Jackbox, so to answer this question, we might play around with mechanics like different numbers of imposters and team versus individual play. We are currently leaning towards having two teams compete against each other, where players start with not knowing who their teammates are. From this, we will prototype test how long each round should be, as the length of the game may be a factor in whether people want to continuously play the game. Will each round switch the teams (the game will be quick play)? Or will teams persist for the entirety of the game and each round is another step of figuring out who your team is (more Mafia-style)? Our guess is that in order for people to want to play the game continuously, we want to engage players meaningfully, but not for too long each time, so that we can maintain the excitement of play. We think having the mystery of not knowing who your teammates are will keep players engaged in the game, and that constantly changing the teams quickly will help players want to come back to the game each round. Additionally, we want to make it so that the moderator can also achieve points, to ensure that the moderator is also engaged in the game and having fun.
How can we make this a game that different types of people want to play?
As one of our goals is creating a game that connects people, we do not want to just focus on one niche audience: we want as many people to be able to play as possible. From this, we think playing around with different types of questions will help us prototype to figure out what works the best and what appeals to different players, ex. different ages. For instance, we do not want to focus in on questions about drinking, as we hope to appeal to younger audiences, but we do not want the questions to be too basic or immature, as we hope to appeal to older audiences as well. We will prototype with different types of questions, and perhaps even where we allow players to create the questions themselves, for a more customizable experience. We predict that the most players will enjoy the action of creating questions themselves, as we want this game to be something that everyone experiences in the way that is most enjoyable for them.
How can players get to know each other better through playing our game?
This is an important question for us to answer because we are all people that love getting to know our friends better through playing games. Understanding how players can get to know each other better through gameplay is important because it gets at the heart of why people play social games in the first place — to connect, laugh, and build bonds. Thus, this is one of our main focuses. To answer this question, we will prototype with a simple deck of playing cards, a few written prompt cards, and a score sheet. We will have a moderator and focus on quick rounds of gameplay to observe how social dynamics shift over time and how players engage with each others’ questions, and how they reflect on each other’s decisions, speech, and body language. We can even incorporate a post-game reflection for players to write or talk about who they felt more connected to, if any, and what they noticed about others. My guess is that players will feel more connected over time, especially as they begin to pick up on others’ habits and thought processes. The rotating teams and guessing mechanic force players to pay attention to more than just their own moves — they’ll need to understand how others think, act, and speak under different roles. Having a moderator role, where the moderator can gain points as well from players not being able to guess their teams, gives the moderator incentive to ask thoughtful and difficult questions, and also think about how the different players think and how to stump them.
