- How can I balance the various objectives (Winning as Spy v.s. Winning as Group)
- Anyone can choose to join either team, so it’s important to know how to balance the incentives for players to join each team. Otherwise team sizes will be lopsided, and the game may simplify and lose its appeal.
- We make multiple versions of the game with various Group-entry conditions (acceptance of all members in group v.s. acceptance of majority, or acceptance of one)
- I expect acceptance of half the members of the group in order to enter as the middle boundary, and will be fairly balanced.
- How can I make the game continuously interesting?
- There may be go-to words/similarities that players always default to, making the game routine and less interesting. We should make sure that there’s multiple possibles strategies with variety.
- We make multiple versions of the game with various modifications. There could be a list of modifications such as the objective is for differences rather than similarities, or there could be two teams predetermined, or there needs to be more similarities the larger the group is, or we limit the similarities to a certain topic. Or once a group forms a similarity, they need a new similarity for the next person trying to join.
- Some of the modifications will work, others won’t. Some will add complexity without more variety, others will add variety without being too difficult to understand. Nonetheless, i’ll “Find the Fun”
- How does the length of each round affect the enjoyment of the game?
- If the game is too long, people will have idle time and get bored. If it’s too short, strategies may feel rushed and teams may be unable to come up with good similarities. Good pacing will keep the game fun without overly putting pressure by rushing players.
- We make multiple versions of the game with various Round-lengths (30 sec, 1 min, 2 min?).
- Shorter rounds will likely increase the tension and urgency when finding a group. This would also help spies, as they’ll be vetted less. This would keep the game interesting, and less groups will be waiting around. We’ll have to find the right balance though, as it can’t be too rushed. I predict 1 minute works well for 8 people.
