Target audience, name of the game, game’s creator, platform of the game:
Duck, Duck, Goose is a traditional children’s game that is typically played by elementary school students. In Duck, Duck, Goose, the players sit in a circle and the person who is “it” walks around the circle and taps each player’s head, saying “duck” or “goose” for each player. When the “it” player taps someone and says “goose”, the “goose” player has to chase the “it” player around the circle and try to tag them before the “it” player can get back to the “goose” player’s seat. If the “goose” player fails to tag the “it” player, then they become the new “it” player. Otherwise, the “it” player stays in their role and the game resets.
Central Argument: How does the game compare and contrast with your team’s concept?
My team’s concept is essentially a twisty version of Duck, Duck, Goose where players scramble to grab eggs and eliminated players use revenge cards to sabotage their way back into the game.
In our game, the players sit in a circle and take turns drawing cards that would say “duck” or “goose” on them. These “duck” cards may be regular cards, in which you do nothing, or physical challenge cards that order you to do a challenge that may continue during the wild goose chase. When a “goose” card is drawn, the players have to scramble to grab an egg from the nest of eggs in the center of the player circle. At the same time, everyone will open their eggs which would reveal one player to be the “goose” and one other player to be the “runner”, which mimics the “goose” and “it” player dynamic of the original game. Similar to the original game, the “goose” player has to chase to tag the “runner” player to determine if they stay in the game. The player who loses this wild goose chase is eliminated. Eliminated players draw from a special deck of elimination cards before each round, which would add challenges to the remaining players as a way to haunt the game from beyond the grave. The game continues until there is one winner left standing.
When compared to the original Duck, Duck, Goose game, our game definitely takes inspiration from the goose chasing mechanic and the premise of designating players as “duck” or “goose” to start a wild goose chase. On top of the similar physical elements such as chasing and tagging, our game layers on additional physical elements through the egg grabbing mechanic and physical challenge cards. Our game contrasts the most from the original Duck, Duck, Goose in the different roles that players play besides waiting in the circle or being the “it” person. In contrast to the original game, which can be played with no clear end, our game has a clear winner denoted by the last player remaining in the game. Additionally, the addition of the egg scramble, physical challenge cards, and elimination cards gives players dynamic roles to take on and adds another layer of physicality to induce and mitigate competition.
Analysis, Ethics, and Learning:
When designing our game, my team’s main concern was that players that aren’t the “goose” or the “runner” would be bored from watching the wild goose chase. So, we decided to play the original game to see for ourselves. We played a couple rounds until each person in the circle got the chance to be the “it” player, and quickly found that watching the goose chase as a bystander is an entertaining break from the suspense of waiting to be called a “duck” or a “goose”. The rising anticipation of waiting for the “goose” to be called caused us to feel a sense of relief and were grateful to be the ones sitting for the current round. So, our team can conclude that we don’t need to modify the chase mechanic much from the original game and can focus our time on the player elimination aspect of our game.
Much like the original Duck, Duck, Goose game, our game also caters to a young audience and is a beginner-friendly game to pick up. However, I’ve noticed from the critical play that a player who’s not as good at timing or as fast at running would be at a physical disadvantage and may be stuck as the “it” player for a long time. Our game addresses this by breaking down the game into rounds with eggs that determine the roles instead of a player’s athletic abilities. However, our game is still fairly physical, so I’m concerned about how to balance the game mechanics to accommodate players who may be limited in physical movement. Moving forward, incorporating mobility considerations might be a good direction to test in future playtests.
