3 questions my team’s various game prototypes might answer for P1 are:
1. Will players feel socially engaged and comfortable when they lie or accuse others?
- Why this matters: Our game’s main theme of social deduction relies on how our players interact with each other. If the social aspect of our game doesn’t feel fun or even uncomfortable depending on the questions asked, our game fails at its core mechanic.
- Prototype type: We’ll create a prototype with paper cards to assign roles (weasels or otters) and for prompts to be asked for our players to test the social dynamics of our game. We plan to make the prompts binary and ask more general, low-stakes questions like “apples or oranges” to avoid having players feel uncomfortable about lying.
- Prediction: Players will enjoy lying more when stakes are low. Since these questions are more low-stakes and general, players might avoid directly accusing others since it might be much harder for them to prove someone’s lying.
2. How long should each round last to keep tension high without dragging?
- Why this matters: If the round is too short, then it will be hard for players to come up with a conceivable lie or be able to process all the information said to come up with a reasonable accusation. If the round is too long, then players might lose interest and focus on the task at hand.
- Prototype type: The same prototype from the previous question with an extra mechanism: players only get 4 minutes to discuss what they feel about the prompt and where they stand. They’ll then get a 1 minute timer to decide who is the weasel, if there is one.
- Prediction: Each round lasting 5 minutes should be more than enough time to keep players engaged with the game, though 5 minutes might feel a bit too long for general prompts like “chocolate or vanilla ice cream” or “east campus or west campus.”
3. What is the maximum number of players we can have play the game?
- Why this matters: Our game is centered around having a fluid number of weasels each round (could be 0, 1 or more). Right now, we have our game at least 4 players and at most 24 players, which is way too many players to ensure a discussion for the binary nature of our prompts, and may cause rounds to drag on for a long time, leading to less player engagement.
- Prototype type: Increase the total number of role cards for otters and weasels and try and playtest it with 16 people for a few rounds. If 16 players feel too chaotic, we will playtest it with 4 less players (12) for a few rounds and observe how players experience the game. If 12 still feels too many, we can playtest with 2 less players (8) until we find the sweet spot. Otherwise, we can set the player limit at 12 or 16 or whichever round we find the sweet spot.
- Prediction: 8 players max will probably be the sweet spot for this game since the rules and mechanics are quite simple and having more than 8 could lead rounds to drag on for a long time since everyone needs to speak
