Creating Our Game
We created the game American Dream to educate US citizens about the challenges, anxieties, and uncertainties of immigrating to the United States. To achieve our outcomes, we made the majority of mechanics reflect real-world rules from the US immigration system rather than simply overlaying an immigration theme onto traditional gameplay. Our game mainly focused on the three types of fun: fantasy, narrative, and challenge.
For example, in Version 2, we incorporated a Seasons system (each Season is one round) where actions like job applications or visa lotteries could only occur in specific seasons, reflecting real-life timing constraints. Job Cards also mirrored real policies—prestigious jobs increased chances of earning visas such as the O-1, which rewards “extraordinary ability.” Events with uncertain outcomes, like visa lotteries or promotions, were determined by 20-sided die rolls with probabilities modeled on real-world odds.
By incorporating mechanics aligned with real-world immigration constraints, we were able to teach players the frustrating obstacles immigrants had to overcome. For instance, one player said, “I didn’t know you had to have so many requirements and wait so long to get a H1-B Visa. Waiting four turns until I could re-apply felt so long.”
What I learned
Playtesting was crucial in refining the game. The hardest part was balancing numbers and probabilities so that milestones felt achievable but not trivial. For instance, we not only adjusted the number of types of cards in different decks, but we adjusted the probabilities of die roll success ranges (e.g. Getting H1-B Visa requires rolling the 20-sided die to get 1-8 if you have X job). We learned that even small tweaks in these numbers made a significant impact on pacing and player engagement.
We also learned the importance of usability—especially for complex games which have many rules and restrictions, we need to make it as easy as possible for the players to focus less on memorizing rules so they can focus on strategy. Based on our playtest feedback, we redesigned our game board so that most of the key rules are visualized on the board. For instance, we created a “Path to Success” area on the game board, showing the different paths to get a Visa and Green Card with each of the requirements along the paths. We also printed small rule cards, outlining a few confusing rules on promotions and lottery draws so players don’t have to pass around and review the full rule book.
Going Forward
Our final playtest went smoothly—all four players enjoyed the realism and unpredictability of die-roll events and Policy cards. While our educational goals were met, playtime (45-90 minutes) felt a little long due to seasonal waits and many action choices. In the future, it would be nice to experiment with shorter formats to maintain engagement while preserving educational depth and realism.
