The game our team is currently thinking of creating is On Display where players quickly create rough masterpieces in response to open-ended prompts chosen by the museum curator. These prompts would be broad and interpretive like “draw the meaning of life” or “draw capitalism.” After drawing, each player gives a short pitch explaining why heir artwork best captures the prompt compared to everyone else’s and at the end of each round, the museum curator decides which piece(s) to “buy.” Some prototype questions I thought of are below.
Do drawing constraints actually make the game more fair and fun for people who think they “can’t draw”?
This is an important question because one of our main concerns is that some players may feel intimidated by drawing part of the game. We want to know whether adding constraints, like drawing with your non-dominant hand, helps level the playing field and makes the experience feel more approachable and fun. To answer this, we would make a simple physical prototype with prompt cards and challenge cards, then compare rounds with and without constraints. My guess is that the constraints will make players feel less pressure to be “good” at drawing and more comfortable showcasing their drawings, as long as the challenges are not so hard that they become frustrating.
Does the pitching phase add energy and humor, or does it slow the game down too much?
Pitching is one of our core parts of the game and helps support the idea of selling the story, but we are also worried that with more players the round could start to drag. We need to know whether pitching is one the strongest parts of the experience or whether it needs to be shortened and simplified. To test this, we would make a paper prototype and run rounds with different pitch lengths, such as 20 seconds, 30 seconds, and 1 minute and try it with different group sizes. My guess is that pitching will end up being one of the funniest and most memorable parts of the game if the length of the pitching is not too long where it gets repetitive and boring.
As player count increases, what reward structure keeps the game feeling fair and engaging for everyone?
We want all players to feel like they have a real chance to succeed, or at least feel included in the competition. If every round ends with the curator choosing only one winner after everyone has drawn and pitched, the game could start feeling discouraging and disengaging, especially with more players. The experience might feel less rewarding and lower overall player satisfaction which is something we don’t want. To explore this, we are considering adding a popular vote award, where the other artists can recognize the drawing they found funniest, most clever, or most impressive. Another option was giving the curator a fixed budget that they can distribute across multiple artists instead of rewarding only one person. So, the curator could have ten dollars to split among their top choices and give 5 dollars to their favorite piece, 3 to the second choice, and 2 to the third. My prediction is that these kinds of systems would make winning feel more accessible and keep more players engaged and then the game would feel more worthwhile to play since the players have more opportunities to earn rewards and stay competitive.
What part of the game is actually the core source of fun: drawing, pitching, judging, or reacting?
This question helps us identify what part of the experience the game should be built around. With our game including all four of these elements, one of them is likely contributing the most fun to the game. If we can narrow down which element the fun is coming from, we can design really hone in that element and design the rest of the game to support that element instead of overcomplicating it with mechanics that are less important. To test this, we would test the game and then ask players at the end of each game what part they enjoyed the most out of the four elements and ask them which part felt most memorable. This would help us directly understand what players see as the core source of fun, instead of assuming it ourselves. My guess is that the fun will come most strongly from the combination of drawings and the pitches where the players can pitch drawings that are clever and convincing.
