Currently our team has two game concepts. The one I will be focusing on is a clue-style mafia game. Some questions that I hope our prototype answers include:
- Will players feel engaged if there’s no elimination mechanic?
This is critical because traditional Mafia’s tension comes from the fear of being voted out. One of our mechanics concept removes that. If players feel low-stakes or bored without elimination pressure, our design may not be “fun.” We’d use a role prototype for example just running a live session with rough role cards and see how people behave. I would guess that players will initially feel less urgency, but a final-round accusation mechanic could create a satisfying payoff if the clue-gathering feels meaningful throughout.
2. Can players track enough information to make a good final accusation?
The Clue-style ending only works if players have been accumulating enough important information to feel their guess is has substantial evidence/intuition behind it. This is partly a role question (is the information architecture right?) and partly look and feel (do players need physical note-sheets, a board, tokens?). To test we could build a paper tracking sheet and test it. This might be a paper where players can log clues they’ve collected, cross off eliminated suspects, and note what other players have claimed. We’d run sessions with it and one without, and compare how confident players feel at the final accusation. I would guess that without some kind of physical tracker, players will feel their final vote is too random, which kills satisfaction.
3. Does asymmetric information create genuine fun deduction or just confusion?
One of the mechanics gives different players different starting knowledge. The question would then be whether that gap produces interesting deduction moments or just frustrates people who feel lost. A role prototype where we play with the same vs. different starting information could help us answer. After trying both we ask players their thoughts on which is better. I would guess that this mechanic would turn out well and testing would show the different starting information would contribute to the mystery and fun of discovering in the game.
