Our game is a get-to-know-you, social party game based off of a combination of we’re not really strangers and drinking (like beer pong).
1. What is the best player structure to optimize feelings of closeness and fun? Two teams? Partners? Single players?
This question is important because each player structure will fundamentally change how the game is played and may affect the kinds of fun the game produces, such as increasing competition and fellowship and lowering expression with teams than with single players. A prototype that could answer this question is three different versions of tossing balls in cups with questions on the bottom, varying between single players, teams, and partners. I predict that partners will be the best to optimize closeness/intimacy within the group but also maximize fun because it seems to be the happy medium of competitiveness and fellowship offered by teams but allow for individuals to share more about themselves as you would with single players.
2. How can the questions build in challenge and intimacy over the course of the game?
This is important to create an feeling of challenge and prevent the game from getting stale as it goes on, increasing the stakes with each round. A prototype that could answer this question is merely having different sets of questions on paper and having players ask them to see which sets of questions and which orders creating the sense of building pressure and increasing intimacy. My guess will be that questions that start broadly but funny and then increase to more serious and personal questions will perform the best in building pressure and intimacy.
3. What drinking game format would better facilitate the question asking and getting to know everyone?
This is important to determine what drinking game format to use, which would likely affect the feasibility of different player formats. A prototype could involve red solo cups with a set of questions and players play one round as a beer pong style game and the other round as a rage cage style game. I predict that beer pong will better facilitate question asking and getting to know each other because rage cage is too high pressure and fast paced of a game to allow for people to truly focus on getting to know each other.
