Our group is working on a social strategy card game that we call Mark of the Witch. In this game, players act as townsfolk from a witch panic-stricken town from the 1700s. Players must find the witch amongst them before they are eliminated. Players each read a written statement, but one of them is lying. At the end of every round, players vote for one person to be sent to burn at the pyre. They may be wrong, they may be right. As the witch, are players clever enough to deceive the townsfolk and live to tell the tale? As the townsfolk, are you quick enough to spot a lying witch?
- Games are (hopefully) an enjoyable experience and there are pros and cons to having games as repayable experiences or a one-time singularly unique and memorable experience. Is Mark of the Witch replayable?
- I believe this is an important question to answer because this would adjust our prototypes goals: Do we want to focus on crafting an experience that’s worth it’s one-and-done usage? Or would we rather make it an experience that’s recyclable but still good for multiple play-overs?
- While our group is leaning towards a version that has multiple play-overs, we are planning to make a prototype that has specific characters that play a specific role—akin to a murder mystery with the murderer having a set role.
- I would guess that our game being god for only one play-through and not being replayable would make it easier when it comes to crafting the mechanics, but would limit the overall enjoyment of the game.
- Another pressing question we have for Mark of the Witch is what the content of the card aspect of the game will look like. Will we include a story that has missing pieces? Will we incorporate a visual aspect to it with pictures? Will we use puzzles in conjunction with the cards to have players collect evidence?
- This is definitely an important question for us to answer because it will help us determine whether or not the mechanic will be interesting enough for the game’s replay-ability
- We are going to experiment with different kinds of content going on the cards and game test them out to see which one works best for the direction we want to go in.
- As for my guess, I think we may have to do some serious play-testing in order to figure out what mechanic works best for the card aspect of the game.
- For a third question, our group has been discussing the pros and cons of a board aspect to Mark of the Witch. Would a physical component like a board immerse players into the Salem-like aesthetic of the game, or would it unnecessarily bog down gameplay?
- I think this a great question for us to answer since it deals with game complexity and : Would adding a layer of complexity pique players’ interest? Or would we rather keep things easy, breezy, lemon-squeezy?
- Our group will focus on making the version of the game without the board, but after we finalize the main mechanic of Mark of the Witch, we will try to incorporate a board aspect to the game and see how it plays out.
- I guess that the board may actually be a non-necessary aspect of the game but will be a nice-to-have. I think it would be great to have some sort of a board once we polish off the functionality of the cards first.
