Truth or Dare is a similar game to the social game my team and I are planning to make as the fundamental aesthetics are similar, despite the mechanics of the game being different.
In particular, Truth or Dare is incredibly high on the fellowship scale and at its core attempts to achieve something that I desperately want to achieve as well, which is to bring people close together, not just through vulnerability but also through antics and fun. In fact, this game is so good at bringing people closer together that it works not just with strangers but also with very good friends.
I think the most brilliant mechanic of the game is to have other people define the truth or dare for you. This way, you are pushed out of your comfort zone. In fact, to make the game interesting for other players, you must be pushed out of your comfort zone, and I absolutely love the confluence of player motives with desired outcome.
One of the hardest challenges to navigate with Truth or Dare and that I anticipate that the game my team and I make will also face is how to make the game interesting for people who have strict boundaries and do not feel comfortable being pushed out of their comfort zone, people who do not like vulnerability, antics, spicy-ness, etc. When playing Truth or Dare with these players, the game loses some steam; it becomes less interesting as people reject Truth after Dare after Truth because it signals to other players that it’s okay to stay strictly in your comfort zone when the game is about going beyond it.
I know that at the end of the day consent is the most important thing, and I would never want to do anything to compromise that. With that in mind, how do we still encourage people to go out of their comfort zone to create new, meaningful, and intimate experiences with others?
I’m not convinced that Truth or Dare has solved this problem. Perhaps it will with some modifications! In the meantime, critically analyzing Truth or Dare opened up a problem for other fellowship-focused games to solve, one that perhaps can give some insight and differentiation into the game that my team and I plan to make.
