February 5 – 9, 2024
Board Game Research:
The development process has entered the prototyping phase. At the week’s start, our team engaged in gameplay sessions of Metagame and Reigns to analyze their game mechanics. Metagame incorporates debate elements and supports participation from a large group, whereas Reigns involves role-playing where players alternate roles between the king and advisors. In Reigns, advisors strive to fulfill hidden objectives through narratives of truth or deceit, and the king must maintain equilibrium among four critical aspects of the kingdom, highlighting elements of bluffing and strategic compromise. Subsequently, we explored Lover Letter, Dixit and Saboteur, identifying the nuanced method of abstract communication as a valuable component for our future game design.
Initial Prototype:
The game design features two distinct roles: the Accomplice, who aims to obscure the truth on behalf of the institution, and the citizens and journalists, who seek to uncover it. Each player examines one aspect of the clue board per turn. Despite knowing the truth, the Accomplice must mimic the actions of citizens and journalists to conceal their identity, simultaneously misleading others about the clues. The clue board ultimately reveals a sentence representing the truth.
Instructor meeting:
We presented our prototype to Chris and Dave, who, after a period of deliberation, supported our design direction and offered several suggestions for enhancing game mechanics and transformative design aspects, including:
- Implementing a voting mechanism for citizens to increase emotional engagement.
- Deliberating the number of participants designated as hosts.
- Monitoring the interest curve to prevent gameplay from becoming a mere objective pursuit.
- Avoiding abstract mechanics such as card flipping.
- Recommending examination of the French game Dixit and considerations for bluffing enhancements.
- Integrating transformational elements seamlessly with gameplay and rules.
- Simplifying gameplay mechanics for accessibility.
- Prioritizing transformational goals over mechanical complexity.
- Clarifying game objectives and methods for tracking players’ investigations.
- Selecting a concise array of useful resources.
Interview with Bradley Plaxen
Following the instructor meeting, we consulted with Bradley Plaxen, the narrative designer from the Axon team, discussing narrative folding techniques and the significance of the interest curve from the moment participants enter the gameplay environment. Plaxen highlighted the use of non-verbal communication methods, such as decor and pictures. He recommended exploring Papers Please for further research. Meanwhile he also mentions the complicated game mechanics which mirrors real life situations as a highlight of Axon and inefficient devices used as a shortcoming.
Team Bonding!
The team convened for dinner at Kiku Japanese Restaurant on Thursday, enjoying sushi and Sukiyaki. The gathering facilitated discussions on both project-related and personal topics, enhancing team cohesion.
Client meeting
Feedback from our client indicated satisfactory progress for the week. Cassie introduced “Cat Park” as a new game for research and recommended contacting additional subject matter experts. Dave contributed to the discussion, proposing making a condensed one-hour version of “Cat Park” and emphasizing the need for detailed game clarification in the forthcoming week.