Design & Prototype Assignment 2: 1

From the moment I read the brief, I was reminded of a simple bluffing game called Skulls that I had seen played by Polygon and knew that I wanted to create a similarly simple game that can create tense and fun moments without a complex learning curve. Given hindsight however, my initial design slightly missed the mark as it overcomplicated the reveal portion of the bluffing game as seen below:

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The original concept was to have players bluff and take cards, and based on the circumstances of each card taken, certain effects came into play. Before the first playtest, and through feedback from the group, I realised that the game already had unnecessary complications, and I instead decided to take a simpler approach to the game’s design.

Updated Design

1. Select one of each 500c card, you should have 4 in total.
   1. Each player takes one card, this card is that player’s role
2. Start the game by shuffling the cards and dealing 6 cards to each player
   1. Player may look at their cards when they wish
3. Start the first round
   1. Each player selects 2 cards from their hand and places them face down on the playing space.
      1. These cards will be up for grabs this round, all cards will be played at some point in the game.
      2. The players may also state what cards they played truthfully or deceitfully.
   2. Start with a player and go clockwise: Players select one card from the player to the left and drag the card to their stack.
   3. After all players have selected, reveal your cards, and add your remaining card, and the card you took into your stack.
4. Repeat step 3 twice, any cards put in the pool are now out of play.
5. The game ends after three rounds:
   1. Players total the value of their stack, taking into account their role bonuses.
   2. The player with the highest total score wins.

The updated design is much simpler and should be easier to grok for players while still having some depth inherent to the format. I also decided that I would rather start simple and add elements of potential depth as I continued developing rather than the inverse.

Next Step

I decided to begin by designing the cards, and start playtesting as soon as possible. Next post will cover the design of the cards and the approach I took.