The prompts are pictures this year, and here are the ones I used and how I interpreted them:
I took the person on the double-sided arrow as a ghost; someone in limbo. Alternately, as a representation of people precariously poised between success and failure, good and evil.
I took the skull with a snowflake embedded in its cranium fairly literally, to evoke winter, stasis, and death.
I took the worm exploding out of the apple to represent summer, corruption, and latent sins bearing fruit.
I structured the game and story around these ideas. I haven't really had an opportunity to playtest it, so we'll see if it flies.
I really like the setup of the game. A family coming together, maybe around the fireplace and narrating their stories of the ghost. The procedural structure is very clear and gives a nice framework. Using the seasons to discern different phases of the game is very appealing (although I am not sure about the summer phase being in summer).
ReplyDeleteWhat I miss most in the game is purpose. The game ends when the ghost's desire has been sated, but we never talk about that desire (explicitly). I think this can make the game be a bit directionless. Besides this, there is no clear course of action to take in summer. It seems like we build everything up around the inhabitants of the house, but then resolve the ghost. Maybe it would be helpful to tie the ghost more into the narration (to give it purpose) and the family more into the procedural mechanics.
I think their is the framework of a great game here. It feels like a great party game to use as an icebreaker or maybe at a Halloween or New Years Party. I love the layout with different phases being represented by different seasons. I can definitely see this being in our collection of casual party games.
ReplyDeleteSummer and the resolution of the game seem a little vague, especially compared to the winter phase. As mentioned it seems like the summer phase could linger on much longer than it should, but it also seems like it could be over almost instantly. It's also a little unclear as to what exactly is going on in the summer phase are we playing out the scenes described in the winter phase or is it scenes that are related to those scenes somehow? As previously mentioned I think bringing the family more into the actual mechanics might help tighten this up. Take this all with a grain of salt of course, I think you have the foundation of a fantastic game here.
Dear Alla,
ReplyDeleteI have been assigned to review your game for Game Chef 2013. I think your game is very charming (if that is the right word about a game about a family being haunted by the ghosts of the dead), and I like your basic premise. It shines through that this is a prototype, though, and I would particularly urge you to work on clarifying the rules and making them easier to understand.
I’ve used a template for reviewing my four games: first, I’ll tell you what I liked about your game, then the things that I’m wondering or that I’m puzzled about, and finally, I’ll tell you what I’d urge you to work on if you want to take the game further.
Things I liked about it:
- You have designed a game with a very narrow kind of story in mind. That’s great for this kind of short form game.
- I like the idea of setting scenes to answer questions. I can’t remember seeing it done quite this way before. I do wonder how much the framing character gets to say about the outcome.
Things I’m wondering:
- Why 1860-1930? I am not sure I buy your explanation, and with 2-5 family members, you have a very standard family size today as well.
- Does the ghost also speak during the initial memory round?
- When is the family members initially described? It says for each player to name their character’s place in the house, but I think it would be important to decide who’s who in the house before that.
- Why the “Winter/Summer” dichotomy? It doesn’t seem to make much thematic sense. I know it’s how you tie it to the ingredients, but from the point of view if the game, I don’t see it making all that much sense.
Things I would encourage you to work on
- clarifying the order of play and the way to do things. A lot of things are explained very loosely, and without many specifics. How do you tally pain/love scenes, for instance, how do you make characters, and does the ghost have to ask questions of everyone?
- the end-game. I am not entirely sure whether this game is supposed to be adversarial or not. In any case, if you have maybe two or three scenes, why would you be willing to cross them off?
- the relationship between ghost and family. Particularly in winter: how do I decide between scenes of love and pain? What if all scenes end up being one kind or the other? Or does the ghost have an interest in writing all scenes on one side, and does the family have an interest in making loads of scenes of love.
Thank you for writing the game. Good luck with the competition, and with your future game-writing endeavours.
Best,
Elias (eliashelfer.wordpress.com)