Week 7 - Deducted

“When talking about constraint and goals, we’re more often than not thinking about the actions players perform during play” (Macklin and Sharp, Chapter 2).

Designing a social deduction game comes with many challenges. When designing for a game like this it is very important to consider how the player will act during the gameplay and potential strategies that can be used. There is a possibility for loopholes that could be game breaking. A strategy that takes advantage of play styles of different individuals could also just be seen as a new way to play. Social deduction games are known for not always going the same way. Sometimes games can go similar ways to other times though.

“Once a player understands what they are engaging with, they have to understand their role in the game and how they enact it” (Macklin and Sharp, Chapter 4).

Almost every social deduction game has a theme to go with it. This helps the player understand more about what their purpose is in the social game. There are different types of social deduction games, but in games like Mafia, having an identity can shape your playing experience. Characters can help players act in a more interesting way whenever there is a decision made on when to kill or remove a player from the playspace.

“Design values are the qualities and characteristics you want to embody in a game. This can reflect your own goals as a creator, but also the experience you want your audience to have” (Macklin and Sharp, Chapter 6).

If I were to design my own social deduction game I would find a way to incorporate a racing team. I feel like a racing team with a team member who is looking for ways to sabotage the team from winning any races could allow for some interesting gameplay. Each team member would have a specific role and the one who is it is trying to get all of the other members fired. Other options could be damaging the race car causing a DNF at the next race. Each session would take place between races. This scenario is interesting because a team has one important goal which is to win races. If there is one person who is not on board with this idea then plans can go south fast. The game is one by the team members when they get the one who is attempting to sabotage fired.