Below are the (still in progress) rules for a game developed by Jonathan Yao, Ben Throop, Stan Chin, and I as part of the 10th Annual Game Design Workshop. In this exercise we were tasked with, in 45 minutes, creating a game that will trigger the emotions of Schadenfreude and ambivalence in the players.
The game started with the emotions, then we moved to the theme which gave an excellent context and narrative setting for our two emotions. Naturally, this theme was a courtroom. This led us down the trail to mechanics based off Blackjack, in which the goal of the player is to There are three roles for players:
1) Judge – The Dealer
The dealer deals one card face down (the Surprise Witness) and one card face up (Evidence) to each of the attorneys.
2) Attorneys – Players
The Attorneys are the two players to the right of the dealer
These players may take the following actions:
-“Call the next witness”, the Judge gives one card, face up, to that attorney.
-“Rest my case”, the attorney believes the total value of his evidence is higher than the other attorney and will no longer call witnesses.
-“Objection!”, after both attorneys rest their case, and the jury has bet (more on this later), each attorney may “object” to another player’s piece of evidence. This card is then removed from that players evidence string and is not counted in their final total.
3) Jury – Bettors
The jury consists of all players not designated as the Judge, or the Attorneys. These players may bet on each attorney after the judge has dealt them their initial evidence.
At the Start
All players are given an amount of poker chips determined by the player, but greater than 10 “units”
Each player draws one card, the player with the card of highest value is designated as “The Judge”
In the Courtroom
The Judge deals each attorney a Surprise Witness, and a piece of Evidence. The attorney to which a Surprise Witness is dealt may look at their surprise witness, but may not reveal it to other players.
Each member of the jury, in turn, will bet on which attorney they feel has the highest chance of winning
The Defense Attorney, the Attorney furthest from the Judge, is given the choice to “Call the next witness” or “Rest my case”
The Prosecuting Attorney, the Attorney closest to the Judge, is given the same choice
This continues until both attorneys have rested their cases
The Defense Attorney is now given the chance to “Object!” to one of the Prosecuting Attorney’s pieces of evidence
The Prosecuting Attorney is given the same chance
Once both attorneys have rested their cases, and filed objections, the Jury goes into “Deliberation” in which they may place additional bets on each of the attorneys.
Once the Jury has finished deliberating, the attorneys show their surprise witnesses, and the total value of their evidence is added
Whichever attorney has the greatest value of evidence that is not greater than 12 is declared the winner
(This is roughly were the game still needs some work. We still need to hash out how this phase of the game is resolved. I encourage the participants to comment and discuss.)
After that case is resolved, the Judge passes the deck of cards to the player on his left, and player begins again.