This complicated 2-5 player asymmetrical multiplayer board game was born from a 60 second elevator pitch I gave in class. Each student gave one, and mine was among the few that were voted the best. This project was an awesome experience as the game transformed from my baby to something that really felt like a creation of the group’s. For all of it’s complexity in setup, this game has quickly resolved conflicts with no random elements save for cards that can be played to alter stats or complete certain in-game tasks immediately. One player as “The Man” feels empowered, as they’re essentially playing as the game against the other players and the others play as the “Mercs” who are a motley crew of Cyberpunk heroes that need teamwork to succeed and literally throw wrenches in “The Man’s” plans. The cards are very plain as we devoted all of our energy to mechanics, game-balancing, and overcoming our greatest challenge- rules complexity. We solved this by making “idiot bags”; bags that contained several bags full of rules excerpts, reference cards, and game pieces. Each player got an idiot bag belonging to their role so there was a minimum of confusion. This game was the reason that Matt and I wanted to work together in Casual Games class.
The group was myself, Matthew Niederberger, Satchi Davis, Austin Willoughby, and Ross Hoelscher