THE SPIRIT OF THE GAME
This card game was inspired by the philosophical concept proposed by R. L. Simon that we determine rules and rulings from a "spirit" of the game, a morality contained within the game that we cannot spell out but somehow collectively understand.
Gameplay
Players begin the game by drawing two aesthetic cards--words like "funny" or "social". Those words become the Spirit of their game. Over the course of play, new rules are proposed, and players must collaborate to decide which fit the aesthetics. Meanwhile, those rules are building out the very game they are playing.
Players begin the game by drawing two aesthetic cards--words like "funny" or "social". Those words become the Spirit of their game. Over the course of play, new rules are proposed, and players must collaborate to decide which fit the aesthetics. Meanwhile, those rules are building out the very game they are playing.
This game underwent three revision cycles: the first prior to the first playtest, the second after the first playtest, and the third while in preparation for the Expo. Each time, the main adjustments that took place were to the card deck. Through playtests, I found that I needed more win conditions so that they occurred more often, and I needed more wild new rules to keep the players engaged.
Rules like "Your arms much now be glued to your chest like a T-Rex" emerged, and they were a hit amongst players. As I continue to develop this game further, I intend to lean into the party game genre and focus on ways I can simplify the requirements and encourage the playful atmosphere.
Rules like "Your arms much now be glued to your chest like a T-Rex" emerged, and they were a hit amongst players. As I continue to develop this game further, I intend to lean into the party game genre and focus on ways I can simplify the requirements and encourage the playful atmosphere.
This game was voted to be one of the 12 games for the class's end of the year showcase, the PhilosphEAE Expo, a collaboration between the Philosophy and Entertainment Arts & Engineering departments. A table was dedicated to the game for attendees to drop in and play during the event.
Pages about the game from the PhilsophEAE Pamphlet for the event, which contains the goals of the class, information about the games in the showcase, and responses from other students about the games.
I designed this game as a response to the prompt to design a game that encapsulates the class--take something from the semester that inspired you and use it as the foundation of your game. While it was inspired from one of our specific discussions of a research paper, The Spirit of the Game ended up being a metaphor for the whole class experience. Many students commented that it was essentially "Our Class: The Game."