The Arcs and Loops of ScarCity

Arcs

One of the apparent arcs in the ScarCity is the overall arc of the win state. In ScarCity currently, there are two players. One player operates as the mayor and the other operates as the disease master. The disease master wins by infecting 15 different spaces on the board with drugs and the mayor wins by irradicating all drugs from the board. The board starts out with 8 disease spaces. The arc that exists here is the back and forth of adding and removing drugs from the city. One recent change that we made to the game was that we found that people want to know where in that arc of the overall game they are. Before, only the disease master knew how many drug spaces there were on the board. However, now we have a counter on the board so that you can see how many spaces are infected and see who is winning the game.

Another more subtle arc that is in our game right now is the collection of money. As the game progresses both players can either choose to spend or earn money. How they utilize their money will, of course, impact the gameplay and they get to choose how the arc of their own spending plays out.

Loops

The first loop that comes up in our game is the turn-based system. At each step of the game, there is a loop of evaluating the state of the game, making a decision, then switching turns. This is the core loop of the game and the part that keeps players interested is insuring that the decision that the player has to make is non-obvious and intriguing. This is why we introduced multiple different options and strategies that the player could take in order to try to reach their goal. We also introduced the idea of currency so that the players have the additional draw of balancing money and action.

Conclusion

This is an overall look at the systems of arcs and loops that are currently present in the game. As we continue to playtest and iterate our game we will be on the lookout for additional arcs and loops that could be added or edited, so that we can make our game more fun and informative.

Mindmap of System Dynamics