Reflection #2: You’re Hired!

The game that I created for the second design challenge is a physical card party game titled, You’re Hired! It is a four to six player party game where 1 player takes the role of “The Boss” and the other players take the roles of the “workers” trying their best to convince the boss to hire one of them. The game goes on for three rounds. The first round starts with each worker drawing two cards, 1 resume card that both parties see the workers 2 best qualities and 1 flaw card where the boss can only see it but not the worker who is holding up and showing the card. The game continues for three rounds with the first two involving the boss interviewing each candidate for 2 minutes while the workers do their best to both trash-talk their opponents and sells themselves as best as possible for the boss. At the end of the 2nd round, the boss picks two top candidates to interview for the final round while the losing workers now take the role of “the board” where they will help the boss pick which worker to choose from, though ultimately it is for the boss to decide who is getting hired. 3rd round involves the boss interviewing both workers each for two minutes and soon decides which one is the perfect hire for the boss’s “company.”

When it came to designing and changing the mechanics, I managed to have two very fruitful playtesting sessions with my older sister and friends alike. During the first playtest session there were no other participates at the time to test the game, so it was 1 player (older sister) against 1 player (me). We both had fun improvising ways to sell how great workers were to each other but I noticed it was a lot more playing as the boss since you can ask questions that can be very difficult towards the worker. This brings tons of laughter when we were able to switch roles, but there were only very short 1 round matches and certain rules didn’t apply during these matches. My sister suggested that the game should mainly focus on the multiple players and also wondered if I can give those who lose early on in the game something to do despite their loss. Soon I decided that the game being played with only two players was not possible. So I mainly put more focus on group play and made sure the game went on for 3 rounds.

I played with four other friends and I truly saw the game come to life. During the matches where I had the worker role, it was hilarious seeing my friends try to improvise answers to the bizarre questions given by the boss. The group also became more competitive in the second round where they are more prone to slander their opponents in hilarious fashion. The participates gave great feedback saying it was hilarious to see how unpredictable the boss could be when asking their questions. They also said that I should give those who are unsuccessful after the 2nd round to have a role, so I created the idea of “the board.” In later matches, it made the game much more fun and chaotic because once people couldn’t make it to the 3rd round, they used their board position as a chance for revenge. The board did a great job with giving the remaining workers a challenge by adding on to the boss’s questions while also trying to help the boss make the best possible choice. Overall, at first the game seemed to lack replayability for newcomers but soon flourished with the addition of more players. I also learned that while games can simply be straightforward with just eliminating players in group play, it is important to explore if the game can keep these same players interested by offering roles that are also fun to interact with.