Reflection #3- Midnight Mystery

To begin with, my game “Midnight Mystery” was a well developed concept for a physical game. This would be a turn based tabletop game with decks of cards distributed to each player/each role. I presented my concept to my friends remotely, giving them a concise presentation of the game. Midnight Mystery opens in a courthouse with the town’s Mayor being questioned by a detective. She tells them that she has been blackmailed into keeping quiet, but we know that she has been threatened by someone in the room. The culprit is a mystery, he is new to town and does not agree with what the mayor is doing to the town and its people. The Mayor is able to give you clues about the blackmailer or what exactly happened but you are not sure what pieces of information are true or constructed by the person who had threatened her (if they were acting as a puppet master). The goal of the game is to find the correct culprit and to convince the other players as to who it is. The detective has the job of finding the true aggressor, working with the mayor to try to identify him. The blackmailer tries to protect themselves and get another person convicted for the crime they did.

My friends responded to my game concept mostly positively, except for one friend who almost exclusively plays only video games. I have a few friends that play D&D regularly and they were automatically very excited for a game like this that involves role playing and engagement in order to be the most successful. Everyone was able to understand the rules of my game, although a lot of explanation was required for them to totally grasp the concept (which I think is fine since it’s an original idea). The players were very interested in the role playing aspects of the game which I thought was really surprising and exciting, as a lot of people just play games as “characters’’ and don’t feel a need to get into the role that much. Two out of three friends seemed very intrigued by my concept and want me to see it through so that we can try it out. I learned that it’s important to completely flush out my ideas for each role of the game and for each deck so that there is no confusion or question. If I changed anything about the game it would be flushing out what determines its end a little bit better.