Initial Process

The initial process, after being assigned to a team, was to create an aesthetic for the game. We had a bunch of different ideas. The following list represents which ideas we came up with.

List of Emotions

1. Bitterness

2. Paranoia

3. Depressed.

4. Disgust.

5. Nervousness.

6. Rage.

7. Pain.

8. Resentment.

9. Thrill

10. Vengeance

11. Torment

12. Vulnerability.

13. Jealousy.

14. Negativity

15. Shame

16. Surprise

17. Confidence

18. Honor

19. Hate

20. Self-esteem

21. Shock

22. Arrogance

23. Anxiety

After determining the emotions we were interested we discussed which ones needed to stay, which ones needed to go and which ones were really similar and needed to be combined. So we compiled a secondary list of emotions.

Secondary List.

1. Self-Esteem

2. Bitterness

4. Paranoia

5. Vengeance

6. Shame

7. Disgusted

8. Honor

After compiling the secondary list we determined which ones we were really excited about and which ones could be eliminated, the goal was to bring the list to 5 options so we could vote on them.

Primary Election

1. Self-Esteem (self-pity/Honor)

2. Bitterness

3. Paranoia

4. Disgust

5. Vengeance

So now the voting process was to begin. We each had 3 votes, the first item you vote for would be awarded 3 points, second item voted for would be awarded 2 points and the last item you voted for would be awarded 1 point. Each member voted and here are the results.

(W = Whitmore Benoit, S = Jordan Sliz, J = Jason Coleman, T = Thomas Kastner)

VOTE

1. Self-Esteem W2, S2, J2, T2 (8)

2. Bitterness J1(1)

3. Paranoia W3,S3,J3(9)

4. Disgust W1,T3(4)

5. Vengeance S1,T1(2)

The votes were then tallied and the final list was presented to you, Brenda Brathwaite, to be approved or disapproved.

Winners – (eek Benda’s opinion)

______________________________

1. Paranoia ** (approved)

2. Self-Esteem

3. Disgust

Using a complex democratic process we determined which aesthetic we really desired to choose. This complexity may be seen as redundant but it actually made things fair and did force everyone to participate in the discussion. This means it wasn’t about the loudest person but rather what the group as a whole desired to work on. Not only did we discuss the pros and cons of each choice but also everyone was completely satisfied with the choice without the desire to switch.

Determining the Dynamics

At this time we were trying to figure out what we needed to do to make the player paranoid and things that made us paranoid. Again, we made a list of things that we thought would induce paranoia.

How to get the player paranoid/Things that make you paranoid

1. Betrayal

2. Government

3. Religion

4. Authority

5. Trust

6. Fear of losing stature

7. Death/Survival

8. Darkness

9. Confusion/Lack of Knowledge

10. Vulnerability

After making this list we decided that we could eliminate the length of it by taking things off and combining other things together. So we made a list of the combination of consequences in which must take place to induce paranoia.

Combination of consequences

1. Betrayal / Trust

2. Government / Authority / Religion / controlling factor

3. Confusion / Lack of Knowledge / Darkness / Unknown

4. Death / Survival / Vulnerability

This part of the process was actually a more detailed discussion of those which taken place during previous processes. We wanted to come up with some dynamics that the player would experience to make them paranoid.

Dynamics that will make a player feel paranoid.

1. The inability to completely trust someone they have to work with.

2. The inability to trust someone’s actions

3. Not knowing what lies ahead

4. Fearing your life will shortly come to an end via the other players

5. Fearing loss of assets

6. Lack of confidence in your own power or ability to survive without help

7. Being at the whims of another player

8. Fear of being controlled by another entity or group

Now that the dynamics were nailed down the first class ended and we went home to think of any kind of ideas for our next meeting. We asked people what made them paranoid and thought more about a theme for a game and mechanics as well. But nothing was nailed down. The next meeting would really determine the mechanics of the game and this is where the Four Horsemen idea was born.

Unlike normal chess that pits your wits against a player, the 4-player version makes you reconsider every strategy and every move. The game is filled with unexpected attacks and spontaneous alliances. But, after the initial shock of play, it’s really not much more exciting than a regular chess game. That’s not to say chess isn’t one of the best games ever designed, but merely to demonstrate that we were looking for something a little more tense. We tried several iterations of chess-like games. We came up with all sorts of gameplay mechanics and expansions of current trends, but eventually none of them fit the bill.

So, as any good design team should be able to do, we killed it before it dragged us down with it. It was here that we reassessed. We sat back down at the drawing table and strove to find a new way to induce fear in the players. We went through a few ideas, but ended up on artificial intelligence. We wanted elements the player couldn’t control. This is when we came up with the idea for the Four Horsemen.

At this point we were all kind of frustrated because we’ve been working for hours without any result to show for it. Until we decided to have an unknown factor we could introduce NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) to the game in which was the controlling factor. This really fit into the dynamic ideas and gave us a good spark of energy and motivation. At first we thought we were going to use the Queen Chess pieces as the 4 NPCs located on the center of the board. But then we decided against it and replaced the Queens with Horsemen. And since there were 4 horsemen naturally we think of the Apocalypse. This sent the group into frenzy of joyous laughter. Immediately we began to build the game and do research. We play tested that night once and were very happy with the result even though it was obvious more work was to be done.

The basic list of mechanics are:

1. Die rolling

2. Card Drawing

3. Player/NPC movement

4. Resource Collecting (Shield)

5. Resource Management / Battle

Things started to fall into place quickly. We play tested the game quite a few times and attempted to give some kind of artificial intelligence to the four horsemen. At first it was a simple priority list to determine which player they would move towards. It evolved into a more complex system in which gave the NPCs a targeting behavior, so that they would each target another player due to deferent reasoning mechanisms. This turned out to be a failure and was eliminated. It actually made the horsemen dumb and easy to avoid. However we did keep the other addition, which was the special ability. The special ability for each horseman gives them a bit of personality beyond their different looks and changes the patterns a bit as well.

Paranoia

There are several reasons why we chose the path we did in an attempt to make the player paranoid

Paranoid – adj. 1: characterized by or resembling paranoia

2: characterized by suspiciousness, persecutory trends or megalomania

3: extremely fearful

This being said, we’ve come to terms with the idea that most people get a little bit paranoid and afraid of dying when facing a life-threatening situation. A literal, and slightly abstracted, translation of the Revelation Of John would efficiently create a life-threatening situation for the player’s avatars and some people are actually paranoid about the coming of the Apocalypse anyway.

We decided that the most interesting method was to have the game itself induce paranoia rather than the game forcing the players to make each other paranoid. That doesn’t mean you can’t become paranoid due to the actions of another player but it does mean that everyone will be more concerned with the NPCs than they are with each other. So it is a pretty simple game with a simple strategy. You can either try to get a shield or hide in a corner and depending on where the other players move it is extremely important to decide which piece you would like to move or if you would like to move both of them. Implementing dice rolls and combining that with cards that will break ties and make the horsemen even more powerful will create an atmosphere of the unknown. The player will not know for certain which horseman will be moving next turn and they will not know how fast or slow it will be moving. The player will also not know if the horsemen will have their special abilities activated or not. What the player does know is that they either need to hide or get a shield because the horsemen are going to be killing someone soon. Also, in an effort to make players fear each other combat is possible by using shields so if a player has a shield then they should be feared, unless of course you also have a shield.

We believe paranoia does exist in this game because there are times when death is literally breathing down your neck and pestilence is staring you in the face. Sometimes you die, and sometimes you can barely escape and move far enough away for them to choose their next target. The person who collects the most shields isn’t always the winner. The emphasis on strategy is on player movement, horseman positions and resource management (shields). Luck is important as well. Though some could argue that luck takes away from games we believe strongly that it adds to the paranoia factor by making predictability nearly impossible. The player simply does not know which horseman will move next, how far it will move, if it is going to have an extra ability or how far the current player will move. Once all the shields are gone from play, things get really intense, as now it is only a matter of time before someone dies.