Mission Improvable
Nov 2024 - Dec 2024
Game Designer,
Lead Writer
Project Details
Three week group project creating an analog game that adheres to a constraint of your choice (affordance of a physical object).
Game Overview
An improv card game utilizing red lens cardboard glasses for a fun spy-themed night with friends. Play as either the supervisor, listening to mission reports about the same target and judging which story is the best, or as a spy, piecing together a report on the spot while selecting dossier cards filled with invisible ink that just might be absurd enough to secure you your job.
Game Mid-Playtest
Game Supplies
Including: red lens spy glasses, dossier cards, mission stamps, spy & supervisor folders
As a designer and writer, my goal was to explore the affordances of our red lens glasses while still keeping track of how decreased player knowledge impacted player experience. Across the iterations, I focused on finding ways to encourage the creativity and spontaneity needed at the heart of improv games by writing all the scripts and cards, adjusting rules weekly, and leaning into our spy theming.
My contributions included:
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Ideation & Iterations
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multiple obstacles when creating an improvisation game centered around missing information
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example issues:
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words hidden for spies wearing glasses → too much focus on uncovering missing information → Solution: pivot to misinformation rather than missed information when hiding words
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difficulty getting into the roleplay nature of the game → Solution: provide scripts to create structure and invite players in gradually
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address balancing issues by tweaking values such as number of spies versus supervisors, number of cards available, length of rounds, etc.
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Narrative Design
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created themed scripts for the supervisor to read at the start of each round
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required each spy to come up with an agent name to begin the improvisation
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devised all the wordplay and themed phrases for our 70+ cards
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ex: rainforest cafe, carnival, your taxes, bathtub, crossword puzzle
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Game Supplies
Left: game box & red lens spy glasses
Right: glasses, cards, mission stamps, spy & supervisor folders
Example of Wordplay on
Dossier Cards
Screenshot of
Supervisor Script