Assassination game for AMAZE

edited in General
Anyone interested in running a good Assassination game for AMAZE? :D

I've heard/read a bunch of stuff coming out of Street Wars (A Shutup and Sit Down podcast - http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcast/episode/podcast-19/ and a great audio piece: http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcast/episode/spoken-articles-2/)

And then researched Killer, which is Steve Jackson's book on a physical assassination game, which is apparently very well game designed: http://www.sjgames.com/killer/

Here's an example of a convention scenario game of Killer:
http://www.sjgames.com/killer/stevie.html

So, what do you think? Keen to be part of one? (A good one! If anything, listening to them talk about Street Wars made me understand that just putting a bunch of people together and asking them to fake-kill each other doesn't make GOOD GAME DESIGN. GOOD GAME DESIGN makes good game design :P)

Comments

  • Tuism said:
    ... just putting a bunch of people together and asking them to ... doesn't make GOOD GAME DESIGN. GOOD GAME DESIGN makes good game design ...
    <3
  • I have a digitally enabled version (using whatsapp) of this kicking around my head. Was originally supposed to be for the most recent SFA but everything else got in the way.

    If I make it up to Amaze (big if) I'd be super keen to try it out or at least participate in something like Killer. That is a great reference. Thanks for posting! ;)
  • edited
    There is also this from a while back that @dislekcia pointed out to me, by Jane McGonigal and Ian Bogost. Game played with cell phones:

    http://www.cruelgame.com/

    What I like about this is that your participation is not ended if you're eliminated early.

    Edit: left out important word
  • edited
    A long time ago I tried to make pretty much the exact thing Killer is, writing a blog called spygamebook.posterous.com... I was busy exploring killing with water pistols and backstabs by sticking things on someone's back, and making a hackable computer by making a bunch of folders and hiding a text file in among folders :)

    Then posterous shut down and all my posts went away XD

    What I've learned about this kind of stuff is that you must design for interaction, and throw out the rules lawyering mentality. And design it to not isolate people, etc.

    Kudos to Steve Jackson for making cool stuff! :D I bought the Killer PDF, going through it, there are so many fun ideas in it, like balloons as bombs, and marking your weapons with chalk to indicate strikes, all the while maintaining a very high standard for safety, which I really appreciate :)
  • There is also this from a while back that @dislekcia point out to me, by Jane McGonigal and Ian Bogost. Game played with cell phones:

    http://www.cruelgame.com/

    What I like about this is that your participation is ended if you're eliminated early.

    You mean that it's *not* ended, right? It seems like if you get killed you switch teams?

    I remember the last AMAZE we had a photo assassin game, that started kinda fun but fizzled out after a while because taking photos of people "in secret" wasn't much fun, and there weren't much in the stakes. So that's a good lesson to have learned from.
  • Ah yes typo, I meant NOT ended.

    Wait, what photo assassination game was this? I don't remember anything like that? Or was it the year before last?

    Interesting. I was considering that as one of my mechanics...
  • I think it was the year before, then. It was a fun premise and everyone got stickers, and we secretly took pictures of each other (well, I was shooting with my iPad so it wasn't *that* secret lol) and emailed them in, and it was fun for a while, but if I had to critique it now...
    A) It quickly got to a point where it didn't matter much anymore as you were just taking one pic after another. There wasn't much urgency in trying to get yourself out of a shot or to actually keep on getting more.
    B) There's a lack of feedback or punishment/reward on both shooting and being shot.
    C) There wasn't much engagement between players - so lack of teams or opponents
    D) Relying on students to communicate to and communicate back meant that after they got tired/bored the communication got slow and eventually fizzled out - nothing reinvigorated the game, from a design or an organisational point of view.

    Camera as a weapon is also suggested in the Killers book, they say they suggest you try to set up telephoto "sniper rifles" :) And post your "kills" on a public notice board to announce that you shot said person. Killers however is a longer term game than the short form of a day or two :)
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