CGD1: Core Game Ideas

Ok guys, here is my "broad concept" for the game I came up with, but won't ever finish on my own. Thus, I'd be happy to punt it to this project, if folk here wanted it.

The idea is that players are heads of charitable organizations, charged with distributing huminitarian aid to various disaster locations. I envision each player having a pool of "volunteers" (like in Carcassonne), and each turn, some "disasters" are revealed, and you send your volunteers out to the various disasters. Then, you use them as a "conduit" for relief supplies, which you acquire through various means. The catch is, well, there are two catches. One is that all the volunteers are frozen at the disaster until the situation has fully been resolved. (So, for example, let's say the situation requires 2 points of Food and 1 point of Medicine -- if you have one Volunteer, and he distributes 1 point of Food, you need to wait until he, or someone else, has distributed an additional point of Food and one of Medicine until you get him pack into your pool). The other catch is that when the needs of the situation have been met, EVERYONE who participated in the relief effort scores equal points for it, regardless of how much or how little they helped. But, there are enough disasters that you can't send your people everywhere all at once, so you have to pick and choose which ones to participate in.

I have some other ideas in mind; maybe there's some way in which certain actions/conditions net you more volunteers, and others net you more donations, etc. I also envision a mechanic where you bid for donations from the big aid agencies (perhaps using your volunteers as lobbyists), or perhaps one person is appointed the "director" for each continent and chooses how its aid is allocated, or something...

Anyway, you can see that the idea has some focus to it already, but it's far from fleshed out, and there's plenty of room for modification/alteration. I think the core concepts that should remain (if I had my way) are "everyone who helps at a location scores the same", and "you must balance having enough volunteers and having supplies to give them to distribute". I think you could build a simple, tight, and well-themed game out of this system.

I suggest it for this project because humanitarian aid is a theme that has never, to my knowledge, been explored in game design, thus, it's original. It also has a collaborative feel, which fits well with what we're trying to do. It would be a card game, which would be simple to make (you'd probably need a set of Carcassonne pieces to symbolize your volunteers).

I do, unfortunately, have one proviso, and that is that if the game ever makes any money, all of it will be given to humanitarian aid organizations (but that also is in the spirit of this project).

I welcome comments and questions, and will have absolutely no hard feelings if people don't think it's a good fit for this project!

Thanks,

jeff

Ok, I understand that we're not supposed to actually be discussing the proposals yet, but I'm mystified by this...

Bad taste? How so? Maybe I didn't articulate my idea clearly enough; I just don't see how a game where you pretend to help people can be in poor taste (although, of course, it hangs on how the game works...) Please elaborate on this (you can private message me if you prefer). I obviously don't care if people prefer another proposal to mine, but I am really perplexed as to what about my idea struck you as offensive, because it seems so positive and constructive to me (I'm looking for something like Princes of Florence or Tikal here -- a competitive game, but with a somewhat non-competitive, or at least, non-conflict based, theme)

Do tell!

-Jeff

Well the central idea is fine - I like it a lot - but the problem comes in defining what a "disaster" might be. A game that is essentially making a fun pastime out of something that is at heart about people losing their possessions and potentially their lives seems a little... callous.

If I proposed a game called "Twister", in which a tornado was sweeping towards the town and the winner was the player who got the most of their townsfolk safely into the shelter, would that not verge on tasteless too? (Don't tell me, CheapAss already have a game like that? ;))

Isn't this EXACTLY what the "doomed civ contest" was all about?

I understand your point; some themes must be handled delicately. I would obviously leave that at the discretion of the group, but my idea for a "disaster" was somewhat abstracted, like "Drought in Chad ; Aid required: 4 Food, 3 Medicine". So, you (or other players) must distribute that much aid to that location before it has been "solved". I'm not proposing anything morbid like "if you don't get there quick enough, the value goes down" as in lives are being lost, etc. It's really somewhat abstracted from the harsh realities of disasters. The goal is more to open people's (including my) eyes to what is going on in the world, to develop a fun game with a positive theme, and to hopefully spur people to think more about how to carry out these positive actions in real life (possibly providing information in the game box as to how they can do just that).

There was an interesting article in the games journal about "unpalatable" themes that I think raised some interesting points. One example raised was wargames (like "WarZone"!) -- in a game, for example, strategy rules the day and you allocate and lose pieces willy-nilly. Yet, aren't those real lives that you're playing with? Is war something that we should gleefully simulate? My answer, I suppose, is that a wall of separation between reality and fiction must be implied, however, there are still some game themes that I wouldn't want to play. So, I guess one just needs to decide for oneself where to draw the line. But, my main point here was to say that with my "huminitarian aid" game, I really did have the best intentions and most tasteful presentation in mind, and I apologize if anyone was offended by the suggestion. I'm almost certain it's just poor communication on my part moreso than a defect in the idea itself, but I could of course be wrong about that...

-Jeff

Yada yada, blah blah blah, etc, etc.

OK, some after some brainstorming with Sedjtroll I came up with the following:

This resourcemanagement and buildinggame is set in the not-so-distant future. The science of mankind has finally evolved so far that it is possible to colonize far-away planets. However, the climates on these planets are often hostile and protective housing is necessary to survive on these forbidding planets. Fortunately, there are several companies who specialize in producing "modules" which are used to build the colonies with.

As a player you are the owner of one of these companies. Together with the other players you are appointed to colonise several planets on the outskirts of the milkyway. The most succesful player will be elected Grand Supervisor for this part of the milkyway!

You cannot build a succesful colony without the help of the other players, so cooperation is important, but you must still make sure that you are the most succesful entrepeneur of all in the end!