Written by Sean O’Connor
Before we crafted our current game, the ideas had to come from a deck of Harrow cards, blocks, coins, sand, fortune telling, and college debt.
As soon as development started, we were already under specific constraints. These included only having 10 rules, using only the materials we choose, and the game needing to be under an hour in length. Along with these, a story, theme, setup, and win condition needed to be present in the rules. A board was also an optional piece that could be created.
In the early stages of creating our game that would become Fortune’s Outcome, we tried to find a concept that would stick. Early on, the team wanted to make a game that was easy for people to learn and could be fun for everyone. However, the challenge was doing this with the given materials: a deck of Harrow cards that contained different names and images, a set of goblin coins, a set of dragon coins, and an hourglass.
We initially considered the idea of a game centered around college. Players were students that needed to get through each term while staying out of debt. Ultimately, this idea was dropped, as we had trouble coming up with ways to make a compelling game with the materials we had to choose in such a short time. Problems were also present in how we could integrate the materials thematically, since they dealt more so with fantasy and fortune telling than the more mundane setting of a school. With these factors, we went back to the drawing board.
The next idea was for a game that was to be casual and lighthearted, with less of an emphasis on beating each other and more so just having fun. A comparable feeling is when you are with a group of friends, just relaxing and talking about strange, off-the-wall subjects that ultimately lead to tons of laughs and inside jokes. The challenge was how we could evoke this feeling while still giving the game purpose and depth. With the three materials chosen, we decided to create a game focused on story telling that would take advantage of the elements of fantasy and fortune telling.
The concept of using fortune telling as the game’s theme and the use of dragon and goblin coins as points set the game in motion. The story centered around the players stumbling across a fortune teller who tells them of their dark futures, while she puts a curse on them at the same time. To dispose of the curse, the players must come up with the best stories. Everyone could get rid of the curse, but the person with the best story would have the objective best future among the group. We wanted there to be no pressure for winning, rather, everyone won by just having a good time.
With this new foundation, we moved on into creating the game play. What began as the idea of a story telling game would slowly evolve over the course of creating and testing the game.
The Bits 