The Turning of the Tables
- realitypsi
- Jun 16, 2020
- 2 min read
THE TURNING OF THE TABLES incl. Making of
Game Design as art
As opposed to The Instrument, in which I created game mechanics and let the players come up with a story, this game consists of just physical material, and it is up to its readers to invent a corresponding mechanism to play with.
While most of the game is therefore defined by the player, its initiation as a game has already been made by me, when I gave the players the task to design the mechanics. This way, the creation of the game becomes the game.
It is interesting to observe the initial reactions to this, and how they differ from the responses the experiment gets.
While it should not matter who it is that creates a concept and who it is that creates the mechanics, it turns out that the order in which those things happen (and thereby the implied underlying purpose of each invention) does play a crucial role in whether the two groups of people are considered to be artists in this instance.
This is one of the most difficult concepts to execute well, and the two different products don't exactly seem like they stem from the same idea.
The Beermat Game
In which we balance risk and gain by creating rules that should make for fun gameplay (and best benefit us while disadvantaging our opponents).
Every player gets to design a beermat, representing both one rule and a playing field.
This way, the game is evergrowing and expands with each played session.
The Beermat Game is played with a six-sided die and standard game pieces.
The beermats function like steps on a playing board, and whoever lands on it, has to do as told by the backside of the card. There is a point system (as introduced by one of the participants), you might have to skip a turn or move your puppet to another field.
Current cards include:
- rock-paper-scissors: the loser has to crawl under the table
- vote on how many bonus points the other players should get
- get one point per glass of water that you drink within the next five minutes
- be happy and miss a turn or get angry and take three steps forward
- take some time (wait a turn) to water your plant, or it will die
Contributors get to design the front of their card accordingly.
In the game, the cards are arranged in a circle, ones that have been used up get taken out. The game ends when no cards are left – the winner is determined by the points.
Due to the nature of some of the card's actions, this game is to be played in person, and will be perpetuated that way (with every new set of players adding more and more cards to be played with).
The Clod and te Skull
(original name: Die Wolk mit de Totenkopf)
Made by children who wanted that.
A board game with elements of a tabletop RPG, this experiment is the only one that was entirely made by children (myself included) - with The Instrument and The Beermat Game working well as a family game, too.
Like The Beermat Game, this one started at the WeltenWerker Konvent, and will travel with me to future exhibitions and conventions, as well as new sets of empty game material for passersby to fill with their ideas.
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