MONSTER MANSION
4v1 Asymmetrical Board Game
PURPOSE
The concept of our game is a 4v1 game where a team of four players have to escape from a haunted mansion while the single player plays as a monster and hunts the other players down before they escape. We were inspired by games like Friday The 13th and other asymmetric games with a team against a single player. We were also inspired by the board style of Clue, with hidden passageways, different rooms, and a grid like layout for players to move on.
SEARCHING FOR AN EXIT
In the game, the team of four victims will move around the house searching for things they can use to escape. The monster chases the victims and attempts to kill them before they find what they need to escape. Landing next to the Search Tiles located in different rooms spread out the board will either reveal a specific thing in that room such as the circuit board or the phone, or allow the player to draw a search card which are used to meet specific win conditions.
CHARACTERS
One player gets to play as a horror movie slasher, and the rest get to choose between different horror movie trope themed victims. Each character includes their own unique deck with different abilities and actions they can make. For the victims, cards can either help or hurt you.
Cards and Characters Demonstration
Gameplay Demonstration
POST MORTEM
What Went Right: One thing that went right was the theme of the game. It was supposed to resemble horror movie tropes and cliches. This helped us come up with characters, escape routes, and also abilities for characters. One thing that really stood out to me was the “Hide” and “Search” cards. How it worked was if a player drew the “Hide” card, it would mean they are safe if they end in a room. However if the monster drew the “Search” card, it would cancel out a players “Hide”. This represents the scenes in the movies when a characters in a room holding their breath and the killer almost looks in there direction before either killing them or leaving. It adds tension because the player knows that their not completely safe and that there's a small chance they'll be found. Another thing that went right was shrinking the board. The original concept was way too big and there was a lot of empty space. When I shrunk it, it made the areas outside the rooms a lot smaller and seem more like narrow hallways. This is a great area for victims to be vulnerable, and is where a lot of horror scenes are shot. The tension between the victims and the monster is also something I think went well. Players who played as the monster told me that they felt very powerful. This was my goal, as a powerful monster is good for scaring the team of weaker characters. The only issue is that they might have been a little too powerful.
What Went Wrong: One issue was the board ended up being too large and vague. I did shrink it down which made it a lot better, but without final art it was a bit confusing. I ended up having to give a long speech about how the game is played before actually testing it. Another thing was balancing the victims and monster. At the end the monster caught up to the players too fast, and was killing players in the first turn. I cut the monsters speed to help this, but didn't get to playtest it much beyond that. Lastly, team communication was an issue during development. It was hard to get everyone together at the same time. When some of us were free, others couldn't make it, or when we had plans, things would come up last minute. It became hard to plan out, and I ended up having to lead most of the project on my own.
Lessons Learned: I learned to plan out just the basics. We started thinking of a huge cast of monster characters, and only ever ended up making one. Some parts of the board were meant for other monsters, and I ended up just repurposing them for the monster we had. I also learned that complexity could turn into a hassle. The rules were complicated which made game play more unique, but it also meant it needed a long description of how to play which turns most people away. Lastly, I learned how powerful establishing a theme is. Once we had our theme, it helped pave the way for what characters we could have, how they can interact, what abilities they can get. One rule we came up with because of our strong theme was that players need Walkie Talkies to show each other their cards. This is because in a horror movie, people always split up and lack communication. It didn't make sense for people to yell across the house what items they have if they're trying to hide from the killer, so that helped us come up with that card.