Rule Sheet 2

 Group 11

Group Summary

    My partner and I were given the task of creating a simulation fast food board game that is aimed towards college students. The game is called Fastfood Simulator and it is a two-player game where the players face off against each other. They act as a restaurant's manager and try to be the first restaurant to reach $10,000 through hiring employees and using event cards that can be a great advantage or disadvantage to their business.

Iteration Process

    My partner and I researched and used our prior knowledge to think of ideas for our board game. We tried to think of how a restaurant like McDonald's or Chic-Fil-A runs because the genre was simulation and the topic was fast food. We wanted the game to appeal to college students so we had the player play the role of a manager that can hire and/or fire their employees. While doing this, they had to handle the restaurant's finances and make decisions that would help them reach the goal of making $10,000 first. Since college students are constantly dealing with finances and are typically working jobs where they aren't at the top of the totem pole, (yet), this gives college students the chance to use their financial skills while being a person in charge.

    We made player boards that would resemble the inside of a fast-food restaurant. We decided to have 3 different types of workers: cashiers, cooks, and a janitor. We thought the different worker names would give a better variety while also giving limits to how many of each worker can be employed, ex. 1 janitor, 2 cashiers, and 3 cooks.

    Event cards added a level of uncertainty to the game that players can't predict. We wanted to resemble how managers of a store don't always know what is going to happen to their store, but they always have to be ready for the unexpected when running a restaurant; whether if it's for better or for worse. The event cards are shuffled into a pile and are drawn by each player after their turn. The outcome of the cards is random so they keep players guessing. We felt that if we added humorous reasons on the event cards they would attract college students.

New combo meal is a success Collect $250	New combo meal is a flop Lose $250 or fire a cook	Dirty restaurant leads to customers going elsewhere Give other player $250 or fire your janitor	Other restaurant has hair in their food Other player loses $250
Everyone wants a burger today Collect $400	Restaurant receives a B rating  Lose $400 and dismiss a worker	Other restaurant’s commercial is playing at your restaurant Give other player $400	Fight breaks out at other restaurant’s parking lot.  Other player loses $400
Food critic praises your cheeseburger Collect $600	Your ice cream machine is broken Lose $600	Your employees are being rude to customers Fire two employees (If two or less workers are employed, ignore card)	Other restaurant runs out of chicken. Outrage occurs Other player loses $600
Stock of restaurant soars up Gain x2 money from employees for your next turn	Corporate is downsizing your restaurant Lose ½ of your money or fire 3 workers	Employees are calling in sick and you’re understaffed Lose ½ your income on your next turn	Other restaurant has a fake meat scandal Other player loses ½ of their money
Lil Jimmy loves new play area at restaurant Gain $250	Famous rapper collabs with restaurant Gain $800	Everyone got kids meal with correct gender toy Gain $400	Plant based burger brings in Vegans Gain $600

Problems

    A problem we encountered during rule sheet development was trying to make a game that was quick but had some complexity to it. We didn't want the game to be too easy but we felt the game was to be played in a relaxed setting so it had to have a challenge that wasn't hard for the player to identify and think too hard about. It was difficult to reach these two criteria because the state of flow was hard to get just right. The parts of the game we felt weren't stable showed during the playtests.

    During playtesting we enjoyed the humorous aspects of the event cards but the inefficiency of the timing of the game that it caused heavily outweighed the positive aspects. The negative cards were too harsh for players and it soon becomes boring because once players received their money they felt like the next event card would take almost all (if not all) of their money. While we wanted to keep this aspect of the game we felt it was ruining the experience for the player.

    Solutions

    We made sure to buff all the event cards to reduce the obstacles that the players had. In addition to this, we added more positive event cards so that the player didn't feel like the game was always against them. More importantly, we wanted the players to have an easier path to starting the game. With the new rules put into place, the player would have a more enjoyable experience.

    What I would change differently about my developmental process next time would be more playtesting and checking every formal element of the game to see if they best exhibit a game towards the designated player audience.