#1: Knick Knack Challenge

The Recipe:

• Reflecting on 3 semesters of classes on game theory, political cleavages and electoral systems inspired this one.
• Add to that a desire to put together a minimalistic game that would be quick to prototype and experiment with.
• And the finishing touches—life just feels so empty when you’re not making something, when you’re not playing games. So I’m challenging myself to my knick knack challenge: make a knick knack every fortnight.
• Add it all together and the first game of the Knick Knack challenge is born. You can follow the Knick Knack challenge on my Blog here.

Development Notes:

• I wanted to make a game to have players take the role of politicians as they apply game theory to a fantastical electoral system. Yet, the abstraction of gameplay seems to have removed a lot of what makes politics exciting: the intensity of competition, the persuasiveness of ideology, the human touch of electioneering.
• I’m not sure if the themes and mechanics I was hoping to implement are just beyond the realm of something you could do with pen, paper and string. Perhaps this is just version 0.1 of something more.