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The Lunar Band's Backstage Jam
Position: Game Designer, System Designer, and Producer
Tabletop Party Game with Tabletop Simulator Steam Workshop Build
The Lunar Band's Backstage Jam is a fast-paced real-time tabletop coopetitive game where 4 players are band members writing a song to perform at their first big gig. At the same time, their different aspirations and ideas of what would make the show wicked will clash.
The Lunar Band's Backstage Jam was made in a team of 3 including me for our narrative game assignment. We wanted to explore playful competitive cooperation and knew that writing a song would achieve these goals while being unique in the tabletop game market.
Google Spreadsheet that tracks the points distribution for each band member while grouping them by their rhymes.
Lastly, we created systems that kept the game in check and allow for multiple lose states. The goal was to immerse the players in the stakes of the game so we decided to make the game "real-time" and players had to complete the song in time or they lose. After, we implemented a "Diva" system that allowed each player to overwrite the majority's decision so they can have their lyric choice in the song. This action was kept in check with a "Glue" system that served as the group's collective healthbar and for every Diva token spent, a Glue token was lost and if the players had no more Glue token, the band falls apart and everyone loses. To prevent the group from being stuck, we also allowed rhymes to gain back Glue tokens lost.
Through the playful systems we've created, we believe The Lunar Band's Backstage Jam will provide a fun party game for everyone to enjoy for countless of sessions.
Development Process
Gallery
The iterative process of game design and system design of The Lunar Band's Backstage Jam were crucial in creating an experience that immersed the players into their roles while giving them a balanced gameplay.
We based the structure of our game around the structure of a song with verses, choruses, and a bridge and organized it in a way that was easy for the players to follow. We knew that the average player might not be well versed (no pun intended) with music theory, so creating a board that visually communicates how the game should be played was important.
Next we used a Google Spreadsheet to create lyrics that will appear on the cards. This was also when we created the band member points in which each player will have to get the most by the the time the song was completed. Spreadsheet allowed us to easily adjusted numbers so not only was the distribution of points among the band members will be balanced, but the points and lyrics had the right connection. During this process we decided to make some lyrics rhyme to create the opportunity for players to earn bonus points.
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Scheduled team meetings and work sessions across 3 different time zones to increase productivity and exchange of ideas.
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Utilized and organized a spreadsheet to help balance the game’s economy of over 100 lyric verses.
What I did
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