Want to help me develop a new bar game?

[AustinChief]

Ok, so I was sitting at a dive bar last night with the owner and some regulars and we were trying to come up with a good idea for a bar game. Obviously there is trivia (which they do on Tuesdays) and Karaoke(which is awful) and now a few bars do Rock-Paper-Scissors tournaments... but we wanted something NEW.

The problem is.. we set some limits on the game....

#1 It can't interfere with other customers too much (like karaoke does)
#2 It has to be almost moderatorless... doesn't take away the bartenders time slinging drinks
#3 It has to not suck

The best idea we came up with is to do a version of CLUE... but here is the unique part... it would be done via an app on your smartphone. The app acts as your "mobile crime lab." There would be an hour signup period for players to join then the game starts.

I haven't really nailed down the details yet, so I intend to use this thread to hash it all out. A couple of cool ideas we have so far are...

Placing some QR Codes around the bar that you can scan and possibly get a clue.

Allowing customers to scan the UPC code on beer bottles to also get clues.

So before I dive in further.. does this sound like a decent game that people would play? oh, also there would be "bar cash" for the winners.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

I am thinking a two hour game time is about right. Less then that is too hurried and more than that is probably too long.

I don't know. That seems too long to me. I had pictured a game that works just like the board game except that your "suggestions" are sent via cell to everyone else in turn. The standard "next person to the left" would be determined by queue time. That is, you are assigned a number when you q up to play that determines a hypothetical table setting of players. Let the game handle the automatic interaction between phones (with lots of noisy notifications involved) then players can share info verbally as they see fit, thus promoting face-to-face social interaction. Also let the game display the board, everyone's place on the board and who is currently taking their turn. For smaller crowds I would imagine each person in the place would play solo and talk among their respective tables. For large crowds you could see tables of friends playing through one cell as if they were one player per table. I would be surprised if a game took two hours to complete as long as there was a built in timer per turn.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

ok, I think I have a decent handle on how game play will work except I still need more "social" ideas to integrate into it. Help! ( I can easily make a bunch of social interactions that are completely "inside" the app itself but again I dread the idea of all the social interactions being focused around your phone and not enough real world interaction other than scanning shit)

One thing I am pretty sure of is how the "turns" will run. To make it as unobtrusive as possible I think it will be timed such that every X number of minutes you "earn" a new turn.

So let's say it's every 5 minutes. You could take your turns as you get them every 5 minutes or let's say you get distracted for an hour... you would then have 12 turns (60/5) you could use all at once to catch up. Of course this is fine in the beginning of game play but as it gets closer to the end you would risk someone winning before you could catch up and solve things for yourself.

I am thinking a two hour game time is about right. Less then that is too hurried and more than that is probably too long.

Ugh. That sounds like one of those crappy FaceBook games.

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by listopencil

Ugh. That sounds like one of those crappy FaceBook games.

It does in some ways but I'm pretty set on this format now. this allows people to enter the game late (mid-game, although they would be at a disadvantage) and allows people to be distracted from the game and still "catch up."

I am getting further and further away from the regular gameplay of a board game or a facebook app and more towards fun shit to do at the bar.

Here is what I am thinking now...

To "earn" a clue... you have to complete a challenge. You can pick from any number of challenges that are presented at a given time. These challenges would be stupid simple stuff that FOCUSES on social interaction and funny shit at the bar. For example, one challenge may be to go up to 2 strangers and make a sincere toast about your recently departed best friend, Freddy The Frog. Or something less boisterous depending on what you are comfortable with. The key would be that you would want to interact with other players or at least make sure they notice because then they would earn extra turns(well in fact they would earn partial turns... like 1/4 of a turn or something based on an algorithm using the number of players playing) by "validating" that you completed your challenge.

I'm going to do some market research at a bar tonight and see what people think about this format. If it gets the go ahead then I just need to come up with a massive library of fun "challenges."

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

It does in some ways but I'm pretty set on this format now. this allows people to enter the game late (mid-game, although they would be at a disadvantage) and allows people to be distracted from the game and still "catch up."

I am getting further and further away from the regular gameplay of a board game or a facebook app and more towards fun shit to do at the bar.

Here is what I am thinking now...

To "earn" a clue... you have to complete a challenge. You can pick from any number of challenges that are presented at a given time. These challenges would be stupid simple stuff that FOCUSES on social interaction and funny shit at the bar. For example, one challenge may be to go up to 2 strangers and make a sincere toast about your recently departed best friend, Freddy The Frog. Or something less boisterous depending on what you are comfortable with. The key would be that you would want to interact with other players or at least make sure they notice because then they would earn extra turns(well in fact they would earn partial turns... like 1/4 of a turn or something based on an algorithm using the number of players playing) by "validating" that you completed your challenge.

I'm going to do some market research at a bar tonight and see what people think about this format. If it gets the go ahead then I just need to come up with a massive library of fun "challenges."

This makes me really glad that I don't go to bars.

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by listopencil

This makes me really glad that I don't go to bars.

HAHA, yeah I am trying to balance the "logic" aspect of the game with the fact that dumb people want to participate and have fun too. All while increases the odds of being able to interact with members of the opposite sex or just meet new interesting people.

If the target demographic was restricted to nerdy smart people then we'd be shit out of luck finding people to play most nights.

[Rain Man]

I've never been a bargoer. Are bars mostly full of groups, couples, or singles?

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I've never been a bargoer. Are bars mostly full of groups, couples, or singles?

YES,that's the problem. it could be any mix of the following. Though I would say it leans a bit toward singles.

[crazycoffey]

What about the app giving the player the clues that are shared socially in the bar, simple as you're col mustard and you were in the conservatory with the rope when the murder happened and you're not the murder;

then the one who is the murderer would get to be deceitful and all the players would HAVE to talk to all he other players, try to get info and decipher truth from fiction.