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Hannah Jones | Becca Woo Wamika Bansal | Sam Coffey

WILD ALMONDS

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Executive

Summary

Secret Hitler is a hidden-identity game perfect for parties (and fascists...?)

Modified gamerules to improve anonymity

To test we conducted three playtests

Hannah: ÅŒ¸

We decided on Secret Hitler because we were all new to the game and thought it would be challenging going into the game unaware exactly what it is about. It is a secret identity game funded through Kickstarter that was founded by the same creators of Cards Against Humanity (Max Temkin).

All of us went into the initial playtest with the same lack of experience so we went through it together. It would also allow us to connect to our participants that are experiencing the game for the first time.

The first time we had all played it was in Hawkins and after a round of play, we discussed that it would be interesting to switch the voting for electing a government to anonymous. Sam will further explain this modification.

To test the rule modification, which Becca will detail, three play sessions were conducted.

Wamika will go over the analysis of what we found but we decided that the rule modification increased relatedness between players, despite their relationship, or lack thereof, prior to the playtest.

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GAME PIECES

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Project Focus

Improving the user experience of Secret Hitler

Making immersion a focus of the modification

Introducing the modification made

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Modifications & Testing

Overview of the voting mechanic change�
How the new rules work�
Analysis of the modification impact on user experience

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Recruitment

Respective friend groups

Becca - definite gamers (PC, console, you name it)
Wamika - casual gamer (console) / not a gamer
Sam - casual gamers (console)
Hannah - very casual gamers (phone games)

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Demographic

Majors Breakdown: Variety of Interests

3 Computer Graphics Technology
3 Cyber Security
1 Computer Science
2 Biomedical Engineering
2 Chem Engineering
3 Mechanical Engineering
1 Health and Human Science
2 Psychology
1 Creative Writing and Public Relations
1 Social Studies Education

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Survey

Results

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March 24

Hawkins Hall, 7-9pm

Playtest 1

9 participants

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Did you like the game?

original game

modified game

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What did you like about our changes?

Game becomes more realistic...

Made things more interesting...

New ballots were too tiny

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Do you feel the changes helped the gameplay?

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April 11

Hawkins Hall, 40 - 6:40 pm

Playtest 2

4 participants

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Did you like the game?

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April 21

Hawkins Hall, 7 - 9 pm

Playtest 3

6 participants

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How did the voting system (non anonymous) affect the gameplay? Did you enjoy it?

Yes! helped me detect who’s fascist...

No, it gives away too much...

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Did you enjoy the second game?

Original Game

Modified Game

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How did the anonymous voting affect the gameplay?

Made the voting more exciting...

Made it difficult to identify fascists

Massive Improvement

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Did you like or dislike the new voting system, and why?

No. It was hard to identify who was on my team...

Liked. New voting system gave more freedom.

Liked it but it allows fascists to win more

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Did you think our changes added to the “mysteriousness” nature to the game?

JA!

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Compare the two games: did you enjoy one more than the other, and why?

Dislike. It was slightly easier to strategize without anonymous voting

Liked the second one. You don’t know what role the person is unless they say it

Liked the second one

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Our changes were good for gameplay!

Some players thought that the anonymity made it more difficult to strategize.

In the future, adding more types of narrators for the application.

Allowing various roles including Axis Powers’ governments and Allies’ government