Alfonso Arellano Game Proposal Dec 3, 2022

If I were to design a game that would highlight some of the many plights of the world. There

would be a few ways in which I would go about it. If I wanted it to reach as many people as

possible, for sure it would have to be a mobile game. One that can be quickly picked up and go

yet keep users engaged. The game that immediately came to mind was the mobile RPG Reigns

on Ios. In Reigns, you play as a monarch that has to manage their kingdom. This also means

keeping the balance of power in check. In reigns that would mean the army, the people, the

church, and the treasury to fund anything. The game mechanically functions a lot like tinder. In

the game, you are presented with cards that present you with a given situation, from that point as

a monarch you have to swipe left or right to make a decision on it that will affect your standing

amongst the four stakeholders in your reign. One has to manage them in order to not lose power

to any of them. Each stakeholder is also associated with a bar to show their standing over you. If

the bar is too low that means that they are discontent and may potentially plan to overthrow you.

If the bar is too high then they may feel overly opportunistic and may plan to usurp you. In this

game, the stakeholder is not allowed to be discontent nor are they allowed to be given too much

power. Each decision you make in the game will move their bars either up or down depending on

the situation. In order for the player to be a successful monarch then you must be able to keep all

powers perfectly balanced. There are many other spinoffs and bootlegs of this type of game but

the core structure of it always stays intact, so it is possible to work this into other settings. I think

that this is a great base to build upon teaching the world about the importance of good

governance.

For my game, I want to use the Reigns gameplay mechanics as a base. The setting would be

changed to a newly elected governor in some unnamed province of the Philippines. As for the
stakeholders that I would have to appease I think a good substitute would be the police for the

army, corporations for the church, and the treasury would stay the same. I also think it would be

a good idea to see the population bar split into rural and urban to see how they respond to

different events and policy decisions just like in real life. The masses in rural areas would more

likely be farmers, and fishermen, gathered together in little villages and communities, while the

urban masses would be white-collar workers, exposed to many different people and ideas, etc.

Another mechanic that I would like to add would be natural disasters. Since they are so prevalent

here in the Philippines it only feels right to add them here. Different natural disasters would

affect different people. For example, earthquakes would greatly affect people living in urban

areas where there are taller buildings compared to people in rural areas. Likewise, floods would

greatly affect rural people more since they are more likely to be farmers and have their whole

lively hoods destroyed. Another game mechanic I would change would be the bar caps for the

treasury or either urban or rural people get too high it does not result in a game over. Instead, you

can be rewarded with a power-up depending on which one is filled up first. If the treasure bar is

maxed out then you gain a power-up of a budget surplus. With this power-up, you can mitigate

the effects of natural disasters on people. With either of the people, bars maxed out you get the

people's choice power up. This allows you to make mitigate the effects of decisions that

downwardly affect the police or corporation. Decisions such as increasing taxes for corporations

or decreasing the budget of the police. Once you have the power up of you cannot receive

another one of the same types for the next 20 or so turns. This is just to balance out the game and

prevent abusing the mechanic. With regards to the remaining two bars, police and corporations,

they will remain the same as the original to symbolize not giving too much power to both, acting

as a sort of checks and balances.

I would like to have the game have a more lighthearted tone since I feel like having such a dark

tone and diving into much more controversial and deeper topics would not be right for this type

of game. Given that game is a mobile game meant to be easily accessible and ready to be played

anywhere, I feel like touching on more serious topics would not be doing them justice given

what we are working with. The scenarios that would be presented to the player would have them

deal with whether or not to increase taxes on corporations or the people in order to fill up the

wealth bar. Another scenario could be whether to increase the wages of teachers, which could

greatly benefit both rural and urban communities but will significantly lower the wealth bar

possibly preventing the player from investing in another project. I want the game to strike a

balance between fun and quirky while also being educational, and sincere.

The player will not only be exposed to the issues of governance here in the Philippines but, will

also be exposed to other issues faced in the country as well, issues such as police violence,

poverty, natural disasters, dynastic political families, etc. I think this would help drive the

importance of good governance and how impactful the decision made from that level of power is

to the people because it actually places them in a simulation of what it feels like to wield such

power. The game in about making decisions and dealing with the consequences of those

decisions. Players are forced to see the impact of each type of decision and most discerning on

how to move forward from where they are. Hopefully, this game can inspire people to vote for

people who actually make good decisions and have a background in good governance.