The Secret Island

Overview

Secret Islands is a game about matching your interests and similarities to others. The overall goal of the game is not necessarily to win, but to match you with people who are likely to interest you the most (as a friend or date).

Tool

Unity 3d 2019
Microsoft Visual Studio 2018
Adobe Photoshop

Developer

Bo Wang, Programmer, Designer of Game Mechanic
Matthew Poon, Designer of Game Content and Mechanic
Nick Tanic, Designer of Game Atheistic and Mechanic

Platform

IOS (Recommended)
Mac OS X
Windows 10

Intrudction

At its core, the game mechanics in Secret Islands incorporates various ideas of scarcity, while also allowing players to explore their identity and learn the identities of others.

Unlike most games, where the goal is to ‘win’, get the most ‘points’, or some other arbitrary goal state, Secret Islands intends to match players who have similar interests or reveal things about yourself (and others) that you might not have known before. Because of this, the idea of scarcity is highly effective in manipulating the amount of information each player has during the course of gameplay, mimicking a dating scenario where you reveal information about yourself while still retaining a certain mystique about yourself which keeps things interesting. Since the goal is to match with other players as much as possible while, it is possible that the end state does not necessarily mean you will always get perfect matches with other players, since you may not find their answers interesting to you in one group versus another. However, playing this game multiple times to eventually find someone you really connect with is the ultimate goal of the game and it is our hope as designers that this happens organically as the player play this game.

The core mechanic revolves around learning about the other players. The information on choosing who matches with who is hidden at the beginning of the game. Over the course of the game, however, certain themes or social cues may arise which give you clues as to how each chooses their match. The initial amount of information can make it difficult to know who is matching with who, and while players may have some idea about the matches, keeping this information scarce helps with keeping the matches unbiased so that people are choosing people and answers they like, not just their ‘best chance’ of getting a match.

The inclusion of random draws (e.g. Bet the rose, Unlucky rose, Lucky rose) adds an element of scarcity that makes each rose you send more important, as it could be lost. However, it’s also possible to get additional roses sometimes, but it allows the player to feel a sense of ownership of their choice in making matches.

Because the overall game is to match players who potentially have similar interests (or just find each other interesting), some players may be more motivated than others. For example, a player who really likes the answers that is presented to him/her may be more motivated because they can see many potential matches in that game, whereas another player who dislikes the other players’ answers might not have that motivation to keep going. Because of this, players may have to play with different groups to find a good match for them.

Statement of Purpose

Currently available dating apps have very basic ways to match people together based on proximity, physical appearance, and very simple self-descriptions of users. Our project aims to enhance the quality of matches made between users in ways that are meaningful and have potentially longer lasting results.

Goals

Create a fun environment for users to form social relationships with strangers.
Allow users to make decisions about forming relationships spurred by common interests, and in doing so foster longer lasting relationships. Even if users do not end up dating, friendships that arise as a result are just as fruitful.
Give users an experience of speed dating without the stress and anxiety surrounding it by embellishing it in a game.

Target Audience

Primarily single young adults in the US.

Game Rules

Before Game:

Player will choose how many people will engage in this game ( 4 / 6 )
Each player will type his/her name on the tablet.
Player will choose how many round they want to play.

After Entering Game:

On Player 1’s turn, they will choose a category of questions, out of the following: lifestyle, personal, and hypothetical questions. The first few rounds will have questions that are easier to answer (icebreaker questions). As the game progresses, more deep and thoughtful questions will be presented, that may push you outside your comfort zone.
Player 1 will get a random bonus. For example, romance stealer, will allow you to steal from one player. He/she will have 1 less rose in his turn and you will have 1 more.
Players 2-6 take turns answering the question, with the goal of answering in an interesting and truthful way that shows their personality.
After Players 2-6 each answer the question. Player 1 will have the right to send roses to the answer he/she likes.
Now Player 1’s turn ends, and Player 2’s turn begins, repeating the same actions shown above.
After all players take 1 turn, the round ends.

End the Game:

After the 10th round, players will be able to see who their best match is. They will also get to see how well they matched with the other players. The player(s) that receive the most matches between each other wins!

Example:

P1 - best match = 6, with P3

P2 - best match = 3, with P4

P3 - best match = 6, with P1

P4 - best match = 4, with P5

P5 - best match = 4, with P4

P6 - best match = 4, with P2

In this scenario, P1 and P3 have the highest number of matches, so they are the winners of the game.

Appendix 1 : Bonus list

Romance Stealer: Steal from one player. He/she will have 1 less rose in his turn and you will have 1 more.
Bet on Love: Choose a player. If you two have more than 1 match, then it will be doubled, otherwise it will -1.
Inquisitive love: You are the king/queen of this island! You can ask a question you like.
Share your heart: You're feeling friendly to your rivals and have an abundance of roses anyways. 1 Bonus rose for every player who has same gender with you.
Storm is coming: A violent storm had struck the beach and you lost all your flowers in this round.
Blank:It just has...nothing.

Appendix 2 : Question list

Lifestyle:

What do you do for fun?
What TV shows do you watch?
What is the last song you listened to?
What is your favorite movie, and why?
What’s your favorite cuisine?
What would be your perfect vacation?
What good movie have you watched recently?
Where would be your favorite place to travel?
Would you rather take a vacation in a cold country or a warm one, and why?
What is your dream job?
What sort of vacations do you like to take? (e.g. relax, sporty/outdoors, sightseeing, etc.)
What is your favorite season? Why?
What would you do if you had all the money you need to retire?
Do you like your current job? Why/why not?
What was the worst job you’ve ever had?
If you weren’t in your current occupation/career path, what would you be doing instead?
What was your dream job when you were a child?
What job do you think you would be bad at, and why?

Personal:

What is your biggest pet peeve?
What is one thing you’re very passionate about?
What would you say you are an expert in?
Who was your childhood superhero?
Is it important for your partner to have similar political views? Why/why not?
What were you like as a kid?
Who inspires you?
In your opinion, what is the single most important thing in life?
How has your best friend affected your life?
What is one memorable experience that affected your life in some way?
What is your family like?
Tell a funny story, or an experience that happened to you.
What is something you want to try but have been too scared to do?
What do you think is your best feature?
What embarrassing experience have you had recently?
How do you define success in your life?
What do you find most attractive in a potential partner?
What is your biggest regret?

Hypothetical:

What would be your last meal on Earth?
If you could move to any place in the world, where would you like to live?
If you could be any video game character, who would it be?
If you could choose 1 superpower, what would it be?
If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
You magically find that your bank account has a million dollars, no strings attached. What would you do with the money?
If you could become the CEO of any existing company, which would it be and why?
If you had the choice to see into your future, would you do it? Why/why not?
If the world was going to end tomorrow, how would you spend your last day?
How do you think you will die?
If your house was burning down, what would be 1 item you take with you?
What would be your perfect first date?
If you were trapped on an island with 1 other person, and it could be anybody, who would it be?
If you had (or do have) children, what kind of career would you want them to have?
If you could go back in time to tell your childhood self 1 thing, what would it be?
If you could go into the future and ask your old self 1 thing, what would it be?
If you could sell your soul to the devil, what would you sell it for?
If you died today, what would you be remembered for?

Appendix 3 : Playtests

Playtest 1

Observations:

A paper version of the game was difficult to implement because of the many hidden elements in the game (sending roses, matches, etc.). In addition, the mechanic of sending roses was disjointed from the rest of the game, making the experience very segmented and slow.

Changes:
- Make a digital version.
- Roses are integrated into choosing the favorite answer. Instead of players choosing a favorite answer and then sending a rose, the choice is the sending of it.

Playtest 2

Observations:

In this version, players had to input their answers into a computer. It sucked a lot of the fun out of making conversation with others since everyone was silent throughout the course of the game. Overall the experience felt more like a chore than a game.

Changes:
- Hybrid digital/physical version. The app focuses on allowing players to send hidden information without others seeing, eliminating the need for players to close their eyes (Mafia style). It also stores this hidden information for the end of the game.

Playtest 3

Observations:

The specific ‘powers’ each player had based on their gender (2 roses, or answer 2 questions) was weird. Some players who wanted to answer twice only got to answer once, while others who only really had one answer had to give two.
The set of questions used throughout this and previous playtests didn’t have any sort of progression, and was randomly chosen. This meant some very deep and thoughtful questions might appear at the beginning, which felt unnatural and difficult for some people to answer.

Changes:

Change the powers to be randomly picked on the player turn. Add additional powers.
Organized the list of questions so that generally, questions that serve as icebreaker questions will be presented earlier, and more deep and thoughtful questions will be presented later.