Aussie Influencer: Making a Game People Already Know How to Play...

Aussie Influencer is a niche tabletop board game designed for digital natives aged 7-40 who are active on social media. It's a blend of strategy and chance, strongly emphasising social interaction. This makes it an engaging choice for families and groups of friends who enjoy dynamic and diverse gameplay, where each session promises a unique experience. The game's objective is to complete small mini-games while navigating the board to reach 1 million followers and get verified first, thus winning the game. By replicating influencers' public challenges and experiences, Aussie Influencer ensures that players have a solid understanding of the game mechanics, making it a fun and thought-provoking game.

Theme: The Life of a Social Media Influencer

Aussie Influencer leverages its theme as the philosophy engine of the game, intricately weaving ideologies and philosophies through gameplay to address social issues, ethical dilemmas, and cultural narratives (Moore, 2020), including Australian attitudes like Tall Poppy Syndrome. The game aums to provoke players into rethinking their views towards influencers. It inquiries into stereotypes, the evolving nature of social media platforms, and online security. Reflecting the dynamic, competitive, and sometimes chaotic pursuit of fame, the game explores managing public perception and using digital tools strategically to maintain a following. Trammell and Sinnreich (2014) discuss how games serve as reflections and instruments within social contexts, shaping societal interactions through their rules and interfaces (Trammell & Sinnreich, 2014). This concept forms the thematic basis of Aussie Influencer, which critiques and mirrors the social dynamics of digital fame. Additionally, drawing from Chen's (2023) research on the impact of platforms like TikTok and Instagram, the game explores the intricate relationship between online visibility and self-identity (Chen, 2023). Players experience the dual nature of social media, balancing authenticity with public scrutiny. This blend of gameplay and thematic depth enables Aussie Influencer to offer a meaningful commentary on the complexities of digital fame.

Setting: Time and Place

Set in modern-day Australia, Aussie Influencer features iconic and globally recognised locations like Sydney, Melbourne, and the Gold Coast, serving as backdrops for the influencers' activities. These vibrant and culturally rich settings provide a relatable and engaging environment for the players. Drawing from Harper and White's exploration of Australia's iconic symbols, Aussie Influencer features challenges inspired by these national treasures (Harper & White, 2010). For example, the Kangaroo and Sydney Opera House not only serve as backdrops but are integrated into game materials and mechanics, showcasing their transformation from national curiosities to symbols of Australian identity.

Mechanics: Interaction with Game Assets

Aussie Influencer’s game mechanics simulate the journey of social media influencers. Players begin by selecting an Influencer Card, detailing their character's unique "likes" and "dislikes," which influence their participation in challenges—some cards allow players to go first, while others restrict their participation in certain events. The game board consists of 31 spaces, each representing a different stage in an influencer's career. Players advance one space per turn, encountering Challenge and Sabotage spaces that significantly shape their path.

Challenge Cards, triggered by specific board spaces, act as mini-games where players can gain followers by successfully completing tasks. Sabotage Cards introduce elements of competition and direct interaction, allowing players to hinder others' progress. The ultimate goal is to reach one million followers and achieve verification status on the board, a milestone that marks the peak of an influencer's career and ends the game.

These mechanics are designed to offer a dynamic blend of strategy, chance, and interaction, mirroring the competitive and fast-paced environment of social media influencing. Drawing on Forbeck's insights, the mechanics in Aussie Influencer transcend traditional gameplay rules, serving as narrative elements that deepen the metaphor of an influencer’s career ascent (Forbeck, 2011). This approach not only engages players with the game system but also aims to immerse them in the unfolding story of their influencer’s journey, making each strategic decision meaningful and impactful to the narrative.

Ji Woong Lee notes that games with non-probabilistic uncertainty are often more successful, noting that players develop specified strategies despite the uncertainty (Lee, 2010). To maintain player engagement, I designed the game to build uncertainty around who could win until the end. The implementation of 'roadblocks' such as sabotage cards, the constant threat of overshooting the verification spot on the board (going back to the start), and the mini-games usually based on chance, add a heightened level of unpredictability, which makes it very difficult for a player to see the finish line until the very last minute.

 Core Game Loop

In Aussie Influencer, players advance along the board by automatically moving one space each turn, drawing and resolving Challenge or Sabotage Cards to manage their follower counts in pursuit of reaching the verification space with one million followers to win the game.

World Building

Aussie Influencer’s ‘world’ presents a stylised, Hollywood-style depiction of Australia, infused with the interconnectedness of social media platforms and elements of Australian culture, current affairs, and global social media trends. The game incorporates real-world dynamics like collaboration and competition and uses influencer cards to enhance player connection and representation. These elements engage players with real-world issues, such as interventions by the eSafety commissioner and the pervasive influence of cancel culture on social media (Petrovic, 2021). In line with Trammell and Sinnreich's (2014) insights on games as transitional objects between metaphorical and instrumental uses, Aussie Influencer leverages its world-building to reflect on the roles that social media plays in shaping public discourse and personal identity (Trammell & Sinnreich, 2014).

Game Assets

Rogerson, Gibbs, and Smith emphasise the importance of materiality in board games, highlighting how physical components can enhance the gameplay experience (Rogerson, et al., 2016). Inspired by this, Aussie Influencer integrates high-quality, tactile game elements like cards and the gameboard to enrich the sensory aspect of play. Over the past few weeks, I've used OpenAI's DAL-E image generation and ChatGPT v4 for initial design inspiration. While not perfect, these tools provided a solid base, which I enhanced using Canva.

The game features carefully designed packaging, gameboards, and cards, including Influencer, Challenge, Sabotage and Follower Count cards. I'm exploring using mobile technology, like phone calculators, to streamline Follower Count tracking and eliminate manual calculations, enhancing gameplay enjoyment. Using a mobile app could be a fitting extension, considering the game's theme.

Follower Count Card

Player Cards

Challenge Cards

Sabotage Cards

Three Act Structure

The three-act structure, defined by the work of Greek philosopher, Aristotle, aims to decode complex game design by dividing into chain of events corresponding to the beginning, middle, and end (Moore, 2020) & (Tidball, 2017).

Aussie Influencer 3-act structure:

1. Start/Setup (Act One): Players select their characters and begin at the start of the board, gradually building their resources and understanding the game's challenges.
2. Confrontation (Act Two): As players navigate the board, they engage more deeply with the game mechanics, using their cards to affect gameplay and interact with other players, simulating real-life social media interactions and strategies.
3. Climax and Resolution (Act Three): The game reaches a high point as players approach the verification space, requiring strategic use of accumulated followers and resources to win. The conclusion comes when the first player successfully verifies their influencer status.

Playtesting & Feedback

Based on initial playtesting and interviewing fellow classmates, I've noted a few changes for my next iteration, which will improve playability and strengthen mechanic narrative relationship.

1. Each player starts with a base amount of followers, better replicating the real experience of influencers.
2. Further development on who plays the mini-game first and what the benefit of going first is, in a dice roll alea style game.
3. Sabotage card pile will also include some deflect cards, which players can store for later.
4. All game cards will be printed so we don't have to get use a laptop.
5. Adding levels to challenge cards, so players can only play level 1 cards when they are on the first 5-7 squares. This would make it easier to make mini-games reflect real experiences of new influencers.
6. More diversity and variations in players/influencers as well as challenge and sabotage cards.
7. Gameboard could be more thematic, perhaps in the shape of the Australian continent.