The Warden has decided to give their prisoners one last chance at freedom. In a game of co-operation and betrayal, prisoners must earn enough points to escape by voting against their fellow inmates. Earn 9 or greater points, and you’re home free. Lose all your points, and you’re dead. Take too long to escape, and the doors of this prison will be sealed forever.
This is a hidden role game akin to Werewolf and Mafia. While most prisoners are simple Inmates who just need a total of 9 or greater points to escape, some players will be given special assignments. The Partners require a higher accumulative total to escape, while the Killer only needs to ensure that another Prisoner dies during the game. Lastly, there is the Snitch, who is on the Warden’s side. Should they escape along the other Prisoners, all the others will be recaptured.
The Warden plays the role of Game Master. During certain rounds, they can implement special rules to the Prisoners, including having them team-up or sending one Prisoner to solitary. Their ultimate goal is to either stall the game past the 9th and final Round, or assist the Snitch in their escape.
I came up with this game during college. It was inspired by the visual novel Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, in which strangers are abducted and forced to play a life-or-death stakes game. Depending on whether you ally or betray, the story diverges. As such, it isn’t so much a gameplay mechanic as it is a narrative tool. However, I really enjoyed the concept of the Ambidex game, and wanted to see if I could adapt it into its own fleshed out game. At first, I tried to have every player a unique role and power (I called these powers “Shivs"), as I worried that the base game would be too simple. What I learned from that was complexity =/= better design, and I was making players rely too heavily on luck of the draw for a good role/power combination. In a lot of tabletop games, players are often just themselves and their own resources, and opponents are more like tertiary obstacles. My priority was to have ways players can engage with each other.
Trying to build an online version of the game was a challenge. I learned a lot about JavaScript and hosting + deploying servers. At this time, I’d consider the game to be in alpha, and I’ll be updating it periodically.