Monopoly,
but our current economic paradigm is determined by spinning this big wheel
Monopoly, but Our Current Economic Paradigm is Determined by Spinning This Big Wheel (MBOCEPIDBSTBW) reimagines the classic board game of Monopoly by incorporating an element of unpredictable economic instability. Designed to amplify the game's inherent concepts and introduce external factors, MBOCEPIDBSTBW retains familiar mechanics like buying properties, collecting rent, and trying to bankrupt opponents. However, the core gameplay is reliant on players spinning a wheel that dictates the current economic system. Having an ever-shifting game state allows players to get a full feeling for the current paradigm through changes to existing systems and additions of a new and temporary rule set. MBOCEPIDBSTBW is designed to be easy to learn and fun to play time & time again due to its chaotic nature.
Design Process:
No. 1 Identifying Goals
It all began with an idea. Since the beginning, the whole goal of MBOCEPIDBSTBW has been to capture the feeling of spinning a big wheel. We wanted to keep things simple; the overall gameplay of Monopoly would stay the same, but the rules would be completely reimagined every wheel spin in order to capture what it would feel like to experience the other economic systems. To do this, the first thing we needed to identify was what rules we needed to keep, and what rules we felt would have to change to maintain Monopoly’s authentic feel whilst adjusting the gameplay in a major way.
No. 2 Ideating on Systems
The point of the game is the systems, and the exclamations of joy, anger, and bewilderment we hope to get from players when they read the name and rules of the system. So first, we needed a list of systems. We just kind of named as many as we could think of, then chose from that list a few that felt different enough to elicit different reactions when they came up on the wheel.
No. 3 Simplifying Monopoly
Since the big wheel is the point of this game, we needed to simplify our underlying structure, the preexisting game Monopoly. To do this, we took some inspiration from Monopoly’s inspiration, The Landlord’s Game. Our biggest change was the removal of houses and hotels, changing the rent of every property to its one-house amount.
No. 4 Playtesting
Our first playtest revealed two main problems. First, the wheel really shined before any one player was dominating, and after most of the properties had been bought. Essentially, we had to figure out a way to skip right to the middle of a regular game of Monopoly. We thought of limiting wheel spins for a few rounds, but we wanted to avoid times where the players were just playing regular Monopoly.
Our second issue was with the balancing of the systems. We had an idea for the feeling we wanted each of them to generate, but most of them didn’t reflect this. For example, Communism’s original rules had each player pay into a communal pot, from which they were paid out 10% instead of the regular $200. Turns out, 10% isn’t very high, and didn’t really give any incentive to pay into the communal pot. Similarly, under Feudalism, the Monarch is supposed to benefit from everyone else’s properties. But since no one has any properties in the early game, and Feudalism limited your ability to buy property, the Monarch did nothing.
No. 5 Changing the Game
The final version of the game landed pretty well. Players were yelling at the wheel as it spun, which was one of our main goals. In order to remedy some of the problems we found in playtesting, we distributed half of the properties evenly at the beginning of the game. We also reworked most systems to feel more impactful, and to encourage the type of gameplay we wanted.
No. 6 Next Steps
Simply put, as it stands, Capitalism is too powerful. It is the default state of the game, and ended up being the only way any significant amount of money can enter the economy. This meant that most players were hoping that the wheel would land on capitalism. While that sentiment is exactly what we want, we want to distribute that a bit, and make it so that each player has a different system they want to land on, depending on their current situation.
Also, we were testing two “momentary effect” spaces, that do a thing then respin the wheel. Those were “Revolution” and “Recession”. Those tested very well, since they led to more spinning of the wheel, so we’d like to explore those more in the future.
Try it for yourself! (No wheel included.)
After multiple playtests and some much-needed adjustments, we would like to offer you a chance to try it out for yourself!
My contribution.
On Monopoly, but our current economic paradigm is determined by spinning this big wheel, I was one of a two-person game design team. Some of my responsibilities included:
Gameplay Design
Asset Creation
Prototype Creation
Proctoring Playtests
Incorporating and Iterating on Player Feedback
