Devlog 2

I am excited to witness the progress, seeing it come to life for the first time. I’m anticipating similar moments (first playtest, review, etc.) and even thinking about it energizes my productivity. 

If Musical Chairs becomes a successful game, the majority of readers will discover the devlogs when they are already old and dusted. So I want to elaborate a bit more on the vision part and our leap of faith.

Musical Chairs has 5 key design features and here is why:

• Recognizable

Keep It Simple & Stupid (KISS). You recognize the core concept of our game in an instant. This will avoid the risk of boring explanations and provide more focus on the USP’s which are the interactive features. The gif doesn’t do a lot of justice as Musical Chairs isn’t played by 1 single person. Just imagine seeing 4 players with a bit of background music. 

• Interactive

The best way to play Musical Chairs is with a live, interactive audience. Interactivity can spark unexpected outcomes and trigger engagement. For example, if a viewer donates $1 to spawn 3 fake chairs – this will impact the outcome of the game. This is what differentiates the experience from regular games, YouTube or TV. Musical Chairs will feature different kinds of interactive elements. A big part is incentive-based, to avoid abuse/cheats or other toxic behaviour, and it can be an interesting monetization solution for content creators. 

• Monetization

Our games are free-2-play and with interactive features designed for content creators to earn money while playing games (something that only a small percentage of the streamers achieve). Why go for this sort of strategy and how do we expect to make a profit? The answer is simple. F2P allows us to keep the threshold low, meaning more people can instantly play the game. And content creators return the favour by introducing other players to our game.

• Streamer & Normal mode

Not everyone is a streamer and you reach a larger audience if you can still play this game with friends. There are a lot of remote office places now, and they are searching for simple games to play with colleagues. Musical Chairs suits that market perfectly. 

• Retention

I realise Musical Chairs is somewhat of a simple gimmick you can begin while waiting for your League of Legends game to start, we still want players to keep playing the game and not be bored after 1 round. It’s hard to say for now what the key feature will make players return.  

It will be nice to read next year if this vision still holds true. No shame in being wrong, unless we keep believing it is right for too long and don’t pivot in time.