I really like the sound of this game and I can see myself - as well as many others who are looking for a more relaxed, sociable game - playing this for many hours.
Below are some suggestions and discussion points of certain tweaks, concerns and ideas I have for the game. From the number of points I raise it say seem that I am very critical of Picture This, but it's only because this game has such great potential that I feel it is worth going into so much detail.
Guess Visibility
I think it would be more fun to be able to see competing players' guesses at the words (unless they succeed), as it can be humorous, can increase the excitement and rush to guess faster, and provide insight into what others are seeing if you have no clue. It is especially important that the builder can see the guesses as it gives them feedback on the train of thought of the guessers so will help prevent builders giving up after they think they've done enough, and help them perhaps emphasise aspects that people are missing. For teams mode, teams should not be able to see their enemies' guesses; they can still see the guesses of those in their team so that should be enough to spur them on.
Language
Being a network with many different spoken languages, we should make all games as accessible to everyone as possible. For this game, I feel it would be fundamental to provide translations of the words to be built, in English, Dutch and Spanish (and more if possible). This comes with some issues however:
- There may not be direct translations for certain words, especially for words or phrases to do with the cultures that dominate Cubecraft's festive periods.
- Say a homograph comes up (e.g. bow - it can mean the weapon, action, knot or the front of a ship) and the builder builds one of the meanings (let's say the action of bowing) which is different to the meaning intended by the random generator (we'll say the weapon). A person playing in Spanish may guess the build correctly and enter the Spanish word for the action. Unfortunately this isn't a homograph in Spanish so isn't the valid translation of the weapon. This issue may be solved by players paying attention to the category which would eliminate some options of a homograph, however equally they may not and the builder may even intentionally build the meaning that doesn't fit into the category just because it is easier. An ideal fix would be have translations of the homographs (for both ways between all the included languages) however that would take tremendous effort if that resource does not exist anywhere. I would be happy to ignore this problem even though it would make some words unfair and may create confusion when the revealed word is nothing like the build due to the disparity between inferred meaning and literal translation.
- Plural words should be avoided whenever the singular exists, otherwise we may find ourselves having to guess twice for every object we think of.
- If a builder doesn't know the meaning of a word (even if it's in their own language) they shouldn't have to wait out their entire go, maybe guess and build something no-one can guess, or have to look it up online. To solve this, I propose that in the preparation time there could be an option to pass the word and get a different one once. People may try to abuse this if they get a difficult initial word, but there's always the risk that the next one will be even worse.
Build Visibility
Rather than having guessers trapped at a distance from the build, it would make sense to allow everyone to fly, invisible, around the build arena - much like the state the player is put in after dying in Blockwars (not spectator mode). As the builds will likely need to be viewed from multiple angles as well as overhead and close up, I feel it would be much easier and less restrictive to allow guessers to fly around within the arena.
Teams Mode
I am personally not a fan of teams mode. It is basically exactly the same as solo, except with the slight benefit of a possibility of teamwork: seeing teammates' guesses saves time so you don't guess duplicates. However, it also comes with some downsides in comparison to solo:
- An average individual will get fewer goes at building as the builder is randomly selected from their team.
- Whilst a teammate is building, the other members have literally nothing to do except watch.
- An average individual will guess the word less frequently as once any team member has guessed it then that round is over for them.
Teams mode seems unnecessary; puts you together with your friends, but truthfully solo allows more interaction as you guess each other's builds, in addition to other players'.
My Proposal
I think teams mode should have more of a difference to solo to make it worthwhile, and rather than leaving some members doing nothing, everyone always has a role. I have come up with an alternative approach that requires more team strategy, decision making and time spent building and guessing rather than waiting.
There are 4/6/8 teams of 2/3/4 players (different maps have different numbers of teams and team sizes - e.g. a map with 4 teams of 2 members). Each team has its own arena. There will be a number of rounds equal to the team size (2/3/4).
At the start of a round, one player from every team is simultaneously selected as the builder. The other members are assigned the role of guessers. All builders are given a random word to build, different from all the others.
The guessers on each team can teleport independently to any of the (3 or 5 or 7 dependant on the map) enemy teams by clicking on coloured wool corresponding to the destination team colour in their hotbar.
After the preparation period is over, and the builders from all teams start building their respective words, all the guessers may start typing words to guess other teams' words. They can only guess the word for the team they are currently viewing (teleported to) but can teleport to any others at any time if maybe that one is too difficult or taking too long. Only the attempts of your team members in your current location are displayed, so a team may choose to dedicate their members to work together guessing a single team's word, or spread out over many to find a potentially easier one.
Only one guesser from a team is needed to type the correct word for an arena.
Points are awarded in a similar way solo:
1st to guess gets
4 points for their team.
2nd to guess gets
3 points for their team.
3rd to guess gets
2 points for their team.
After a team's word/build has been guessed correctly for the 3rd time (so by 3 teams in total) that team receives
5 points, their arena disappears (everyone is just teleported to different teams' ones) and the builder becomes a guesser along with the rest of the team.
After the timer runs out (which can be voted on before the game just like solo), it the game progresses onto the next round. This works in exactly the same way as the first except a different team member is selected to be the builder. There are as many rounds as there are team members for that map, hence everyone gets one go at being builder. The team with the highest number of points at the end of the 2/3/4 rounds wins the game.
Compared to your suggestion
@AnimalTamer1 , I have spend much less time considering the mechanics of the game, so am every open to your (and anyone's) opinion. It is meant to be more fast paced, strategic and fairer so everyone gets a go without making the game go on too long. The smaller the team size, the fewer teams there are. This is so it doesn't become too chaotic with too many different words to guess with too few guessers. I only decided on the points reward system very briefly so those are just preliminary values.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, I really hope Picture This does become an actual game and receives the popularity it deserves!
