VoxPop

VoxPop

Description: Vox Pop is a mobile narrative / decision-making game along the lines of Reigns meets Wordle, where each day you (and all other players) join a global citizens’ assembly, and are given a new daily question or pressing issue of our time, be it phasing out fossil fuels or implementing a Universal Basic Income. Through your choices, you try to balance fairness, sustainability, and cost, never letting any of them get to 0 (game over) - and at the end of each day's session you get a shareable outcome / proposal for a solution that’s tailored to your choices!

Inspiration: Reigns + Wordle

Genre: Narrative / Decision-Making (Reigns-like) + Daily Habit 

Platform: Mobile-first 

Playstyle: Short daily sessions, single player, shareable results

Goals: 

1. Intrinsic: Get people participating in daily civic habits / rituals, and used to seeing an issue from different perspectives - experts but also of people affected by the issue, as well as weighing in on them (ie player agency).
2. Extrinsic: Viral outcomes that are posted on social media (akin to people playing Wordle posting their daily score) - people go “Today’s question was crazy! My group managed to somehow burn the whole place down!” or “Never thought that I’d see eye to eye with a retired nurse - it kinda makes sense.”
3. Global: As everyone gets the same question on that day, and the same group of other participants (ie NPCs), the outcomes they reach in terms of final proposal are the thing that differentiates player experience and also binds them. People can post about secret outcomes, but also bond in their shared same outcome. The game can also keep tabs on what the %s of outcomes are globally on a player level, so it would be interesting for players to see what the global most popular outcomes are, and what are the least. 

Core Gameplay

You’re the participant of a global citizens’ assembly. Each day, you and your group of 4 other participants get a new pressing issue for you to tackle.

1. Receive an Issue (e.g., “Universal Basic Income — a fixed monthly payment for all adults, regardless of employment. Can it reduce inequality, empower citizens, and remain economically sustainable?”)
2. Meet Participants – Swipe through short dialogues with 4 diverse other participants.
3. Deliberate – Swipe right/left to agree / disagree,
   • Track how each choice affects the values of fairness, sustainability and cost. Each stat starts at 5:
     1. Fairness: 5
     2. Sustainability: 5
     3. Cost: 5
   • Each choice adds or subtracts from these stats using the existing impact system (+2, -1, etc). The player cannot see exactly how each stat will be affected, but will be able to gauge the “size” of the impact, and must use their own reasoning to understand / guess the impact it will have - which adds to further resonance with the topic, the proposal and its consequences.
   • If any stat drops to 0, the round ends early with a failure or warning state.
   • If the player survives all dialogue choices, they reach a successful final proposal outcome, shaped by their final stats or choices.
4. Results and Outcomes
   • See your final proposal and the compromises / value changes required to get there, as a result of your choices.
   • Share your results with the world, in order to be able to see how the rest of the world (ie other players) answered.