You're Dead! is a frantic card game based on Russian Roulette. With 6 cards on your hand, not knowing what any of them contain, eliminate all your adversaries. But beware, don't end up blowing your own brains out.
Each player has 5 Not Yet! cards and 1 Dead! card. However, nobody knows which is which!
On the first turn, each player reveals 2 of their cards. After being revealed, they are concealed again, and each player can make 1 exchange with any other card in the game.
Now's when it gets crazy. Choose to either shoot your enemies, or shoot yourself. 1 shot per turn. If you risk it on your own head and make it alive, you will be rewarded. Change cards with another player or reveal 1 of the cards only for yourself.
And remember, if you lift the black card on your head...
You're Dead!
In You’re Dead! I took care of:
Game Design:
Along with my teammates, we developed the idea of a card game based on Russian Roulette, and we iterated the idea, by changing the rules, adding or substracting elements, until we found a ruleset that made the game fun, and easy to understand.
Game Testing:
Also along with my teammates, I helped conduct many testing sessions, in which we would analyze how the players behaved and what strategies they tended to use. Afterwards, we would also interview them, looking for their overall impressions and suggestions on how to improve the game.
Rule booklet:
I wrote a rulebook that explained in a clear and concise way how to play the game. I also designed the graphic aspect of it, as it had to work as a piece of relevant information, but also as a part of the physical product of the game. The rule booklet comes in both Spanish and English.
On risk and reward:
You're Dead! relies heavily on the feeling of tension and surprise that comes from the uncertainty of the outcome in every card reveal. It is mostly a visceral experience, and even its strategic elements blend in a core dilemma for the players who want to rise above the others.
Knowing that in every turn somebody could instantly lose makes the game more thrilling. It mostly works on an extreme risk and reward principle. The risk of taking a shot at oneself is very high, chance might dictate one could lose on the first round. However, agency is not available to players who don’t take risks. Identifying Bullet cards and snatching them from other players is only viable to those who can risk their own head.
As the cards decrease, the risks and rewards grow further. Towards the end of the game, the risk of losing is higher, but so is the agency that the players get over the contents of the cards.
Those who don’t take risks leave chance to decide their fate. Those who risk it all, have the chance of forging their own fate.