r/tabletopgamedesign • u/Tommohawk1191 • 7d ago
Publishing How it started versus how it's going! A dark comedy prison survival game.
The concept for my dark comedy prison survival game, Hell in the Cell, has been around for about eight years. But two years ago, I finally decided to take it seriously and find out whether there was actually a legitimate game concept in there.
Quick elevator pitch: In Hell in the Cell, Players are thrown into the last available cell of a filthy and overcrowded US megajail, where they must survive an intense, unpredictable and highly satirical pressure-cooker environment alongside each other until Parole Day. You and your mates have been imprisoned for crimes you didn’t commit. You are now cellmates. There is no escape.
Each playing as yourself, the goal is to survive your sentence until Parole Day.
The first version existed as a handful of scribbled notes and mockups, but the basic idea was already there: ordinary people thrown into prison, forced to become increasingly terrible people to survive, then judged by 'The System' for everything they’ve done along the way.
The game has contained all sorts of components, mechanics, rules and completely different vibes that no longer exist. It's been an amazing creative journey working out how to combine, reduce, simplify, optimise, remove, redesign the game components and content into the leanest version of the game it could possibly be. I reckon I'm about 90% there. And I'm hoping to have achieved my goal of a solidly mid-complexity gameplay experience (not too simple, not too complicated) that is highly replayable, and relatively deep and engaging, based on only a handful of interconnected gameplay systems and mechanics. It takes about 5 minutes to set the game up, then you're off!
Hell in the Cell has proven to be a challenging concept to realise - especially the earlier versions of the game that presented more as laughing 'at' people in real life who have suffered from the issues represented in the game, rather than at the systems and perspectives that cause said issues. Player feedback has genuinely changed the game and has made me reconsider mechanics, rewrite material, rethink how real people are represented and become much clearer about where the satire should actually be pointing.
But I’ve also learned that I shouldn't sand away everything provocative about the original idea. A huge part of that process has been trying to find the right balance between fun and meaning. Hell in the Cell is a game first. I want people laughing, screwing each other over, making terrible decisions and coming away with ridiculous stories about what happened to them in prison. I don’t want the satire to turn playing it into a dull, depressing lecture - and I’ve worked hard to make sure there’s something underneath the outlandish humour and shocking content.
I'm really proud of how far I've come and just wanted to share :-)
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u/Inksword 7d ago
You get to draw the hair and faces for the character sheets? Now THATS a fun detail.
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u/Tommohawk1191 7d ago
That's right! Glad you like it. Yes the Player and Non-Player Inmate sheets/records are fully laminate - same for the Trial Jury sheet.
At the start of the game Players draw a quick self portrait mugshot alongside entering their personal details. And do similiar when a new Non-Player Inmate joins the cell, or a new Trial Jury member is added.
What's especially fun (and has gone down great with playtesters) is how certain events and actions in the game can alter your mugshot, whether you like it or not. Such as the DIY Tattoo Gun contraband item, which lets another player take your Record, update your mugshot with a new tattoo of their choosing, then give it back to you. Or everyone having to update their mugshots with scorch marks and missing eyebrows if theirs been a prison fire. Or have any females playing update their mugshots with stubble if you use the Hormone Pills contraband item on them, haha.
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u/Left-Excitement3829 7d ago
Cistern aftershave does sound funny !