Backpackers | Group Project Contribution

For the group project portion of this subject I decided it would be most efficient to work in a group of one. Being that I was facing isolation due to being a household contact and we were headed into two weeks of no class, I knew getting together with a group to discuss game design would not be a simple task. Thus, my party card game concept by the name Backpackers became a solo project.

The Three-Act Structure

The “three-act structure” theory is originally applied to storytelling, it emerged when Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote a treatise titled Poetics, where he analysed stories through the frames of a beginning, middle and end. The element of storytelling is imperative in table top games, as explained by Jeff Tidball in his paper “Pacing Gameplay”. Tidball applies Aristotle’s model to gameplay in the following way:

Act One: “Battle lines are drawn and the…