Heroes of Congress Post-Mortem

on Comedy
Niek Corstjens 130300

0. INTRODUCTION
Heroes of Congress is a game that is fit to be funny; the premise is ridiculous, the
players are in a highly unlikely situation and it has a charming Saturday morning
cartoon kind-of art style. It simplifies politics to simply sitting in a room together
shouting at each other, backstabbing each other, throwing resources at problems
and probably causing world war in about 5 minutes. In the game, each player is a
world-class leader of an important country. They are all recruited for a special
World Congress, which serves to keep the world from entering a stage of war.
Some players, however, seek out that war and are actively trying to bring the
world into chaos, while other players must do everything to prevent that from
happening.

In Heroes of Congress (HoC), players will be using their phones as their individual
input of the game, while a TV screen with a Chromecast device will serve as the
main display for all players. The game can be played on any Android or iOS
devices, with a PC version being optional as well. The game has a charming
minimalistic art style and our target audience is ages 12 and up.

Every player is the leader of an influential fictional country and represents that
country in a World Congress. The world in our game is in a state of chaos, and
this World Congress has been convened to restore order. Among these Congress
members, there are some who want to use the chaos to start a World War and
rise to power, called warmongers. The members who want to restore order are
known as peacekeepers. The game is made up of five turns and each turn an
important issue is presented to the Congress, who then have to decide which
members will solve that issue. If three out of the five missions has failed, the
warmongers win. Warmongers will have to manipulate other players in order to
fail missions, while peacekeepers have to find out who the warmongers are while
trying to succeed those missions. The game is comparable to tabletop games
such as Werewolf and Mafia, where verbal communication and manipulation is
key.

The game seems perfect for comedy, but how exactly should we look at and
implement the humour? What is the best way to entertain players with comedy?
To answer these questions, I will try to describe how comedy works in games, and
how game can be made to be funny, while also keeping the player experience
pleasant.

1. Problems with comedy in games

1.1.Comedic timing
Almost all comedy revolves around the basics of comedic timing: A joke is
 first setup, which creates an expectation, after which the punchline creates
a surprise based off that expectation. The timing, time between setup and
punchline, is key here, as it can greatly affect the effectiveness of a joke; a
long time between setup and punchline can make the audience forget
about the setup, missing the punchline completely, while a very short time
between setup and punchline makes the punchline much less effective by
not giving it much build-up.
The set-up and payoff system is applicable to many elements of a game;
The premise sets up a situation or environment that players expect a
certain mood and feel with, while the payoff is a contradiction to that
situation, thus creating surprise. A set-up can also be in line with the
players expectations, giving a certain satisfaction to their initial
expectations, or creating a tension and then releasing that tension, as
horror games do (create a spooky situation, where players might feel
things can go wrong quickly, and then paying off with that expectation by
having things actually go wrong). For comedic effect however, the
surprising premise is better suitable.
Gameplay sets up the basic interactions structure of the game. A realistic
looking game for example has players expecting realistic controls, so
ridiculous or intentionally impractical controls create that surprise based
on the expectation.

In video games it can be hard to get comedic timing right, as many

elements of a game are non-linear; a player can simply skip the pay-off of
a joke by skipping the dialogue that is in, or a player can miss the set-up of
a joke completely in a similar way, which can lead to a joke falling flat.
1.2.Subjectivity
A big aspect of comedy is that its extremely subjective. Certain things
might seem hilarious to some players, while others find it not funny or
even offensive. Creating a game with a very subjective form of comedy
limits the potential target audience. Subjectivity can also create
unpleasant experiences, as players who play a game for its non-comedic
elements can get annoyed or frustrated with its comedic elements.

1.2.1. Avoiding subjectivity, creating objectivity

Even though its difficult to avoid subjectivity, it can be done. Giving
players tools to create their own comedy can greatly help; allowing for
easily influenced game systems (physics, open-world, etc.), or
customizable aspects of the game, such as characters or narrative
elements gives a game an objective setup, but with great subjective
potential.

Multiplayer games can also create objectivity, as the interaction

between two players is almost always subjective to the players in
question, as each person has its own sense of humour. Providing
objective interaction-provoking elements ensures that players react to
the game, as well as each other in real life. Games like party games
make use of this interaction to create a large part of its fun and
comedy.
 1.3.Audience
1.3.1. Unpredictability.
A large problem with video game audiences is that they are very
unpredictable in most cases. This is a key part of interactivity, as
players can always completely miss your joke. This is especially true in
open-world-type games, as players might choose to completely ignore
an aspect of your game that you were going to use as a payoff or
setup. Creating a very linear gameplay can give a bit more control and
predictability, but is not always fun for each game genre.

1.4.Repetition
Many game elements are repeated in many games, such as dialogue,
cinematics, soundtracks, etc. If these recurring elements are made to be
funny, they may grow stale or even annoying to players over time. If a
similar joke is played out of long stretches of time, it is difficult to hold it
up as a joke. It can be kept fresh by constantly shifting tone and adding
jokes that complement the main joke.

Especially repeated bits of dialogue can get obnoxious quickly.

2. Properly applying comedy in HoC

2.1.Comedic Timing
Almost the entire game revolves around player-to-player communication,
so controlling comedic timing could be difficult. We could however set up a
situation where players can create the punchline for that setup
themselves. We could create a space where players themselves were
funny.

It was however difficult to correctly apply comedic timing in Heroes of

Congress, as a lot of the game was in the players hands. We however
tried to stimulate this by adding several things to the game. We set up the
premise of the game from the start, and we played on this premise with a
pay-off that wouldnt irritate players, such as a soundtrack that seems
much more relaxed or calm for the situation. (In this case we used Bossa
Nova to get this pay-off).

We also tried to make sure the game was well-paced and that there would
be enough time for players to interact with each other. This leaves the
player open to create their own set-up and pay-off which I feel is the best
application for Heroes of Congress. I will explain more about pacing later
on.

2.2.Premise.
The premise for Heroes of Congress is a highly chaotic situation in an
exaggerated world, where players take on roles they would normally not
be in, while still being recognizable. The premise has a certain ground for
recognition in it, as players might project real-world situations or
individuals onto the game, creating a sense of parody (discussed later).
 We wanted to immediately set the mood of the game, as the game would
present the task/ situation as a heavy and important one, but with a sense
of light-heartedness and unrealistic optimism. Players should then
immediately get a sense of how ridiculous the situation is they are in, and
adjust their mood accordingly.

Players are also directly introduced to the fact that nobody can be trusted.
This creates a certain tension, which leads to players interacting with each
other verbally. At the moment this tension breaks, it can lead to hilarious
moments of blaming each other or proving peoples innocence.

2.3.Gameplay
2.3.1. Mechanics
The mechanics of the game are relatively silly on their own: Spying on
other players, voting for who to get sanctioned and basically kicked
out of world congress, using your countrys resources as if they were
nothing, etc. The mechanics are an overly simplified version of
important global political actions. The mechanics add to the premise
in this way, thus adding comedy. We felt that our mechanics directly
reflected the on the silliness of the game, thus adding to its own
comedic aspect.

We wanted the games mechanics easy to learn as well, so players

couldnt get frustrated with them, taking away from the fun and the
potential comedic aspect. If players are used to the games
mechanics, they will also be able to focus on more interaction with
each other, which we really wanted to stimulate. This is why the game
should have a simple gameplay loop, with clear indications as to what
to do next.

2.3.2. Visual Design of Heroes of Congress

The games unique art style is something we were quite proud of. The
colours are vibrant and saturated, buttons are large and fun to press,
and the events are outlandish and Hollywood-ish with famous
disasters such as a zombie outbreak, dinosaur sightseeing tours, kaiju
attacks, alien invasions, etc. We put Jeff in the middle of everything,
being affected by these events. Never does the game try to be serious
or meaningful, but still keeping to the tension of the gameplay. The art
is pleasing to the eye and simple, guiding players towards their goals
with ease. It creates a sort of relaxed mood where players will most
likely not take everything too seriously and hopefully try to show this
in their playstyle.

2.3.3. Player boundaries

In other games, player boundaries can be extended to give players
more freedom and thus more potential to create comedy (leaving a
physics engine easily influenced, for example). As HoC is mostly UI,
there will be set player boundaries, as players can only go so far the
buttons allow them to.

We did however try to give players more freedom in letting them

 choose their style of play. We gave peacekeepers and warmongers the
same possibilities in their actions each phase to create more
possibilities.

2.4.Subjectivity
2.4.1. Avoiding subjectivity
We wanted to avoid subjectivity as much as we could. This is difficult
however in a game with a clear direction of comedy. That is why HoC
should have wide angle to comedy.

The target audience for HoC should already ensure a liking to the
gameplay, as that is where the most comedy comes from.

2.4.2. Creating objectivity

Giving players tools to interact with each other allows them to create
funny situations, which are subjective

2.5.Narrative
2.5.1. Characters
We felt that the game shouldnt have any major characters, as they
can only cause issues; if characters are fleshed-out and complex,
players will focus on them instead of the game. The game is built
around the fact that the players are essentially the main characters in
the game. We could implement characters to add some flavour to the
game, but it would not make sense with our current gameplay loop to
fit in character descriptions or interactions. There is also no reason for
there to be any interaction between players and potential characters,
as this will only stretch the time it takes for players to interact with
each other. If we for example had the player spy be a character they
could interact with, players would have to read through their dialogue,
focussing their attention on their mobile device. This could of course
be limited to a simple character head speaking the already implement
information text with some flavour added to it, but this should not be
more than that.

Characters in the game should mainly have some sort of audio-visual

personality to them that is easy to read at first sight, in order to give
the players a character they can interact with, without that character
actually affecting gameplay or player-to-player interaction in a bad
way.

As a result of this, we created Jeff; a nave news anchor who is always

in the middle of everything but keeps this happy attitude towards. At
several moments, we had Jeff severely injured; he was on fire, turned
into a zombie, attacked by dinosaurs, etc. Jeff was a direct reference
to the premise of the game in our opinion. A casual and optimistic
view on serious and sometimes disastrous events in the world. This
not only made him funny, but easy to implement into the game, as his
animations would be very similar each time he appears in an event.
 2.5.1.1. Personality
We tried to give the characters a personality to complement the
theme and mood of the game, but have them only be a minor
element of the game. This could be achieved by making their
personality come through in their visual design; this way we can
have funny characters supporting the feel to the game, while
keeping gameplay intact.

As explained before, Jeffs personality is nave, adding to the

premise of the game.

2.5.1.2. Believability
Even if the characters should be visually funny, they should still
be believable in one way or another. Having a character be
constantly funny breaks the element of comedic surprise, and
thus weakens the comedic timing of other game elements.

If the characters personality and design is believable, players can

more easily relate to them, thus adding to the comedic value of
funny situations the characters are in.

2.5.2. Dialogue
2.5.2.1. Believability
The believability rule goes for dialogue as well, as dialogue
spoken by a normal human being is more relatable. Characters in
HoC should thus speak in phrases that complement their
character and add to the current situation players are in, while
still having a sense of believability to them. Even though we
would have loved for Jeff to have dialogue, we decided to have
him be silent. Adding dialogue and text to the screen would
distract from the main gameplay loop and could lead to irritation
between players.

2.5.2.2. Exposition
Exposition can be important to explain certain elements of the
game, but can also slow down the game immensely if done
wrong. Exposition shouldnt be just an information dump either, it
should be information a character passes on to the player,
meaning that they will add their own characteristics and opinions
to that information. We thus decided that any information wasnt
passed to the players by Jeff, but by text boxes on screen as
Tips.

2.5.2.3. Pacing
Pacing in HoC is very important, as we want the game to be over
in a fairly short time. Adding a lot of dialogue to a game that
should have a short loop slows the game down immensely.

Another important aspect of HoC is that the game is meant to be

 replayed a large amount of times, as each session is different.
This can easily lead to players reading pieces of dialogue multiple
times each other session. If we would include funny character
dialogue with lots of personality, it can grow stale after a few
times, and even annoying after many. Players will try to skip past
the dialogue and at a certain point it will only become an
obstruction to fun rather than an instigator of fun. This leads to us
choosing not to include character dialogue. This will further speed
up gameplay, and ensure that players are fully focused on each
other.

2.5.2.4. Cutting
As mentioned before, long pieces of dialogue can be boring or
obstructing. The dialogue that wll be in the game should thus be
cut ruthlessly. Only the absolutely necessary information in order
to understand and play the game effectively should be given to
players and nothing more.

3. CONCLUSION
Heroes of Congress is a game that is almost a perfect fit for the comedy
genre. The game however focusses so much around player-to-player
interaction that it is difficult to
implement comedy the way other games have done it before. Things such as
comedic timing and subjectivity can be a large issue when creating comedy in
games, but if we try to enhance this player-to-player interaction by adding
pleasing visuals, simple but effective characters and dialogue, a funny
soundtrack and an overall silly premise, players can take the comedy into
their own hands and create a fun but intense experience.

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