Dropout launched its Kickstarter campaign for “Game Changer: Home Edition” Tuesday in its mission to bring the game show into fans’ homes. A challenging endeavor for a show where the game is supposed to change every time.
“So translating this to a home game was no small feat, such that we didn’t do it for a long time,” Dropout CEO and “Game Changer” host Sam Reich told Variety. “I had a half a vision that I was attached to, and that was a vision of a game full of games, because the idea was, if you create a game full of games, you can switch up the games such that it could be different every time.”
The planned board game version of the Dropout TV show is intended to include three games inspired by “Game Changer” episodes ( “Bingo,” “Name a Number” and “Sam Says”) but Reich says “the long-term ambition is to be released with even more games, and by the time we do a ‘Game Changer’ session can be any combination of games that you want.”
Along with the hook that the game changes every time, the other key to “Game Changer” the TV show is that the players don’t know the rules of the game at the state of an episode. Unfortunately, this won’t translate so well to a home edition.
“Now the question of a game where you don’t know the rules — spoiler alert: you are going to have to learn the rules for this game,” Reich said. “They aren’t terrible rules, but you basically have a choice with a game like this. Traditionally, party games have no host. So how do you play with your friends? And the answer that turns out to be difficult, like translating ‘Game Changer’ games such that a group of friends can play it together without a host involved. And I think we’ve actually come up with some really great answers to that, three games, each of them inspired by an episode of the show. I think they’re so fun and so playable, and within them are a lot of surprises. So even once you think you know the rules, you’ll be so surprised by a prompt as it comes up. You’ve never seen it before, and it will have that ‘Game Changer’ effect.”
So how do you play?
“The entire premise of ‘Game Changer’ [Home Edition] is that you split into two teams, each playing against the other team,” Reich said, using the “Bingo” concept as an example: “Team 1 is trying to get their team to guess the words on their cards. A la, any number of party games that you’re familiar with. Team 2 has written down — knowing what those cards are — on a Bingo sheet all the words they think you’ll say, to try to get your team to guess them. So those could be things that you’re known for saying as a person. Those could be things that are tangentially associated with the words you’re trying to get that team to guess.”
And what comes in a box?
“There are cards. There are — and I love that this is true — little podiums for your points,” Reich said. “As far as there being a Sam somewhere in the box or not, I will not confirm or deny if there is. But suffice it to say, I think that people will fundamentally feel like they’re getting a little version of ‘Game Changer’ out of the box. We’ve taken pains to make sure that the design really feels like it’s of the show.”
As the Kickstarter campaign launches, Reich says the Dropout team is thinking through ways to gamify one of its other popular shows, the Dungeons & Dragons-actual play hit “Dimension 20.”
“We are actively working on how ‘Dimension 20’ would translate to this medium,” Reich said. “In fact, we think we have an idea that we’re excited about, so we’ve got that far. And then we’re simultaneously putting a little bit of gentle thought into how any of this would or could translate, not into physical games, but into digital games. So all of that is in the works.”
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