Trendetta
Our main criteria with Trendetta was to make something that had a broad appeal, something a little less overtly girly than some of our previous games for The N. We were also all really excited about creating a true multiplayer game.
We looked to board games for inspiration with Trendetta's design, since we wanted a turn based game that allowed time for users to interact socially and wasn't heavily dependent on the speed of the user's internet connection. We ultimately drew inspiration from grid-based territory control games (Knizia's games, Go), since it fit neatly with our game concept. To make the concept more appealing to our target users, we decided rather than claiming hexes abstractly, each player would be essentially playing a public relations game for their favorite trend.
Our main criteria with Trendetta was to make something that had a broad appeal, something a little less overtly girly than some of our previous games for The N. We were also all really excited about creating a true multiplayer game.
We looked to board games for inspiration with Trendetta's design, since we wanted a turn based game that allowed time for users to interact socially and wasn't heavily dependent on the speed of the user's internet connection. We ultimately drew inspiration from grid-based territory control games (Knizia's games, Go), since it fit neatly with our game concept. To make the concept more appealing to our target users, we decided rather than claiming hexes abstractly, each player would be essentially playing a public relations game for their favorite trend.
In Trendetta, players place pieces along communication lines representing the internet, TV, and word of mouth. As they claim territory, they build points for their trend. Players take their turns at the same time, bringing some urgency to the turn based gameplay. Players can also court celebrity endorsements, cash infusions, and bring down opposing trends with the 'scandal' piece. Each game is tied to a larger metagame -- the more games won for a trend, the higher that trend moves up the 'top 50' charts.
On the technical side, we used the excellent Smartfox Server as the base for our game server. Most of the game was handled on the server side -- this was THUP's first game written mostly in the Java language.
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