The Barbecue King

Gaming Proposal
by
byMeloche
Patrick Meloche
Patrick

LOG LINE
Four friends face off in a neighborhood cook-off to finally settle who will be the Barbecue
King.

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Table of Contents
Executive Overview .........................................................................................4
High Concept ...................................................................................................5
Pitch ................................................................................................................6
Player Motivation......................................................................................................................................6
Genre ..............................................................................................................................................................6
License ...........................................................................................................................................................6
Target Customer........................................................................................................................................6
Competition .................................................................................................................................................6
Unique Selling Points ..............................................................................................................................7
Target Hardware .......................................................................................................................................7
Design Goals ................................................................................................................................................8
Excitement ...................................................................................................................................................... 8
Suspense........................................................................................................................................................... 8
Strategic Challenge .................................................................................................................................... 8
Humour ............................................................................................................................................................ 8

Concept ...........................................................................................................9
Genre ..............................................................................................................................................................9
Strategy-Party Game ................................................................................................................................. 9
Games Premise..........................................................................................................................................9
Game Mechanics ........................................................................................................................................9
Turns ................................................................................................................................................................. 9
Drawing Cards .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Completing Dishes.....................................................................................................................................10

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Trading Ingredients .................................................................................................................................10
Resource Management ...........................................................................................................................10
Risk and Reward ........................................................................................................................................10
Victory Conditions ................................................................................................................................. 10
Score ................................................................................................................................................................10
Thematic Concepts ................................................................................................................................ 10
You vs. Your Neighbour ..........................................................................................................................10
Background/Environment ................................................................................................................. 10
Development of Characters .................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

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Executive Overview
Its Canada Day, the weather is perfect, and Mitch has invited the entire
neighborhood over for the streets annual backyard barbecue. This year he has a new
barbecue that hes excited to show off to his friends; its a beast of a machine that can
cook two times more food that his last barbecue at one time.
Almost the entire neighborhood has shown up and everyone is very impressed
with Mitchs new barbecue, especially his best friends Greg, Will and Pat. So impressed,
in fact, that they each insist that they should be in charge of barbecuing for everyone.
Each one of them believes that he is the best barbecuer in the bunch, and that the others
wont be able to handle this barbecue. As the friendly argument wages on, their children,
their wives and the other neighbours get involved and insist on a cook-off to settle the
decision.
Everyone agrees, the rules are set, and a scoreboard is drawn up. As a group, they
decide on point scores associated with different possible dishes; the first competitor to
reach 100 points wins the cook-off and will be crowned The Barbecue King. So that
everyone has an even portion of space on the barbecue, theyre each limited to cooking
two meals at a time. One by one, they shake hands, and theyre off!
However, they soon learn that the competition is by no means simple. Not only do
they have to compete against each other, but also against the unexpected variables of the
freak weather patterns, errant pets, needy children, pesky bugs, and grouchy Old Man
Potter, who never participates in neighborhood events and has taken it upon himself to
ruin their fun.
Who will be victorious? Who will become The Barbecue King?

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High Concept
In The Barbecue King, the players are competing to be crowned The Barbecue
King. To win, they must gather their ingredients and combine them to make the best
dishes before their opponents. Different dishes require different ingredient combinations
and are worth different points. Players will need to use their ingredients strategically if
they want to win. They collect ingredients at random by drawing them from a deck of
cards on a turn by turn basis.

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Pitch
Player Motivation
Each player is trying to reach a score of 100 before any of the others. This is
accomplished by combining ingredients to create a variety of dishes. In order to win, the
player will have to weigh the score value of a dish against its ingredient requirements.
Dishes that require more, or rare, ingredients are worth a higher score. This game will
generate interest among players who are highly competitive and enjoy strategic,
multiplayer games.

Genre
This is a card based strategy game intended for parties of 2-4.

License
No existing properties need to be licensed for this game.

Target Customer
This game will be targeting 7-14 year olds and their parents. It primarily targets a
male market, but leaves the possibility of a spin-off game thats aimed at females that
could replace barbecuing with baking.
The audience were targeting likes to play a wide variety of board games,
including Monopoly, Candyland, Sorry and others.

Competition
This games primary competition is The Hamburger Game, which involves
collecting the ingredients necessary to make a hamburger. The Barbecue King is superior
to The Hamburger Game in that it leaves less to chance and rewards players for their

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skill. While The Hamburger Game has players competing to accumulate the exact same
ingredients to make the same dish fastest, The Barbecue King adds an element of strategy
by providing players with a larger palette of ingredients that can be combined in multiple
ways for different results. The game isnt about completing a dish first, but using ones
ingredients to reach the highest score as fast as possible.

Unique Selling Points

The amount of depth provided by the strategy and foresight that can applied to
this game is unprecedented. Its a very simple game to pick up and understand, but as
players become more skill theyll be able to play in a much more strategic, complex
manner, which will make the game continuously challenging. It also permits the game to
become a household staple, as the challenge will increase as players age, and this will
allow the game to age well alongside children. However, its colourful, cartoonish design
makes it equally appealing to younger children. This game could also serve as an
effective learning tool for children who wish to teach their kids skills in forethought,
planning and risk evaluation.

Target Hardware
The game will use a custom designed gaming board and specialized cards. One
deck of cards will be for the various ingredients, while the other deck will be for random
events. It would also be rather simple to transport the game online. It could be
programmed and played in a manner similar to Microsoft Hearts (i.e. individually against
a computer, or up against online opponents).

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Design Goals
Excitement
The game will provide the excitement of taking the lead from another player by
seeing the culmination of ones strategy. Players who chose long-term strategies would
feel more excitement as they see their plans slowly come to fruition.
Suspense
The element of the unknown that comes with never knowing if the card you need
is next, or if its still in the pile, will generate an element of suspense at every turn.
Coupled with never knowing what your opponents are trying to do, or how close they are
to completing a dish, the game is sure to provide a very suspenseful environment.
Strategic Challenge
Based on their opening cards, players must chose whether or not they want to go
for high-scoring dishes. The highest scoring dishes are harder to achieve because they
require more ingredients, rare ingredient and possibly a longer cooking times. Players
will have to evaluate whether its more strategically sound for them to go for many lowscoring dishes, or hold off for a high-scoring one.
Humour
Certain cards will be random chance cards that can affect game play in a dramatic
fashion. These cards will be written in a humouristic manner. Theres also sure to be
laughter when seeing a challengers hard work fall apart because of random chance, or
when coming back from a deficit thanks to random chance.

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Concept
Genre
Strategy-Party Game
This game will pit players against their friends in an environment that will require
them to think strategically by assessing the cards their given, the likely card-distribution,
the cards that remain in the deck and the types of strategies their opponents plan on using.

Games Premise
A commotion has broken out over who will be in charge of BBQing during the
neighborhood BBQ. Players are competing to discover who among them is the ultimate
BBQ King. One player will overcome all the others by making the best, or most dishes
before anyone else and wowing the BBQ-attendees. He will forever after be known as the
BBQ King and first BBQ rights.

Game Mechanics
Turns
Players will take turns drawing cards and having a chance to combine their
ingredients into a dish. Play will move clockwise.
Drawing Cards
At the beginning of every turn, players will draw a card. This card could turn out
to be an ingredient card, or a random chance card. Regardless of the outcome, players are
only allowed to draw one card per hand.

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Completing Dishes
The players can select cards from their hand to complete a dish. They then take all
those cards out of their hand and put them side.
Trading Ingredients
Players can, if they chose, trade ingredients with other players. The terms and
conditions of these trades are to be determined between the players.
Resource Management
Players have to be aware of how to spend their ingredients and when.
Risk and Reward
Theres a higher reward for players who take the risk of waiting to accumulate
more ingredients if they combine them together for high-scoring dishes.

Victory Conditions
Score
Victory is achieved when a player reaches a total score of 100.

Thematic Concepts
You vs. Your Neighbour

Background/Environment
This game takes place in a generic suburban neighborhood. The houses are all
copies of the same 5 models, with very similar backyards. Theyre arranged in a simple
crescent, and the backyards along the outside of the crescent all connect onto an open
field with a path. The project was built 20 years ago, and the majority of the families
living there are the first inhabitants. They were almost exclusively new couples who
either had infants, were expecting, or were planning on having children; as such, there are

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many children in the neighborhood ranging from 7-21 years old, and the adults are all
close in range between 41-53 years of age.
This particular neighborhood is a very closely-knit community; there are a
number of annual activities every year that are open for anyone. The Canada Day
barbecue is one of those activities. Traditionally, neighbors take turns hosting the
barbecue; the order of hosts is predetermined and only includes those who voluntarily
participate.
In general, everyone on the street is very friendly with one another. Most who live
in close proximity to one another have become very close friends, like Mitch, Greg, Will
and Pat, while there are some who have no interest in getting along with anyone, like Old
Man Potter or the Hillside family down the street, whos teenagers often thrown loud,
rambunctious parties and bother the whole neighborhood.

Annex 1. Flow Chart