Brothers Skyler and Spencer Hardegree asked a tabletop gaming site about running an ad campaign for their social deduction game Possess Me, Satan. Instead of an approval or rejection, they received messages claiming the game involved spiritual healings of demonic possessions and that the advertising manager felt sick to their stomach. The response also compared the game to making a game about being a sexual predator. Possess Me, Satan is a social deduction party game inspired by Werewolf and Mafia, with a host role and multiple ways to win. The host, Satan, selects a player to be possessed by a murderous ghost while others try to identify the possessed player and perform an exorcism before being murdered. Players have unique goals, traits, and agendas, and the host has additional machinations. The game is presented as lighthearted and not an occult ritual.
"When brothers Skyler and Spencer Hardegree sent an email to table-top gaming site Board Game Geek asking about running an ad campaign for their new game Possess Me, Satan, they weren't expecting to receive a response telling them tales of spiritual healings of demonic possessions, or that the game made the advertising manager "sick to their stomach," and they certainly weren't expecting to be told that the game was the equivalent of making a game about "being a sexual predator.""
"Possess Me, Satan is described by Skyler Hardegree as "a social deductions game" inspired by the likes of Werewolf and Mafia. When I chatted with Hardegree, he explained that he and his brother-who release board games as Falling Whale Games- had played a lot of Werewolf with friends and family, "and would always think of ways we thought it could be better." Their main goal was a version of the format where the host could have their own role card and different ways to win, and in the case of Possess Me, Satan, even wear devil horns."
"The game, currently running a fundraiser, has the host (Satan) select one player in a group to be possessed by a murderous ghost, and the rest attempting to work out who and perform an exorcism before they're murdered. But elaborating on the familiar format, each player has unique goals and traits as well as their own agendas, and on top of that, the host playing Satan has their own machinations at play too. The trailer lays it all out very neatly:"
"Clearly a superbly produced and lighthearted party game and not an occultic ritual, the resulting product is obviously not designed to upset or offend anyone, but rather to be a lovingly crafted elaboration of a very popular social game mechanic. "When we submitted the art to BGG," says Hardegree, "we were expecting an email either approving or declining the ads within 24 hours, because that's how long it took for another game of ours.""
Read at Kotaku
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]