Game Design
Below is Chris Kay’s list of design principles for social deduction games, along with their relation to the design of Demon Summoner.
1. Information density.
Demon Summoner is a social deduction game, meaning that the outcome of the game is determined by the ability of players to determine the secret roles of their opponents. Over the course of the game, players accumulate a very high amount of relevant information about the roles of the other players. Thus, when players make decisions about who to trust, they are rarely making baseless guesses.
2. Action-based information.
Throughout the game, information is generated by player actions. At no point in the game will the secret role of a player be outright revealed. Rather, players gain information through observing the actions of the other players. Since the players on the Evil team have the opposite win condition from the players on the Righteous team, the in-game actions of players will differ based on their roles.
3. Player-driven gameplay.
There are no random events in Demon Summoner. Instead, the game progresses based on the decisions of the players. Each Hunt is determined by a vote among the players, and each demon encountered by the Hunters is hand-picked by the player with the Demon Summoner role.
4. Full participation.
As a modern social deduction game, Demon Summoner does not require a moderator, nor does the game involve player elimination. Rather than reaching a survival-based win condition, players on the Righteous or Evil team win the game by capturing or releasing demons, respectively.
5. Balanced at all player counts.
The game supports 5–12 players, and each player count specifies a different distribution of demons and Prophecies. Game balance has been shaped through extensive playtesting, involving both experienced and inexperienced players. Consequently, each team has a roughly equal chance of winning the game regardless of player count.
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