To Spec, On Time, Under Budget
You're a software vendor with a product at the ready.
This product is revolutionary, so revolutionary that you're
worried the market isn't ready for it. Well, it's time
to educate the market.
To Spec, On Time, Under Budget is a satirical
real-time card game of multiple companies marketing their
respective software to a common customer base for 2 or
more players.
Setup
Print out at least 4 sets of business cards (60 cards
and 4 blanks). A set consists of the first two pages.
The third page is optional: it's just the card back art.
This game is in color, but will work if printed in black
and white.
Punch out the cards, shuffle them, find a flat surface
and a friend or three.
Mark one of the blanks with a question mark, another with
an hourglass, and a third with a dollar sign. Lay these
three cards out so that everyone can reach them, but they're
not close together. These are the three stacks.
In secret on a sheet of paper, each player draws the
same three icons (or writes "Feature Set", "Due Date" and
"Cost") then writes down a number from 0 to 4 next to each.
This is the secret code for your company's product.
Deal out 7 cards per player. Play.
Rules
This game is not turn based. You are playing
cards as quickly as you can, so long as:
If the stack is empty you can play any card matching
the icon.
If the stack is not empty, you must play a card
that is one higher or lower than the current
number on the stack, matching the icon.
The number scale 'rolls over' at 4 and 0. You can
play a 0 on top of a 4, or a 4 on top of a 0 of the
same icon.
You may not play two cards to the same stack in a
row.
First card to touch the stack is the card played.
You can discard your entire hand and draw 7 new
cards. You cannot discard individual cards.
You can draw cards at any time, so long as you
have no more than 7 cards in your hand.
Winning
The cards you play represent your company's efforts
to shape the market. "You want it to do more than just
word processing." "A late product is better than one
with bugs." "Freeware is the way to go."
The three stacks represent market expectation. For
example, if the number on the top card of the Cost
stack is high, then the market expects to pay huge sums
for software, and is suspicious of cheaper products.
You're trying to mold the market so it will buy
your product, not your competitor's. When the
top cards on all three stacks match your secret numbers
for Due Date, Feature Set and Cost, shout "Ship it!"
You've won.
You can miss the opportunity to win - if you haven't
at least finished yelling "ship" by the time another player's
card touches the correct stack, you missed your ship date,
and the game goes on.
Two or more players can have the same 'secret formula'.
In that case, it's obviously a case of industrial espionage,
and the two winners settle it in court.
If everyone runs out of cards, the game is over, and
the customer is left unsatisfied.
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Disclaimer
In real life, companies ship product first, then try
to use Marketing to make the customer want it. And customers
aren't that picky - they usually buy software that's "good
enough". The game's name comes from an industry axiom:
"To spec, on time and under budget: choose two."
The game itself is an abstract game, but I didn't
want to just publish it without any sort of backstory.
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