Half Truth: Second Guess

About

Half Truth: Second Guess is a trivia party game designed by Richard Garfield and Ken Jennings, published by Nighthawk Interactive. It's a sequel to Richard and Ken's 2020 game Half Truth.

Maybe you know the answer, maybe you don't, or maybe your teammate does. Don't worry! We give you all the answers, the only problem is only Half of them are the Truth. This trivia party game will have you Second Guessing yourself, as you use your knowledge, intuition, and luck to win!

Project Overview:

When Nighthawk approached Brieger Creative to explore a sequel product to the original Half Truth, we were given a few key guidelines for the new game:

Out of these core design goals from the Nighthawk Team and team play design from Richard, we developed ways to condense some of the original game's components into a single dial. The new game, Half Truth: Second Guess, can be played on its own or used as an expansion to the original Half Truth.

Services Provided:

Case Study: Component Streamlining

To share a (not-so-secret) secret, Brieger Creative developers Michael and John both love dials. We've tried them in many games we have worked on, but nearly always end up removing them when they proved to be the wrong path for the game. Finally, in Half Truth: Second Guess, dials proved to be the correct answer for many of our development goals.

One of the biggest challenges with Second Guess was finding ways to cut $10 worth of cost from the original game. Half Truth is by no means a bloated game, featuring clean graphic design and thoughtful components, so finding alternatives that were just as nice but less expensive was very difficult. Some components were just going to have to be cut or replaced while still delivering the best game experience possible.

Replacing the Score Board and Scoring Tokens

The original Half Truth features a game board that sits on the table tracking players' progress each round and the length of the game. Tokens collected at the end of a round track each player's score. Our first attempt at streamlining the components was to find a way to smash these 2 tracking systems into one. A more complicated central board could also track the information tokens were providing, but playtesters spent too much time interacting with the score board and making sure they tracked the systems accurately.

Switching from a board to a dial was a much better tool for players to interact with, as they don't have to do math or count spaces on a track. They simply turn their dial.

Replacing a Die

The original Half Truth uses a die as a randomizer to add some variety to the trivia rounds, which might change how you think about a question or how you want to bid. Once we were experimenting with dials we realized we could use dial position as a semi-random element.

We added a second window on the dials that periodically shows round modifiers just like the dice did. While each dial has the same icons, they appear in different places on each dial so the symbols appear intermittently as the game progresses. This even allows for multiple icons to show up in the same round, adding to the differentiation.

Final Touches

As we watched playtesters using the dials, our observations led us to an interesting conclusion. Since almost everything in the original game that was on the table was now on the dial, we could make the whole game portable and able to be played just in players' hands.

A quick redesign of the answer mat to add a pocket, and now we could pass the question card around too! Even while sitting at a table, sometimes you just want to grab the card and read it carefully yourself.

Thanks to dials, we streamlined how players interacted with the game, cut component costs, and made the game playable waiting in line or in the backseat of a car. We were even able to put player reference text on them too. Not only are we happy to have dials in the game (did we mention our team loves dials), but this thoughtful component solution was key in supporting accessible streamlined play that meets or exceeds all of our original product goals.

See more on the Half Truth: Second Guess Kickstarter page.

Brieger Creative Team