Hey, thanks for the submission. With the big caveat that I haven’t actually played the game, just read it, here’s my review.
Theme
I think The Hanging Room hits the theme really well. The use of two maps that both offer a glimpse into the actual mission was a great way to address the theme of the jam. I also felt that it was a good amount of complexity: only two maps, but the fact that players can make true or false claims about what happened adds complexity.
Maps
It does seem like play is quite focused on the maps. The game did fall a bit in the category of the maps representing the fiction, rather than being the fiction.
Elegance
The design felt a bit like a more secret-focused Fiasco. I thought the design was pretty straightforward and understandable. However, even after reading some sections a few times, I still didn’t fully understand the use of the deck of cards. I really liked the modularity - it would be straightforward to add elements to many of the lists without breaking the game. Same with adding a new operation type. That is a great feature and leaves a lot of room to build on the game after the jam. It’s a great reminder to me to build modular systems when designing, especially for jams.
My main design question is: what motivates players? From my reading there is no winner, advancement, or principles to play to. That’s my main gripe: as a player, what am I supposed to do? Strictly play to my motivation? What mechanically motivates me to play to that? It goes back to Jared Sorensen’s third question: how does your game encourage or reward players enforcing the theme or goal.
Tone and style
The writing is great. It was clear and really made me imagine being a character in a high-tension spy movie or novel. The choice to evoke le Carré instead of Ian Fleming was smart!
Easy to understand
I thought the rules were relatively easy to follow. There were a few areas that I thought could be clearer. Part of that might be a cultural thing, but I prefer where games make clear, cut and dry rules, rather than leaving it up to the player. One example is “one single action or interaction” (pg 8): this rule could be interpreted differently. Maybe add a time suggestion? Under a minute? Additionally, I think I would need to play to understand how the creating and revealing of secrets really works. I got a bit confused trying to understand Traces.
Overall, I liked it! I would definitely like to play it.