Dev Points

Hints and Tips

• Your lands can be upgraded using Dev Points.
• To upgrade one of your lands select it within the ERM, and then select “upgrade”. This means that the land will produce one more resource when it is harvested.
• Dev Points can also be used to counter the effect of a natural disaster. If any of your lands is marked in black with a red cross it has been damaged by a natural disaster and can no longer be used. You can use Dev Points to repair these lands by selecting them in the ERM.
• It will cost different amounts of Dev Points to eradicate different types of disasters. This is shown when you click on the Dev Points entry within the ERM.
• As a player in charge of a sub-tribes you have a decision to make. Do you keep Dev Points in hand to negate any damage caused by a natural disaster, or do you spend them as soon as you have enough on upgrading your lands, so you can answer multiple Chief Offers rapidly without spending Cronos, and your attention, on multiple lands?

Best Practices for Facilitators

• Decide whether you will highlight Dev Points to players early on, to give players more to think about when they play; or whether you will leave Dev Points as something to discuss after the first playthrough session.
  By explaining Dev Points in advance you add another aspect to each player’s cognitive load, which can help you use the game to judge how well players handle so much information simultaneously, and how effective they are at discussing the utility of Dev Points during the session.
• By not explaining Dev Points in advance you make the game simpler for the players, and can see whether a curious player discovers this functionality, and if that player shares it with the entire team.
• Be mindful that if you do not explain Dev Points until prompted it can seem as though information is being intentionally withheld from players in a deceptive way. Especially as this lack of information is the opposite of standard practice in recreational game design. Ensure that you have your explanation ready, that leaving mechanics available for players to find and explore adds to the effectiveness of the game as a training aid, and mimics real life mechanisms in business.
  Reasons for Inclusion Within The Game
• The benefits of a mechanism that is clear, but only upon inspection - giving players an example of taking time to research the ERM interface rather than immediately just using the functionality that is immediately apparent.
  As an incidental point, even though there will be prompts about Dev Points during the game, the Dev Point functionality can be useful in showing how clear user interfaces need to be for busy operators, under high cognitive load, to spot them.
  Dev Points reflect players becoming more proficient at an activity as they practice it. Similarly them being granted to a player by the Chief illustrates the benefit of sharing knowledge.
• Dev Points are slightly obscured information in a busy interface. This gives players several options: as soon as it’s discovered does a player share it with their team to ensure they’re operating at maximum effectiveness? If they keep the knowledge of Dev Points to themselves because they think it’s obvious in the interface? Or because they want an advantage over other players? Or simply are they too cautious to interrupt others in a fast flowing conversation? All of these reasons are useful for a facilitator to explore.
  Dev Points are slightly obscured information in a busy interface. If it is revealed do players modify their strategy? Or if you’re playing multiple games, do they learn from the first play through and use it in the second?
• Dev Points are a very abstracted version of an increase in proficiency, spending limited time to either improve at a specific task, or remediating an issue. This enables discussion within a short reflection session of more complex versions of those decisions in the real world.

Challenges and Considerations

While their functionality is only slightly obscure, and needs to be initiated randomly rather than automatically, Dev Points being missed by players can feel deceptive. As this is a professional exercise ensure the reason for not making all mechanisms clear from the beginning is explained.