THE STORY
The starting question wasn’t
“How do I make a clever game?
It was...
How do I make a game where nobody ever switches off?
The first design decision was to remove the idea of private turns altogether…
The On The Spot Story
It started on a kitchen table.
Most games take turns, which means most players spend at least some of the game waiting. When I started working on On The Spot, I wanted to do the opposite.
I suppose I also had my mother’s familiar ‘no phones at the table’ ringing in my ears. If you’re sitting around a table together, you might as well actually be together.
I didn’t have a finished game in mind. I had a question:
‘How do I make a game where nobody ever switches off?’
And I started experimenting.
[IMAGE: THE ORIGINAL PROTOTYPE]
Suggested caption:
The original On The Spot cards. Hair bobbles and all.
The first version of On The Spot was about as homemade as it gets. I borrowed sheets of coloured card from my daughter’s craft box, cut them by hand and bundled the different categories together with hair bobbles.
There was even a board, built around a triquetra, and a set of rules that looked very different from the game today.
[IMAGE: THE ORIGINAL BOARD]
Suggested caption:
Yes, there was a board once.
But there was something in it.
So those early versions started travelling with me. I took them to friends, family and game groups. I played, watched and took notes. Sometimes I’d change things between games. Sometimes I’d realise halfway through one that something simply wasn’t working.
Cards were rewritten. Categories came and went. Rules changed. Eventually, the board disappeared altogether.
[IMAGE: WORK IN PROGRESS]
Suggested caption:
Some ideas lasted longer than others.
Anything that slowed the game down, anything that felt like a speed bump, didn’t survive.
And through all those different versions, I kept coming back to the same question:
‘How do I make a game where nobody ever switches off?’
That question eventually became the principle behind the whole game:
Everyone’s always playing.
[IMAGE: THEN & NOW]
Suggested caption:
Same idea. Quite a few changes.
From an idea to a mechanic.
‘Everyone’s always playing’ sounded good as an idea. The harder part was making it true.
I realised quite early that every question had to belong to the whole table, not just the person whose turn it was.
If you’re listening to the same clues, you’re trying to solve the same problem. You notice when someone hesitates. You know when they’ve given an answer that’s nearly right. And sometimes you’re sitting there thinking, ‘I know this. How do they not know this?’
That was exactly the feeling I wanted.
What if knowing your opponent’s answer actually mattered?
It wasn’t enough for you to sit there smugly knowing they were wrong. I wanted you to be able to do something about it.
That question would eventually lead to the mechanic that changed the game completely.
The Spot Chip.
[IMAGE: SPOT CHIPS]
The Breakthrough
The breakthrough came when pressure became a decision.
I didn’t want a timer constantly ticking away in the background. That would make everything feel rushed. I wanted the pressure to come from the other people around the table, and only when someone chose to apply it.
That’s where the Spot Chip changed everything.
Think you know the answer to someone else’s question? Play a Spot Chip and put them On The Spot.
Suddenly, they have 30 seconds.
The table goes quiet. All eyes turn. An answer that seemed obvious a moment ago can disappear completely when everybody is waiting for you to say it.
But then something happened that I hadn’t designed at all.
I was playing with some old school friends when they realised there was nothing stopping them from pretending they didn’t know the answer.
A hesitation didn’t have to be genuine.
Someone could sit there looking completely stumped, waiting for another player to take the bait and throw down a Spot Chip. Then they’d give the answer, keep their card and take the Chip too.
Bluffing had arrived
I hadn’t written it into the game. The players had found it for themselves.
And it made the Spot Chip mechanic much better.
Suddenly, spotting someone wasn’t simply about knowing the answer. You had to read the person answering too. Were they genuinely struggling? Or were they setting a trap?
Hesitation became suspicious. Confidence became harder to read. Old friends who knew each other’s tells suddenly had another advantage entirely.
Eventually, it became one of my favourite parts of the game.
[IMAGE: School friends]
And that’s On The Spot
What started with some borrowed craft card, a few hair bobbles and an idea around my kitchen table gradually became On The Spot.
It’s changed a lot along the way, often in ways I never expected, but the idea at the heart of it hasn’t.
I wanted to make a game where everyone stays involved. Where you’re thinking about every question, not just your own, and where there’s no reason to switch off while somebody else takes their turn.
And that’s On The Spot.
Want to be part of it?
If you like the sound of On The Spot and would like to help me get it out into the world, I’d love to have you along for the launch.
We’re heading to Kickstarter soon, and every person who joins us early really does make a difference. Sign up to the Launch List and I’ll keep you posted as we get closer.
Tony Edwards
Founder, On The Spot
