Hip-Hop Game Design: Reflecting on Corporate Vandals

Eventually what I made was Corporate Vandals, a 4+ player sticker bombing turf warfare game played across five 30×30 inch boards. Corporate Vandals would be a continuation of my game design praxis (and overall thesis for NuChallenger) of infusing Hip-Hop’s play centric fundamentals into game design. Corporate Vandals would go on to be shown at NYU’s No Quarter that year, as well as the Museum of the Moving Image before disappearing from the game world altogether.

Below I want to talk about how and why it was made.

Inspirations

When I was first thinking about game mechanics, I quickly landed on “tic-tac-toe, but you can cheat”. I was inspired by the constant real world battles for space with graffiti and sticker bombing, as well as this one time a live chicken cheated in a game of digital tic-tac-toe.

I remembered vividly this one mural near where I lived that was dope. It was the Joker (pictured above), in such a clean, and entirely ominous manner. Eventually it saw some disrespectful tagging over elements of the piece, thus damaging the overall quality of the picture. Later, Chico, the artist, would go in and paint over those areas again, but now it looked funny with new, bright paint over paint previously caked over with the dirt of the streets. Then there was a vivid scene of cave men (and women, seen below) that was painted over with Coca Cola messaging.

Sticker bombing was all the rage in the 2000s, and I became hyper aware of it when working at Rockstar Games. On my way to work I’d see areas, like phone booths, where tons of random stickers would pile up, and eventually a Rockstar sticker would be placed smack dab in the middle by their street team, because of course the house that GTA3 built needed street cred. A day or two later, more indie stickers would be thrown up over the Rockstar sticker, and a day or two after that, a new Rockstar sticker would appear. Once, I saw something new – a sticker that said Say No to Corporate Vandalism over a Red Dead Redemption sticker, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

I had also come across a story how, in 1999, an amazing mural (and fully sanctioned piece) painted by ACharlesNYC (who is my ex-wife’s cousin) of Basquiat, had been painted over by the city. This painting was iconic to the neighborhood, and was covered up with gray paint by the city because it was automatically opted-in for destruction. The city claimed they had sent letters to property owners telling them of their intentions to remove the paintings unless told not to, but the fact that they wanted to do EXTRA WORK to remove these murals on private property speaks loudly of the city governments constant misunderstanding of the value of graffiti.

Finally, there was a talk at NYU’s Practice by Rob Daviau about Risk Legacy, and I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Concepts in the talk, like forcing players to destroy a card to make players get over the newness of their game, and putting down stickers that affect future play throughs to make people feel connected to the game were perfect for the concepts of sticker bombing. 

Design – Prototype

Now it was time to work on the game, which to summarize was now “tic-tac-toe, but you can cheat” + legacy mechanics.

The first step was a paper prototype. I tried a sort of free play technique where I played tic-tac-toe against myself, trying not to think too hard about each move, except during the games I would cross out the X or the O, and put the other letter instead. I played a few games in rapid succession, seeing that games were over quickly, which lead to me expanding the grid. After a few more closed sessions, I could see that it was fun!

Next step, I opened the play test to my ex-wife who I was living with and a good friend. I printed out very basic stickers for the teams, and we played it on cardboard. After about 3 or so games I was all in on the idea. 

I only did a small amount of play sessions because I wanted the game to not feel over playtested. I was frustrated with the amount of playtesting that I saw going into some games – I saw game designers scared to make a move without spending *years* playtesting. I didn’t think it was necessary for every game, and I wanted to break those conventions. 

I wanted to make a game that was easy to pick up, with rules that could be broken by *anyone* at anytime. A game that wasn’t focus tested into the ground, but one that fed on chaos. I wanted to make a game that embodied Hip-Hop in the 70s, and I figured giving players the ability to express themselves would help embody that.

Design – Presentation

AFAIK all No Quarter participants were given a stipend of $3000 for our games. I spent the majority of the money on high quality stickers. Much like the stickers Rockstar gave out and would sticker bomb with, I wanted these stickers to feel good in your hands, and have a weight and quality you would covet. 

The stickers themselves were parody brands and in game tags I made for Treachery in Beatdown City, now translated into high resolution illustrator files. We rounded out the corporate brands and graffiti with a boring “city” brand, and a non-profit brand, which bore the name of the game. 

For the rules sheets I went old school and local, getting them printed at The Source Unltd, a printing shop that had printed the the monthly schedules of the community garden my mom was a member of since I was 5. 

We needed the boards to be graphic, yet not too complicated, especially because they would soon be covered in stickers. The boards now had a big grid on them, but it was to represent the order of the city, and not the way players had to interact with the boards. To highlight the intended non-conformity and free-form nature of play I made *most* of the stickers at irregular sizes / shapes. The only ones that were perfectly tuned to the board were billboards, which represented corporate rigidity, and the city, whose pieces were perfect circles which fit right in the grid perfectly. This was to represent how “by the book” the city would have to play. 

Playing (and Changing) the Game

The night No Quarter started was a pretty magical one. 

I tried to keep the basic rules simple – it was 4 teams, each with specific win conditions. Teams could partner up to ensure they would win, but each team was given subversive (and often contradicting rules) to encourage a bit of unpredictability and strife between teams. 

I also used a mix of hard rules, like “before the first turn, the Corporate Vandals must put down 3 stickers” and then rules that were suggestions like “anywhere on the board”. The first rule was to get the game started, but the second was to give players freedom to just do whatever. 

Much like what was talked about with Risk Legacy was initially at play on the boards. The boards were clean, and it took encouragement to get them to even put down their first sticker(s). 

There were some things I hadn’t accounted for. First, many of the people who played the game, at least at the outset, were game designers themselves. Getting them to just go anywhere was met with a lot of “can I do that?” type questions. This led me to my second realization – the game needed a GM, which ended up being me all night. 

I began marking up the main rules a bit with marker, breaking my own rules in the process. I would tell folks they “should/shouldn’t” do something, rather than you can or can’t. 

The game gained clarity the more it was played. Each game left the boards more and more marked up with stickers placed all over, so when explaining that the “vandals” could place their stickers “anywhere” it became apparent that it really meant anywhere. The boards became a battleground for people wanting to protect their turf. A fight almost broke out between two guys and a dog. 

Conclusion

All in all I believe the game was a success, despite the excruciating start to the first night of No Quarter. Game designers (myself included) can really suck the fun out of free and open play, and that was what I was battling at the beginning. Thankfully as the game was played and the boards were more and more covered, things picked up. 

The game was played again at the Museum of the Moving Image, and this time, I added markers into the mix. Players could deface things with markers. 

I tried to show it at some other events, but the physical need of a solid wall to avoid players pulling down, say a tent, were constantly misunderstood, and the costs of shipping the game were so prohibitive. I believe I made a game unlike any other, and much like the graffiti culture it was based on, it could not last. But for 3 days and 4 nights, Corporate Vandals lit up the games world in a way that hasn’t been seen since.