Making of Disaster on Everest - Victory Point Games

By Tom Decker
<strong>Disaster</strong> on Everest
The <strong>Making</strong>s <strong>of</strong> a <strong>Disaster</strong>
After listening to Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, I began to think that
there could be a very interesting game there with competing companies
racing to get clients to the top <strong>of</strong> the mountain, all with an impending
storm moving in quickly. The game would include a frustrating
bottleneck at the Hillary Step, and the virtual tourists would be slowing
everyone down. As a game designer, I felt that it was important to
capture the essence <strong>of</strong> the book, which is that tourists don’t belong on
Mt. Everest – that everyone has a responsibility to know their limits and
when to turn around. Another important lesson is just how dangerous
and how fickle Mother Nature can be.
The Scope <strong>of</strong> the Game
The entire climb along the southeast ridge from
Base Camp to the Summit makes for a fantastic
story that really captures the imagination. There are
so many different locations along the way such as
the Khumbu Icefall (pictured here, to the left),
Geneva Spur and the Yellow Band that are
fascinating to hear about. But in the end, I decided
I needed to limit the game to just the final summit
push, the part that leads from the High Camp along
the South Col up through the Balcony, Cornice
Traverse, up the Hillary Step, and finally to the
Summit, which would typically be done in one day, beginning around midnight and
lasting about 18 hours or more. This allowed me to keep the game as a constant move
forward, without having to worry about camping at different locations and moving up and
down the mountain for equipment and acclimatization.
The Climbers
Many people who come to Mt. Everest wanting to reach the summit lack good climbing
skills, and some are not physically fit enough for the challenges that await. However, the
money potential is huge for taking on these “tourists” to the summit, and many skilled
and qualified climbers can’t afford to make the climb without this supplemental income.
For the Sherpa <strong>of</strong> Nepal, it has become a high-paying career.

So, in the game, players take the roles <strong>of</strong> these “travel companies” who hire skilled
climbers to assist their high-paying clients seeking to reach the Top <strong>of</strong> the World. Clients
and guides use their movement points, but to add to the planning and strategy, not
everyone can move each a turn. Additionally, clients have traits that can aid or hinder
their climb, while guides have a variety <strong>of</strong> useful skills. These traits and skills add to the
personality <strong>of</strong> the game, creating more strategic options and fascinating decisions for the
players. With these variables, the gameplay is different every time, even if you try the
same methods.
The Hillary Step
The first mechanic I tackled was how to
handle the Hillary Step. The Step is a rock
wall that is the one technical portion <strong>of</strong> the
climb. Traditionally, Sherpa or other
expert climbers scale the wall first, setting
ropes for the others to use as they follow.
While it’s not literally a queue or
completely random, I thought that
injecting a die roll here and making it a
literal queue in the game would help
capture that feeling <strong>of</strong> frustration <strong>of</strong> being
caught behind slower moving people.
There is randomness to it, and yet you can
control things a bit by deciding when to
put people into the queue and in what
order. Going up and down the Hillary Step
is ultimately handled in a very different
way than moving on the rest <strong>of</strong> the
mountain.

The Impending Storm
The second mechanic I needed to come up with was
how to handle the storm. For the purposes <strong>of</strong> this
game, the storm IS going to come. But like in the
movie War Games, the only real solution to the game
is not to play at all. Everyone should stay back at
High Camp or run screaming down the mountain, but
that wouldn’t make much <strong>of</strong> a game. So we assume
that not only is the temptation <strong>of</strong> wealth and fame
pushing you to send people out on this fateful day,
but that perhaps you really don’t know what’s coming, and you’re certainly not going to
disappoint these high-paying clients. Thus, the conflict is writ large between people and
the environment.
So the mechanic <strong>of</strong> spending prestige and thus
“selling your soul” to delay the storm, therefore
exposing your guides and tourists to
experiencing Events (both good and bad) felt
like the right mechanic to capture this feeling
<strong>of</strong> the impending disaster. As added incentive,
the points earned are high for getting clients to
the summit, and there are substantial penalties
if they do not at least reach the Hillary Step. In
the beginning, it all seems easy and players
think that they’re going to get everyone up and
down. But right around the Summit, they start to realize that there’s no way to get
everyone down the mountain in time. That is the feeling I wanted to capture: an “Oh,
crud! How are we going to get out <strong>of</strong> this mess!?” sense <strong>of</strong> doing your best in an
increasingly desperate situation.
The Events
As in real mountain climbing, fate might supply good and bad events along the
way. You’ll have control over some <strong>of</strong> them, while others are simply forced upon
you. Each event adds to the story narrative, lending verisimilitude to
the gameplay experience, and thus your team may narrowly avoid an
avalanche or be slowed by a particularly icy ridge.
The blocked ridges in the game represent places where things slow
down because there are so many people on the mountain. These are actual
occurrences when too many people try to summit on the same day. Blocked
ridges can also represent where new ropes need to be laid to help guide the less
skilled clients. In any case, they are frustrating bottlenecks that happen on
Everest, and therefore happen in the game as well. Success in navigating around these
blocked ridges <strong>of</strong>ten plays a large role in determining your overall victory.

Personality
Finally, it was important to me that, after you completed a
game <strong>of</strong> <strong>Disaster</strong> on Everest, you could recall a great story
from the experience, whether your score was good or bad.
While I ultimately reduced the amount <strong>of</strong> information and
pictures <strong>of</strong> guides and clients in the game, there is still enough
to be able to create real and interesting characters and
situations in the player’s mind. There should be enough there
so that players feel an emotional response to leaving someone
up high on the mountain or risking someone getting lost
coming <strong>of</strong>f a ridge alone.
Victory
I wanted to come up with a different method, other than luck
<strong>of</strong> the draw, to determine each character’s ultimate fate when
exposed to the storm, but in the end I felt it truly does come
down to the luck <strong>of</strong> the draw, so why not simulate it as such?
Of course, during gameplay, players are given some control
<strong>of</strong> the luck element with their use <strong>of</strong> equipment, planning,
and putting the right people together, but having the final
destiny <strong>of</strong> those exposed at the end just felt right. In real
situations, <strong>of</strong>ten who lives and who dies in these disasters
doesn’t make a lot <strong>of</strong> sense.
In the early versions <strong>of</strong> <strong>Disaster</strong> on Everest, balancing the victory conditions was very
difficult. Only after much playtesting did the current method evolve. There needed to be a
balance between earning points for climbing higher on the mountain, while receiving
penalties for losing clients along the way. As mentioned earlier, the only real victory
would be for everyone to survive, but for the purposes <strong>of</strong> the game, survival plus
reaching the summit is better than merely surviving.
Conclusion
I love the thought <strong>of</strong> climbing Mt. Everest and standing “on top <strong>of</strong> the world!” But the
reality is that humans were not meant to survive about 8,000 meters, and I certainly know
that it’s not something I’m ever going to achieve. And while there are some skilled and
experienced climbers who can handle the challenges, it really shouldn’t be a place for
“tourists.” The book Into Thin Air does an great job covering this topic, detailing some <strong>of</strong>
the amazing heroes who risked their lives for others, and some who just had an incredible
will to survive. Hopefully, as you play the game, you will find some heroes and create
some great stories along the way. And if your game goes particularly poorly, you will
experience your own <strong>Disaster</strong> on Everest.