Idea for a new pricing game - "Drill for Oil"

[whowouldeverhurtawhammy]

I've been pondering the idea of this kind of a pricing game in my head for awhile, but I would like to try what I can to explain this idea, and see what you guys think about it.

"Drill for Oil" is a game that uses grocery items and medium prizes where the contestant could win a car and up to $50,000. To win the car, the contestant must maneuver the oil drill through five layers of ground (not real ground, lol) to get to the oil source by matching grocery items to their correct price.

At each layer of ground, there would be a grocery item and two prices. The contestant must select the correct price to move the drill one layer. Each time they move one layer forward, the contestant wins $10,000 every time. However, as the contestant gets closer to the final layer of oil, the grocery items become more expensive.

If the contestant makes a mistake, the amount of money they have earned up to that point gets cut in half (i.e., $10,000 gets reduced to $5,000, and so on), and they must also win another chance to continue, using three medium prizes that are valued to at least $100, but no greater than $1,000. To win the prize and another chance, the contestant must give a price that is within $100 of the actual retail price high or low. If they're right, they can continue to the next layer, but they won't get any money for the layer they made an incorrect guess. If the contestant guesses the price of the prize incorrectly, no money gets deducted from their total, but as in Pathfinder, they must pick another of the remaining prizes to win another chance. The contestant can quit and take the money anytime they desire; if they run out of chances and make a wrong call on the grocery items (or they guess the price of the last prize incorrectly), the oil drill breaks and the contestant loses everything.

After drilling through all five layers of ground, the oil erupts like a geyser, and the contestant wins the car, and the cash they earned along the way, which can add up to $50,000.

What do you guys think?

[TPIRfan#9821]

Normally, I don't respond to these types of pricing game ideas, but here is my two cents for this game of  :

At each layer of ground, there would be a grocery item and two prices. The contestant must select the correct price to move the drill one layer. Each time they move one layer forward, the contestant wins $10,000 every time. However, as the contestant gets closer to the final layer of oil, the grocery items become more expensive.

How expensive would the car need to be for me not to bailout at 10/15/20k? $10,000 every time seems like a stretch, because the risk isn't really there. Also, the GP's getting more expensive doesn't necessarily increase difficulty; lowering the margin between the prices does. If you were to do something like this, I would have gone with a staggered denomination, adding $1000-$4000-$10000-$15000-$20000 for each correct guess picked. Which brings me to my second point:

They must also win another chance to continue, using three medium prizes that are valued to at least $100, but no greater than $1,000. To win the prize and another chance, the contestant must give a price that is within $100 of the actual retail price high or low.

You know, if the prizes are $100 to $1000, I honestly would like to see the medium prizes be the things drilling, and GPs be earned in a way a la Spelling Bee. (Range of $10 to $100) That way, I find more value in the drilling prizes rather than the second chance prizes. I felt like 3 medium prizes was a bit too much, but running the numbers I get a 22% chance of winning (Guessing randomly on oil drills and 1/3 chance of correct GP guesses), and a 3% if winning it all (slightly more probable and less expensive than Rent I think).

My last comment is about the bailout system. Although I like the idea of stopping at anytime (which I assume means that you can't bailout if you have to choose your last GP), it removes much chance of risk. I would have a gimmick. I would have gone with either being obliged to play if you choose to continue after the third round, or with the way you set it up, the fifth item would be an all or nothing item.

Overall, it needs some work, but it still is a game that could be refurbished into something more manageable.

[JayC]

It seems like you just combined Double Prices, Pathfinder, and Gas Money into one big pricing game. I don't think the car prize is necessary either-- $50,000 is plenty. I'd take out the money cutting in half element out and make the money tree progressive like Pay the Rent and Hot Seat and keep the second chance element for each miss.

[whowouldeverhurtawhammy]

Allow me to answer some questions you guys may have.

* Yes, it does sound like I combined 3 different game concepts (though in some cases, some slight elements of Rat Race and Time is Money were also integrated if you look carefully  ) into one new game, but only because I liked the idea of using multiple game elements to make a game.

* The element of risk involves that, if the contestant continues going forward after making one mistake; let's say, the contestant lost half of their $10k, won another chance, and made another mistake, they would keep losing their money until they have no more chances. From the moment that they won their last chance (say, start from $10,000, down to $5k, to $2.5k, to $1,250 at last), if they mess up at that point, they lose it all. For each layer they guess correctly, they win $10,000 more to their total. If they make a mistake, and win a second chance, the game continues, but they don't get the $10k for that layer if they win a second chance. ($10k becomes $5k, win second chance to next layer, gets next grocery item correct, win $10k for a total of $15k and so on) So, if to say, the contestant made 4 correct guesses to win $40,000, and they messed up on the last layer/grocery item, they would lose $20,000, but would still have another chance to win the car and the remainder of their bank, so long as they do not mess up on the last medium prize (which means that it is possible to lose everything on the last layer - or any layer in the game - by getting all three of the medium prizes' prices wrong). The all-or-nothing risk is there, but it depends on how you look at it. That being said, however, there are no guranteed sums. Just like "It's In The Bag," a contestant can take the money they have up to the point they reached, or they can risk losing half their bank to correctly identify the correct price of a grocery item in the layers, or they can risk it all trying to win another chance to continue the game.

* I do admit that a cash prize of $50,000 ($10,000 a level for each correct guess on the grocery items) does sound rather big for a car game, whether the car is less than $20,000, or even greater than $100,000! However, the only reason why I suggested that big of a cash prize is to accommodate the factor of inflation. If this were Big Money Week (or the Million Dollar Spectaculars, which I wish we could have again), then, I would double the ante of the cash prize to $100,000. That being said, however, given that there is a large cash prize as a bonus, this game would do best with cars that make the $50,000 worth going for (I can't necessarily give an exact amount, unfortunately).

* With all that in mind, on a slightly lighter note, the reason why I suggested this would be a car game for both a car and cash is partly due to the game's name about finding oil to power cars with internal combustion engines (although my direct inspiration about it is slightly related to politics, so I won't go into that topic here).

[whowouldeverhurtawhammy]

You know, if the prizes are $100 to $1000, I honestly would like to see the medium prizes be the things drilling, and GPs be earned in a way a la Spelling Bee. (Range of $10 to $100) That way, I find more value in the drilling prizes rather than the second chance prizes. I felt like 3 medium prizes was a bit too much, but running the numbers I get a 22% chance of winning (Guessing randomly on oil drills and 1/3 chance of correct GP guesses), and a 3% if winning it all (slightly more probable and less expensive than Rent I think).

I like that idea, as well.

[gamesurf]

It's an ambitious concept.

The biggest problem with it:

*host tosses to game* (10 seconds)
*announcer and models present $50,000* (10 seconds)
*announcer describes car* (20 seconds)
*host describes how first part of game is played* (30 seconds)
*announcer describes the 5 grocery items* (30 seconds)
*host describes what happens if the contestant makes a mistake* (20 seconds)
*announcer describes the three regular prizes* (45 seconds)

You’ve spent nearly three minutes setting the game up and you haven’t even started playing it yet. Not even the longest games on the show run that long.

Second biggest problem is related to the first: It's WAY too much for a nervous contestant to process in front of a camera.

Good rule of rule of thumb for developing game shows: if you can't describe the rules in a tweet, it's probably too complicated.

[whowouldeverhurtawhammy]

It's an ambitious concept.

The biggest problem with it:

*host tosses to game* (10 seconds)
*announcer and models present $50,000* (10 seconds)
*announcer describes car* (20 seconds)
*host describes how first part of game is played* (30 seconds)
*announcer describes the 5 grocery items* (30 seconds)
*host describes what happens if the contestant makes a mistake* (20 seconds)
*announcer describes the three regular prizes* (45 seconds)

You’ve spent nearly three minutes setting the game up and you haven’t even started playing it yet. Not even the longest games on the show run that long.

Second biggest problem is related to the first: It's WAY too much for a nervous contestant to process in front of a camera.

Good rule of rule of thumb for developing game shows: if you can't describe the rules in a tweet, it's probably too complicated.

Not all pricing games explain every single detail. I mean, Golden Road doesn't explain the grocery item at the beginning, and Gas Money sure doesn't put the $10,000 in the contestant's face (Drew just explains it along the way). That being said, I'm open to making some changes to make this concept work...

[Briguy]

I admit I didn't even try to read the whole rules spiel ... and not just because I'm not a fan of these sorts of posts.

To me, I agree with the poster who says it should be explainable in a tweet. For instance, Rat Race: Guess price of three items within set limits, choose a rat you think corresponds with car or other prizes, you win prize based on finish. (That might be a little over but that's a fair assessment.)

Or the newest one, Gridlock: Guess the second and third pairs of digits, each from a choice of three, to win a car; one wrong guess is allowed.

And I could go on.

This one, by reading just the first few sentences, seems like it is way too complicated to keep simple. (And granted, on the first few playings it might be that way, but sometimes first impressions make the difference.)

Brian

[tpir7215]

I admit I didn't even try to read the whole rules spiel ... and not just because I'm not a fan of these sorts of posts.

To me, I agree with the poster who says it should be explainable in a tweet. For instance, Rat Race: Guess price of three items within set limits, choose a rat you think corresponds with car or other prizes, you win prize based on finish. (That might be a little over but that's a fair assessment.)

Or the newest one, Gridlock: Guess the second and third pairs of digits, each from a choice of three, to win a car; one wrong guess is allowed.

And I could go on.

Even Pay the Rent is (relatively) simple:  Place six grocery items in a house in such a way that each floor's total price is more than the floor below.  The bottom level, the mailbox, has room for one item, the first and second floors each have room for two, and the attic has room for one.  If you successfully do this, you win $100,000.