The idea of big number go up is very simple and was spawned from a conversation with a friend about Snapchat streaks. At the time, the friend had rushed to their phone frantically to send a black photo with some scribbles on it. When asked, I was given the explanation that without that photo they would lose their 1000+ day streak on Snapchat. No conversation was going on, but the idea of keeping that number going up was enough to cause a rush and panic.

I prodded with the question of what would you do if you lost the streak? The answer: cry, and probably get really frustrated. I asked would you pay money to bring it back? The answer was a 100% yes. And thus, I came to the realization, it does not matter what is going up, as long as the number gets bigger.

Big Number Go Up Rules

The basics of the game are as follows:

1. Every day you press a button
2. You can press it anytime during the 24 hours of your day
3. It can only be pressed once a day
4. The number goes up +1 for each press
5. If you miss a day, your number returns back to zero

Where the game gets interesting is as follows:

1. You can join a group and switch to a collective group number
2. In this group, the number of members corresponds to amount the number can go up a day
3. If any member of the group fails to press the button for the day, the whole groups number resets to zero
4. Players cannot be kicked or leave a group
5. Joining an existing group requires a majority decision from the group

Scoring

A leaderboard showing the friends/local/regional/world numbers of players and groups would be created. This would allow players to track and see how well they were doing in relation to their friends and elsewhere.

Moral Dilemma

The question came up when workshopping this idea of how can you monetize this game? I hate ads and want the interface to be minimal and non intrusive.

1. When a player or group loses their number, allow groups to pay a percentage of their number to regain their position
2. Allow players in a group to pay to get a notification if a member of the group has not pressed the button
3. Key point: It would not tell which member

The conclusion was made that if the ability to figure out which member of the group did not press the button was provided even behind a paywall, it could lead to disastrous outcomes.

Final Thoughts

I'd like this game to take off in the same way Wordle did. Something simple enough that anyone could do it and it would only take 5 seconds of your life to do. It would be an experiment that would really test friendships.

Remember, in the end:

Bigger number, better person