by Don Johnson
Some ideas for you to consider.Music to go along with the game would really enhance the experience. There could be buttons to push for specific effects. There could be increasing levels to the music, starting out pleasant and getting increasing ominous.
Have different size people, some tall, some short, some medium. That way, young kids could better pretend that they are IN the game in some sense. And of course have males and females. The player tokens could even be enough to give people a choice of which to use. For example, if there is a maximum of 4 players, supply 8 or 12 player tokens. The point is there is no need to have all the tokens look exactly alike.
You might have a fireball where the center of gravity is off center so it wobbles and so is more unpredictable in what it does.
Combining found items to make a new use item could be fun. For example, a knife and a stick and some rope combine to make a spear.
You could perhaps have rules for pure competition, teams, and pure cooperation among the players. For example, a family with young kids might want to play pure cooperation at first.