Games Studies: Project 1, Project 2 & Project 3
29/8/2023 - 28/11/2023
Edwin Choo Quan Rong / 0348305 / Bachelor of
Design (Hons) In Creative Media
GCD 61504 / Games Studies
Project 1,
Project 2 & Project 3
INSTRUCTIONS
Project 1: Tabletop Game Proposal
29/8/2023 - 26/9/2023 / Week 1 -
Week 5
Games Studies is a group oriented module that provides students the challenge of creating their very own board game through research, implementation, testing and refinements.
Week 1
The formation of various groups were decided on the first day of class. As the
class is mixed with some students from other modules such as Computer Science,
we are tasked to form a group with a mix of BDCM (Bachelor of Design in
Creative Media) and BCS (Bachelor of Computer Science) students. My group has
4 BDCM students and 1 BSC student. My groupmates and their determined roles
later on in the project are stated below:
- BDCM - Edwin(me): Leader/Director
- BDCM - Jayden: 3D/Product Director
- BDCM - Jequllunz: Art Director
- BDCM - Hui Lin: Game Producer
- BSC - Ivy: Content Manager
We sat down and brainstormed about various ideas to develop our board game. In order to develop some common ground and understanding of my groupmates, we decided to talk about our favorite games or cool games that we played to establish some common themes. These themes are later used to form a base for our board game. In the end, we came up with a few keywords for our board game: Competitive, Suffering, Challenging and Fellowship. These are the themes that we want to develop our board game.
To keep the game unique, we brainstormed a general gimmick to fit into any future potential of our board game. If possible, we plan to implement a system like this into our game.
Our gimmick:
In-game Currency System
-replacement for monetary reward
-incentivizes players to experience the game / have something to compete for
How to earn:
-Completing game objectives, tasks and etc
-Progressing a certain level of the game (ig.every round completed in Monopoly adds 100 points for example)
Usages of the currency:
-Purchase power ups or power downs to apply to yourself or other players
(eg. immune to negative debuffs for the next 3 turns)
-Higher quality, game changing items would require higher currency (game-balancing)
On the weekend (2/9/2023), we went to Boards & Brews, a board game café, to increase our exposure and experience with board games. We went through various board games such as Codenames, with the final one being Steam Up.
Fig 1.1 & 1.2 - Codenames and Steam Up Box Design
Fig 1.3 & 1.4 - Us playing Codenames and Steam Up
We played Steam Up especially for quite a long time as the game is decently
long with various interesting mechanics and interactions with its system.
Here's a brief summary of Steam Up.
The goal of the game is to empty all the Dimsum trays on the board until it
reaches zero. Each tray houses different types of Dimsums which has different
point values. The player that has the most point value accumulated at the end
of the game wins.
There is a bunch of strategy and planning involved, as well as competition
with other players. This game heavily sparked some ideas for the development
of our board game.
Week 2
In this week, we developed multiple ideas for our board game after getting
inspiration for it last weekend. I tasked each group member to come up with
their own ideas for sharing so we can have multiple ideas with different
information we can mix and match with. Down below is a documentation of each
of our ideas.
Idea #1 (Edwin)
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Fig 2.1 - Initial Game Idea Sketch + Explanations
1 vs all, 4 player turn-based board game concept
Objectives
-Be the last faction standing (eliminate all other faction's characters)
Gameplay
1) Each player starts with a faction card (like the DimSum game's character
card) and draws a certain number of action cards according to the faction,
each faction has 2 individual characters with their own unique abilities and
skillsets, their stats will be displayed on the card
2) Each individual character can move 1-2 tiles per turn, with each player
having 2 actions. The actions are to use an action card, attack/defend, or
claim an area.
Terrain
1) The factions chosen are based on the terrain presented across the map.
(eg. Magma fighters in volcanic terrain)
2) The 4 different terrains on the map each provide various different buffs
or debuffs to the characters in them. (eg. Magma characters are stronger in
volcanic terrain but weaker in water-based terrain)
Additionally, each terrain has their own unique features that
challenges the players, however they can use them to their advantage
3) The buff zone is a movable area (can discuss size ltr) that turns the
terrain its on into a neutral zone. Terrain benefits and disadvantages will
be inactivate here.
While inside the buff zone, the player gains an additional action every turn
(total 3 actions) and is able to draw 2 cards at the start of the turn
instead of 1.
4) There are various chests and structures scattered across the board, step
on the tiles to obtain a chest card (treasure) and claim a structure to
activate its benefits.
Additional factors
1) Game Modifier:
At the start of each game, a modifier activates which takes effect for the
whole game. eg. (In this game, all chests provide an additional treasure)
2) Chance Card
(basically the fate card system from DimSum)
This card provides minor altercations to the current round of the game.
(eg. all attacks deal +1 dmg in this round)
Idea #2 (Jayden)
Fractured lands - Racist Territorial Board Game
Objective: The objective of the game is to capture and control as many
territories as possible, using unique faction abilities, while adapting to
changing environmental conditions.
Components:
- Game Board: A map divided into territories.
- Race Tokens: Tokens representing different races or factions.
- Faction Cards: Unique abilities and advantages for each player. (also can put the score counter here)
- Environment Cards: Cards that impact territories each round.
Setup:
Place the game board in the center of the table.
Shuffle the Environment Cards and place them face down in a draw pile.
Each player selects a faction and takes the corresponding Race Tokens and
Faction Card.
Place one Race Token from each faction in a neutral territory to start the
game.
Gameplay:
The game proceeds in rounds, with each round consisting of the following
phases:
a. Environment Phase: Reveal the top Environment Card. This card will
specify which territories are affected positively or negatively this round.
b. Player Turns: Players take turns in clockwise order.
- On player’s turn, get 1 race token at the beginning of your turn (applies until the tokens run out.)
- On a player's turn, they have the option to:
- Move Tokens: They can move two of their Race Tokens to adjacent territories. Tokens can't move through territories controlled by other players unless allowed by Faction Cards.
- Capture Territories: If they have more Race Tokens than any other player in a territory, they capture it. They place one of their Race Tokens in the newly conquered territory, replacing any other player's token. (half the captured tokens are refunded back to the player, the other half is put back to the playing pile)
- Draw Faction cards : draw a faction card from the pile, you can only draw once every round.
- Use Faction Abilities: Players can use their Faction Card's ability during their turn. c.
- End of Round: After all players have taken their turns, check for control of territories and apply territorial effects.
Winning:
Game concludes when either of these conditions are met
- 14 environment cards have been played
- 1 player is fully eliminated from the game (which includes having 0 race tokens on hand + 0 territories)
Total race tokens on the board will count as +1 points, while any territory
held at the end of the game will grant you +2
Count every player’s points, and victory goes to the largest empire!
Faction Abilities: Each player's Faction Card provides a unique ability or
advantage, For example:
- The ability to move through opponent-controlled territories.
- A bonus to capturing territories during specific rounds.
- Special abilities to manipulate Environment Cards.
Environment Cards: These cards introduce randomness and strategy to the
game. For example:
- "Harvest Season": Territories with farms produce extra Race Tokens.
- "Natural Disaster": remove 1 Race Tokens from territories with more than 4 race tokens
Idea #3 (Hui Lin)
Game Theme: Nuclear pollution crisis
Based on Monopoly, XX City is facing a nuclear pollution crisis. Players are
divided into two camps: environmentalists and polluters. Environmentalists
aim to clean cities, while polluters try to exacerbate nuclear pollution.
Game components:
Game Board: The game board represents the city and includes different areas,
resource points, and sources of nuclear pollution. Areas can be nuclear
pollution discharge factories, city centers, high-rise buildings,
residential areas, etc.
Character Cards: Each player can draw a random character card to represent
whether they are environmentalists or polluters. Character cards need to
include special skills and objectives.
- Environmentalist character: scientist, cleaner, energy homeer
- Polluter character: black market merchant, spy, polluter leader
Resource Cards: Players can collect resource cards, including clean energy,
protective equipment, rescue teams, and more. Research cards, sewage
drainage cards, destruction cards, these resources are used to perform tasks
and affect the progress of the game.
Event cards: Event cards are used to trigger various events in the city,
sometimes favorable and sometimes unfavorable. An incident could lead to the
spread or decontamination of nuclear contamination.
Cards: Players have decks of cards, including mission cards, action cards,
crisis cards, and more. These cards are used to influence game progress,
perform tasks, or trigger events.
Dice: Move according to the number of points.
Gameplay:
Role Assignment: Each player randomly draws a character card at the
beginning of the game to determine their faction and special abilities. The
goal of environmentalists is to clean cities, and the goal of polluters is
to exacerbate nuclear pollution.
Resource Management: Players need to manage resource cards for missions,
sanitization of areas, and response to events.
Dice rolling: Players roll dice in each turn to decide how many steps they
can move, access different areas, or perform tasks.
Missions and Events: Areas and event cards on the game board can trigger
quests that players need to perform to earn rewards or purify the city.
Social reasoning: Players can communicate with each other about who might be
polluters, while environmentalists need reasoning to confirm alliances and
take action to stop or encourage nuclear pollution. The polluter needs to
deceive other players and hide his true identity.
Q&A session: At this stage, players can ask each other questions, and
the answers contain two truths and one lie, and players need to judge and
reason by themselves.
Mission Accomplished: Players can purify areas and cities by performing
quests and using resources. Environmentalists aim to clean enough areas,
while polluters aim to pollute enough areas.
Card mechanics: Players can use cards to influence the progress of the game,
such as cleaning areas, exacerbating pollution, responding to crisis events,
etc.
Win Condition: The game ends when a player has reached a win condition. The
environmentalist victory condition is to clean enough areas, and the
polluter victory condition is to pollute enough areas.
Idea #4 (Ivy)
Road Rage Game inspired by the NETFLIX series - BEEF
Something like MONOPOLY but with a LOT of Suffering & PAIN
How to win the game?
Players will have to reach their destined location given in the beginning of
their game . The player who reaches the destined location first will win .
There will be some cross paths on the board so yes players do encounter each
other .
During their journey , a lot of things can happen , sometimes it can be good
but most often time it’s bad & unfortunate events.
Gameplay :
1. Every player will have to turn the steering wheel that will determine how
far their car will move on the route.
2. In the beginning of the game , every player can choose what destined
location they want to go. Each destined location have different routes but
roads do intersect.
3. Every player will also be given $500 each to fill up their car patrol and
start the game.
4. The money is the strategic part of the game , where players will have to
think wisely on their spendings.
5. After turning the wheel , each player will have to draw a card and that
will determine what happens to them . Most often times , it causes chaos and
road rage.
6. Many things can happen on the road - roadblock , traffic jam , pothole ,
animal road crossing , ghost encounter , … etc
7. There are also some power ups in the game such that it will help them to
solve their problem later like purchasing drinks in patrol stations will
offer them a free spare tyre… etc
8. There will also be a speed card where players can speed their cars so
that they can go faster . The result can either be good or bad cuz somehow
they might encounter speed camera or maybe they bang the player infant of
them , who knows ?
9. Whenever a collision occurs , the player who happens to intertwine with
the other player will have to pay the other player to fix their car.
The money can be used to maybe bribe the police or pay up car toll or
purchase weapon to either puncture the other players car or maybe
murder?
10. Players can also sympathise the other play by giving them their spare
tyre or borrow them their car tools. Players who helped others will gain
sympathy points that will reduce their fines later on.
After thoroughly going through each presented ideation, we decided to develop upon Hui Lin's game idea, using it as a foundation that can be enhanced and altered to form the basis of our board game.
After thoroughly going through each presented ideation, we decided to develop upon Hui Lin's game idea, using it as a foundation that can be enhanced and altered to form the basis of our board game.
Week 3
During this week, we had a group meeting to discuss and develop and flesh out a core skeleton of our board game, eventually turning into our alpha game framework. Down below is our very early game concept formed after a brainstorming session:
During this week, we had a group meeting to discuss and develop and flesh out a core skeleton of our board game, eventually turning into our alpha game framework. Down below is our very early game concept formed after a brainstorming session:
Fig 3.1 - Initial Alpha Game Framework
This is also the same week where we started to develop our presentation slides
for proposal on Week 5, as well as some initial island ideations as art
direction for our board game.
Week 4
In order to document our game data and findings, we developed an Alpha Game Framework for our project, the following document is presented below:
In order to document our game data and findings, we developed an Alpha Game Framework for our project, the following document is presented below:
Fig 4.1 - Finalized Alpha Game Framework
The framework was refined and fleshed out to develop a strong foundation for
our game concept. We decided to conduct our own early pre-alpha playtest twice
on Week 4 in order to identify areas for improvement before the actual
pre-alpha playtest on Week 6. Our findings are as follows:
- Map layout was slightly advantageous to one player depending on their positioning, as they have access to 3 islands instead of 2 from their starting point (this was fixed to ensure fairness)
- Tweaked some card effects to be balanced
- Provide cards with varying amount of copies for improving game balance and player interest
- Changed advanced terminology to simpler ones for greater universal understanding
It was also during this time where the contents for the game in the form of 3D
Printing was being developed, along with further progression on the
presentation slides for Week 5.
Tasks were distributed to each of our members, Jayden and me were developing
more Action Card ideas, Jequllunz is developing the map while Ivy and Hui Lin
are preparing the slides' content.
On Sunday, we had a meeting to have a video recording for our proposal
presentation.
Week 5
Here is the link to our proposal presentation: Group 2: Games Studies Proposal Presentation
Fig 5.1 - Group 2: Games Studies Proposal Presentation
Additionally, we noticed some areas of our game that can be improved during
the playtest.
Problem:
- Certain Action Cards are hard to use, players end up using the same basic Action Card types
- Significance of anonymous identity is not as relevant, feeling like its just there and at the end of the round instead of having an impact throughout
Solutions:
- Add more accessible Action Cards to improve player enjoyment
- Implement Identity Card related effects in Action Cards / a system that affects Identity Cards every round
In the meantime, our 3D printed slimes are ready to see the light of day!
Fig 5.2 - 3D Printed Tangle Slime
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Fig 5.3 - 3D Printed Slimes on Pre-Alpha Map
The size of the slime is around the size of 50 sen (the old one) or the size
of a bottle cap. We placed it on the map as reference for size, judging that
it was good enough for future iterations as the map will be bigger.
Project 2: Tabletop Gameplay
3/10/2023 - 23/10/2023 / Week 6 - Week 9
In this process, the given goal is to refine the alpha game framework into a
finalized version. This is molded and refined through the Pre-Alpha and Alpha
Playtests that took place during this period.
Week 6
During this week, the actual
pre-alpha playtest
was conducted and down below are the survey results for our playtest.
Fig 6.1 - Pre-Alpha Survey Results
It was around this time that the coloring for the 3D printed slimes (test
variants) are completed.
Fig 6.2 & 6.3 - Colored 3D Printing (Test Variant)
Week 7
During this week, the
Alpha Playtest
was conducted and down below are the survey results for our playtest.
Fig 7.1 - Alpha Playtest Survey Results
Week 8
During this week known as the Independent Learning Week (ILW), we decided to
progress on the development of our game aesthetic and visuals.
Fig 8.1 - 8.4 - Visual Card Design Aesthetic
However after making this design, we had to reconsider our design choices
to further align with our game aesthetic and theme later on in Week 10. We
updated our lecturer about the design and the feedback provided focused on
readability and in connection, the art of emphasizing certain keywords to
the player.
Project 3: Final Iteration
24/10/2023 - 28/11/2023 / Week 9 - Week 14
This is the start of developing the design components for the Beta Playtest.
All designs are best to be finalized and prepared before the playtest on Week
12. Even though this is where we start designing according to the guideline,
we had planned out the design elements and progressed it beforehand as we knew
that it will take a while to finalize every aspect.
Week 9
On this week, I progressed with the 3D printing of our game components and all
the technical issues and maintenance that comes with managing a cheap but
affordable printer. There will be progress on Week 10.
Fig 9.1 - 3D Printing Horrors
Week 10
Fig 10.1 - 3D Printed Energy Tokens
Fig 10.2 - Mass produced tokens death
Fig 10.3 - Spray painted tokens
Fig 10.4 - Spray painted token (variant)
It was during this week where we had a visual design overhaul on our Action,
Resource and Identity Cards. Our Art Director: Jequllunz lead the design
direction, providing a suitable aesthetic to improve readability along with
aligning with our game's theme. Here are the finalized card design showcase:
Fig 10.5 - Final Identity Card Designs
Fig 10.6 - Final Resource Card Designs
Fig 10.7 - Final Action Card Designs
Fig 10.8 - Final Instruction Card Design
Week 11
Further progression on the game components like game menus and map are done
here. Additionally, more 3D models of different slime characters are prepared
through extensive refinement and coloring.
Fig 11.1 - 3D Printed Slimes and Tokens Colored
In this week, we did the bulk of our printing for our Action Cards, Resource
Cards and Instruction Cards. My teammate Ivy has browsed through multiple
stores and found one where the quality was decent but affordable, we ended up
printing around 154 pcs, 260gsm with front and back laminate for only Rm 110!!
Week 12
Fig 12.1 - Final A4 Game Manual Design
Meanwhile, here is the most updated map at the time as the placeholder
as well as the current packaging design aesthetic.
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Fig 12.2 - Map Design in progress (Week 12)
Fig 12.3 - Packaging Design in progress (Week 12)
Additionally, the playtest results for Beta Playtest has been
distributed, we are glad that the results are improving towards the end
of the playtest.
Fig 12.3 - Beta Playtest Survey Results
During this week, we had finalized our map design as well as the box
packaging for our board game.
Fig 13.1 - Final Map Design
We decided to went for a darker and edgy aesthetic from the cutesy and
lively design to further align our game design theme and direction: to
have a more mischievous and playful design. This applies to the packaging
design too down below:
Fig 13.2 - Final Packaging Design
On that weekend, we prepared our final presentation slides for Week 14 as
well as filming for our game demo showcase.
Fig 13.3 & 13.4 - Setup behind the scenes
Fig 13.5 - Working setup behind the scenes
Week 14
We had our final presentation of our board game in class. The box was then
finalized and provided to the lecturer for grading, this marks the end of
our project.
Fig 14.1 - Realms of Elderia Group 2: Final Presentation Slides
Reflection
This has been a long and arduous project. Despite having previous experiences leading a group, it is a first time for me to lead a group through the process of developing a board game. There are countless things that I had learned from this experience which provides new horizons for improvement.
One such process is the development of the game components, I was intrigued and interested in developing the core structure and gameplay sequence of the game, however I was worried about the time it will take to fully develop all its game components like finalized card designs, map, characters etc. Thus, that is why I took the initial weekly breakdown of tasks to do and planned out to finish some tasks before their "official" start date, such as beginning the process of working on the game components like 3D Printing, map and card designs early on. Eventually, I am glad that we started doing things early as it ended up being quite the rush towards the end anyways as everyone is busy with the beginning of final projects for other modules.
In terms of creating the game components itself, it is quite the fun and refreshing experience as we dive into new discoveries and methods of how to conduct playtests and use the results to improve on our game. I wanted to expand and discover more things in this module and go the extra mile for creating the game components, that led to the development of our 3D printed characters and tokens. I'm glad to have the opportunity to experiment with 3D printing and apply the knowledge I gained on my modules, this in turn developed my knowledge about 3D printing itself further as well.
From a group leader perspective, the leading of the group was going decently in the early weeks of the project. As the later weeks arrive however, I lost my momentum of managing the group as efficiently as I would have preferred instead as we are falling behind on our pre-planned schedule. This lead to drastic consequences as delays occur which led to a spiraling domino effect ricocheting delays off each other. This taught me a few things about groupwork projects and leadership about expecting delays and planning for contingencies, as my initial plan did not have a proper backup plan fully structured to fall back on, we ended up jumping between multiple lifebuoys that are quickly deflating to survive. If I had proper backup plans in place for events like this, I would have wasted less time in patching up the holes of our sinking ship. This experience has taught me to be more thorough and in check with my groupmates as well as I would require their most updated status in order to further develop the current plan of progression.
Overall, this has been an insightful and major experience that I needed. I learned plenty of things regarding groupwork, leadership, planning, 3D modelling, constructing a board game and etc. I would like to use this experience as stepping stones to further challenge myself in future endeavors.
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