GAMES STUDIES- PROJECTS

11/9/19- 5/12/19 (Week 4- Week 15)
Andrea Vie Choong Jia Qi (0331945)
Games Studies
Project 1 | Project 2 | Final Project
Tabletop Game Design Document | Tabletop Game Prototype | Final Tabletop Game 
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LECTURES

Lecture 7: -

8/10/19 (Week 7)

We had no lecture this week as the class was canceled.

Lecture 8: -

16/10/19 (Week 8)

We had a short lecture on the framework of doing research on the study of our tabletop game.

Fig 1.1 Framework of the steps/process in a game study

Lecture 9 : -

23/10/19 (Week 9)


We had no lecture this week.

Lecture 10 : -

30/10/19 (Week 10)

We had no lecture this week as it was an e-learning week.

Lecture 11 : -

5/11/19 (Week 11)

We had no lecture this week but we had to continue our playtesting with other students from different courses.

Lecture 12 : -

12/11/19 (Week 12)

We had no lecture this week as we had no more physical classes. We had to consult our progress to Mr.Charles.

Lecture 13 : -

19/11/19 (Week 13)


We had no lecture this week as we had no more physical classes. We printed our final designs and worked on the game design document.

Lecture 14 : -

26/11/19 (Week 14)

We had no lecture this week.

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GAME RULES

Module Information Booklet (MIB)



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PROJECT 1:

Tabletop Game Design Document 

16/9/19 (Week 4)

We started coming up with ideas on creating our own tabletop game with inspirations based on the existing games. Indira and I listed down two ideas and described the games under these sections:

1. Game category
2. Genre
3. Players
4. Background story
5. Goal of the game
6. Gameplay
7. Game rules
8. Equipment
9. References

Here is the attached docs of our initial ideas.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13DC4A5nnnOoMpRURuibWLIQSw7byWr62lrJgFTG33II/edit?usp=sharing

19/9/19 (Week 4)

We transferred both ideas into slides and added references. After thinking about the two initial ideas, we chose to go with the 2nd idea of a survival board game. 

TABLETOP GAME by Katarina Indira & Andrea Vie Choong



27/9/19 (Week 5)

This week, we did some sketches on the chosen idea based on five types of equipment needed in the game. And we looked up some inspiration to help with our sketches. 

FINALTABLETOP GAME by Katarina Indira & Andrea Vie Choong


2/10/19 (Week 6)

We consulted with Mr. Charles on our final tabletop game idea and he gave us some suggestions on how to make the game better and playable. He also told us to make a prototype so people can test out how the game works and evaluate from there.

We had to do research on the existing games that inspired us to make our own game and started to make the prototype.

25/11/19 (Week 14)- 5/12/19 (Week 15)

We compiled all our proposal idea, research, prototype production and final designs into PDF document.

Here is the embedded PDF of the Game Design Document:



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PROJECT 2:

Tabletop Game Prototype

9/10/19 (Week 7)

This week, we had no class but we had to continue with our progress on the prototype. We crafted out the structure of the game without the illustration and visuals yet. After the prototype is completed, we started on the final design of our tabletop game in Illustrator and Canva.

16/10/19 (Week 8)

This week , we played our tabletop prototype with Mr. Charles. After playing our game, he commented that we should play the game by ourselves and see how long did we take to play and win the game. 

We added more cards for the Mauna Loa and Pirate's Action so that the players won't get the same action each time.

23/10/19 (Week 9)

This week, we playtest our tabletop game.

Problem:  It took really long to play and finish the game. It took us about 1 hour already.

Solution: 

• Add more the resources and give points to the player after they build the survival object.

• Changed the mechanics of trading resources into the players randomly take the resource from the opponent.

After the amends, we played again and now it took only about 30 minutes which was much faster than before.

This is our final prototype:

Fig 2.1 Game Board: showing different land types

 

Fig 2.2 Player Indicators

Fig 2.3 Resources: Banana & Leaf  |  Rock & Fire

Fig 2.4 Resources: Rope & Bamboo  |  Fish & Shell

Fig 2.5 Survival Kit Cost Card: Front 

Fig 2.6 Survival Kit Cost Card: Back

Fig 2.7 Survival Kit Indicators: Clothes, Medicine, Food, Canoe

Fig 2.8 Pirate's Action 

Fig 2.9 Mauna Loa's Eye Opener

We also finalize the structure of our rule book by referring to the gameplay, components, and rules in our proposal slides. The rule book is a guide for players to know before they start playing the game.

SURVIVE ON THE MOTU NUI: RULE BOOK by Andrea Choong & Katarina Indira

USER PLAYTEST

6/11/19 (Week 11)- 16/11/19 (Week 12)

This week, we had run some playtest with our game prototype with different students from different courses. We had to get their feedback after playtesting.

Here is the attached google form for the feedback:

Link to survey:
 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1STeNpOao0z6h9CFflfPpMqaVLKbAdwf_E7X_qvE19IA/edit?usp=sharing

Group 1: Kezia, Maydeline, Jasen, Tamara (Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media: New Media)

Verbal feedback after playtest:

Positive remarks/Impressions:

• The game is fun to play in overall.

Suggestions/Improvements:

• Add more the Mauna Loa and Pirate's action cards to make it more exciting.

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Group 2: Nadine, Riga, Sarah, Alex (Bachelor of Culinary Arts)

Verbal feedback after playtest:

Positive remarks/Impressions:

• The game is cool, interesting and very unique.
• The design of the prototype is also cool.

Suggestions/Improvements:

• Reduce the number of resources in the survival kit cost card.
• The rock & fire card is hard to get.

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Group 3: Bryan (Bachelor of Mass Communication (Hons))
               Lauren (Bachelor of Mass Communication (Hons))

               Dania (Bachelor of International Hospitality Management (Hons))
               Nadine (Bachelor of Culinary Arts)

Verbal feedback after playtest:

Positive remarks/Impressions:

• The game is fun to play in overall.
• The game sometimes can be frustrating but fun to play at the same time

Suggestions/Improvements:

• Reduce the number of resources in the survival kit cost card.
• No need to put number in the Pirate's Action card.
• The rock & fire is hard to get.

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Group 4: Ryan(Bachelor of Business (Hons) International Business & Marketing)

               Christy (Bachelor of International Hospitality Management (Hons))
               Ezra (Bachelor of International Hospitality Management (Hons))
               Stella (Bachelor of Mass Communication (Hons))
               Vedha Vania (Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media: Graphic Design)

Verbal feedback after playtest:

Positive remarks/Impressions:

• They said that the game was really fun and they want to play it again if they have the chance.
• The spinner and design of the map are cool.

Suggestions/Improvements:

• Reduce the number of resources in the survival kit cost card.
• Sometimes the spinner goes to one land three times in a row, maybe a real spinner will be better. 

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Group 5: Rebecca & Natascha (Bachelor of Mass Communication (Hons) (Advertising &
Brand Management))

              Jackie (Junior Product Developer)

Verbal feedback after playtest:

Positive remarks/Impressions:

• The game is fun to play overall

Suggestions/Improvements:

• Maybe categorize the colour of the indicators to match in the spinner- it is confusing to know which land is selected in the spinner

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Group 6: Kah Ying, Yi Qing, Jia Yi, Eng Xin (Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Architecture)

Verbal feedback after playtest:

Positive remarks/Impressions:

• It is fun and engaging at almost near the end of the game

Suggestions/Improvements:

1. Points written for each survival object does not have to be there
• It can just be who is the fastest to build the survival kit


2. Pirate's actions & Mauna Loa is not too impactful
• Pirate's action: Maybe add the pirate takes all resources from the player
• Mauna Loa: get one free survival kit from the pirate, steal one survival kit from any player, get each of the 8 resources from the pirate


3. Instead of everyone sticking to their own land throughout, the players can change to another land depending on whether the other player is willing to trade lands- the survival objects built on the previous owner's land will be given to the new owner's land.

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Group 7: Helen (Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media: Animation & Visual Effects)
               Bryan (Bachelor of Business (Hons) International Business & Marketing)
               Imran (Bachelor of Psychology (Hons))
               Jia Wei (Cambridge A-Levels)

Verbal feedback after playtest:

Positive remarks/Impressions:

• We enjoyed it so far and there is potential in the success of how the game was designed.

Suggestions/Improvements:

• Instead of letting the landowner take the resources randomly from the player when he/she lands on their land, they can just trade freely
• Add a random event where it allows the player's turn to rotate backward or go anti-clockwise
• Too many resources to get for each survival kit
• Maybe advise the players to pick 2 different lands at the start instead of letting them choose 
• Make the Pirate's action more brutal, Mauna Loa more beneficial
• One of them said they prefer to use dice
• Each player can get some/one resource(s) after a number of rounds

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After the playtest is completed, we compiled all the playtest videos into one full video.

And here are the overall results from the responses in our survey displayed below.

Fig 2.10 Overall results from participants: Age 

Fig 2.11 Overall results from participants: Study Major/Occupation

Fig 2.12 Overall results from participants: Enjoyment 

Fig 2.13 Overall results from participants: Game Rule

Fig 2.14 Overall results from participants: Reasoning for Question 2

Fig 2.15 Overall results from participants: Frustrating moment of the game

Fig 2.16 Overall results from participants: Favourite moment of the game

Fig 2.17 Overall results from participants: Replayable chance

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FINAL PROJECT:

Final Tabletop Game


20/11/19 (Week 13)

This week, we finalized our game board and pieces in the prototype and went on to printing our final designs.

Here is the progress of designing the final design and rule book:

 Fig 3.1 Progress of designing: Resource Cards

 Fig 3.2 Progress of designing: Mauna Loa, Pirate's Inventory, Survival Kit Costcards, Player indicators

 Fig 3.3 Progress of designing: Game Board

 Fig 3.4 Progress of designing: Survival kit indicators

Fig  3.5 Progress of designing: Rule Book

After printing the final designs, we moved on to place everything in a game box and design some decorations, a game logo and descriptions to dress up the box.

Fig   Progress of designing: Game Box logo, description & decorations

Here are the final digital designs of the game board, game pieces, and rule book:

Fig 3.6 Final Design: Game Board

Fig 3.7 Final Design: Resource Cards

Fig 3.8 Final Design: Survival Kit Cost Cards (Front & Back)

Fig 3.9 Final Design: Mauna Loa Eye Opener

Fig 3.10 Final Design: Pirate's Inventory 1-5

Fig 3.11 Final Design: Pirate's Inventory 6-10

Fig 3.12 Final Design: Pirate's Inventory 11-15

Fig 3.13 Final Design: Land Indicators

Fig 3.14 Final Design: Survival Kit Indicators

Here is the embedded PDF of the Rule Book:

25/11/19 (Week 14)

This week we printed the designs for the game box and took photos of the printed game pieces, board and box.

Fig 3.15 Game Board: Before Set Up

Fig 3.16 Game Board: After Set Up

Fig 3.17 Game Pieces: Mauna Loa Eye Opener

Fig 3.18 Game Pieces: Pirate's Inventory

Fig 3.19 Game Pieces: Resource Cards- Fire & Rock

 Fig 3.20 Game Pieces: Resource Cards- Banana & Leaf

  Fig  3.21 Game Pieces: Resource Cards- Fish & Shell

  Fig 3.22 Game Pieces: Resource Cards- Rope & Bamboo

Fig 3.23 Rule Book #1

 Fig 3.24 Rule Book #2

Fig 3.25 Rule Book #3

Fig 3.26 Game Box with game pieces, board & rule book

 Fig 3.27 Game Box with game pieces (Cards & Indicators)

Fig 3.28 Game Box with game board & rule book

Fig 3.29 Game Box Design with Rule Book

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FEEDBACK

1/10/19 (Week 6)

Specific feedback: Mr.Charles told us to make sure the objective of the game is clear and make it focus towards a simulation survival game. The drawings can be much better and more constructive. For the card design, try to look at "Card game graphics". Also do watch people's reviews about Settlers of Catan and Sims Castaway and give your reviews as well. See the similarities and differences between these two games and how it can be implemented to your game and how is your game different from those games. 


9/10/19 (Week 7)

There was no feedback given this week.

16/10/19 (Week 8)

General feedback: Always make sure to playtest your game prototype to your target audience. Or even to students that you don't know very well. When you playtest, make sure to make observational notes or even record a video.

Specific feedback: Mr.Charles commented that we have to try playing our game and see what are the things that can be improved and how long does it take for the players to exchange resources and build the survival objects. The spinner can be designed through the app instead of making an actual one. The mechanism of exchanging resources, resources to make the survival objects and Mauna loa's draw can be improved. The Motu Nui inventory is not necessary as the pirate is the one controlling the game so making opportunity cards for the pirate itself. You can also consider changing the coin prototype of the resources to cards so the player can hide their resources from other players. 

23/10/19 (Week 9)

There was no feedback given this week.

30/10/19 (Week 10)


There was no feedback given this week.

6/11/19 (Week 11)

There was no feedback given this week.

13/11/19 (Week 12)

Specific feedback: Mr. Charles said to continue with your playtesting before printing the final design. You can do your playtest with one of the club that has does playtesting (I will forward it to your Facebook group). Make sure to categorize the responses in different sections, for instance: function, game until you can't categorize responses any longer. In the future, it would be better to include more demographics like name, gender, ethnicity, level of study. A question like "Are you a gamer?" would be interesting. The last question is very hard to predict whether they say it genuinely or not The final design is really good so far and make sure to build the manual too. Print the cards in a thicker paper. 

20/11/19 (Week 13)

There was no feedback given this week.

27/11/19 (Week 14)

There was no feedback given this week.