For this entry I started to create some starter designs for the chance cards, tiles and board itself for my board game which can be improved at a later date, with the base gameplay of the board following the structure of my previous plans. First I did some research into tools and techniques in Photoshop so I could begin developing my assets for the board game. Managing layers in Photoshop will be a key component when creating a board game with the software, as I could quickly and easily rack up dozens upon dozens of active layers. So I did some research into organisation in Photoshop, and according to the official Adobe documentation (Adobe Help, 2016), grouping various layers into categories (like all the board game tiles and capture zones) with CTRL + G really helps keep everything organised. As an added bonus, these groups are easy to close and expand, allowing you to select everything inside them at once, or separately with the ‘auto-select’ toggle if I need to modify individual layers within a group. This is an incredibly handy skill for me to learn, as finding and managing layers with my previous knowledge would have been a nightmare, and helps mitigate the risk of me making a mistake and losing potentially hours of work.
I also conducted some research from various sources into what actually makes a good board game, to get some professional opinions on the matter. According to published author (Hinebaugh, 2009) who wrote a book on what the fundamentals of a good board game should be, it needs to be fun and engaging. Complicated mechanics are good to have for skilled board game enthusiasts, however presentation is key. Having all of these skilled mechanics but showing them in an intimidating way can put off many potential players who may have enjoyed your game from even trying it. Journalism site (Board Game Duel, 2014) have different opinions on this matter though which are interesting to consider. They believe mastery of a game is key, and if it’s too luck based with not enough skillful elements, then it’s impossible to play it at a higher level alongside games like Chess or Checkers. Variety is also key, as doing repetitive, monotonous tasks for the entirety of the game isn’t engaging, and defies the entire point of the board game: to have fun and pass the time. To quote them: “These games typically have good variance, many different strategies to victory and a sharp learning curve. You can’t discount a good game of chess though.”.
These findings are incredibly helpful to my own personal development of a game, as I can try to avoid falling into some of the ‘traps’ that common board games fall into (just being a repetitive, monotonous slog from start to finish). My own game will attempt to avoid some of these issues with its gameplay mechanics: avoiding the monotony of moving around the board with players physically strategizing with allies, being able to enter combat with enemies whenever you encounter one and also with its chance cards which could mix-up the game at a moment’s notice, keeping players on the edge with a good flow channel balancing frustration and boredom. All of these spice up the game, while still adding more to the game making it so much more than just simply rolling a dice and moving your player around a board. Likewise I will work on my simple, child-friendly presentation of these mechanics, since the designs themselves will have to be accessible to look at and be easy on the eyes for my game to hit its large potential target demographic.
Now for my initial stages of practical work! I first made the tiles for the board in Photoshop (pictured below), using splodges of different colours (light blue, dark blue, purple and yellow to be exact) to design them similarly to actual slate tiles while still having them colour-coordinated. Since the game is team-based, I created two different colour tiles to match both of the team’s sides of the board, while also making it more visually appealing for younger players. These tiles are designed to look simple, yet stylized. And the compact design is easy on the eyes yet it gets the job done as a standard board space. Here’s an image of the default tile before it was recoloured:
Next I drafted out the board on paper to see how it would look. It’s simple, but follows the board’s basic premise and layout. It’s a simple draft which focuses more on functionality than aesthetics, however it shows the game’s premise of both teams starting in their areas, and being able to move in one of three directions from the start to capture the different bases around the map. I can use this is a form of reference which I’ll expand upon when it comes to creating my board digitally.
Lastly I created a more ‘finished’ draft design in Photoshop for the game using Photoshop. I first got a picture of the sky and space (sourced from (Singh, 2015) and (Weinfield, 2015) respectively), and spliced it into two to fit the two sides of the board (with birds representing the sky since they fly and dinosaurs space, as a nod towards the fabled asteroid strike that wiped them out millions of years ago). From there I added various filters to it and watercolour effects to blur over the images and give them a much more stylised look to fit the theme of the game. I then created the two starting spaces for the characters, where like the original draft, they spread out into three directions to encourage teammates to either spread out or stick together and balance the game to how each team wants to strategize (spreading out will capture bases faster, but there’s safety in numbers).
After I made my first digital game prototype, I asked some of my fellow students for their thoughts and opinions on it. Following peer advice from the image below, I was advised by Ben M to space out my board’s tiles some more in order to make the game feel less cluttered, as currently everything is very tightly packed together. Tom also suggested that “You might benefit from additional paths or choices in where the players can move. In a team based game, they'd likely be bumping into each other a lot, which could be bad if you don't intend that.”. Tom also suggested that I change the colour of the dinosaur team from dark blue to red, to increase the contrast between them. And to also make the board symmetrical, as currently one team may have the advantage. Isaac suggested that. “You should consider creating multiple board designs which include some information so that the player can understand basic concepts of the game.”
This is all incredibly helpful advice for me to take forward, and as the first form of peer feedback since I’ve started the main project, I will certainly follow these criticisms to create a much more well-designed and fun game. Here’s a comparison of the board I made before and after feedback was given!
Before advice:
After advice:
The enemy team colour as shown above really helps contrast the two sides as a more clear-cut ‘good’ vs ‘evil approach, but while still keeping birds vs dinosaurs as the main theme for a wacky twist. Plus, the lucky chance tiles being coloured purple make more sense now, with the colour purple itself being a mix of red and blue. It really helps the board look more visually pleasing as a whole. Symmetry was a big trick I missed the first time round too. I did try to make both sides somewhat balanced by having the same number of spaces to reach places but with different layouts, however Tom pointed out that’s still an imbalanced game and unfair to play, as one team may have a potential yet undiscovered advantage. I fixed this, along with some more branching paths to encourage exploration in order to make the game truly fun, yet fair and balanced. Some of the suggestions like Ben’s idea of spacing out tiles were something I unfortunately couldn’t physically do due to size limitations of the board game’s file, however it’s definitely something to consider for future installments of my game!
As an idea to make my game more fun once I’d finished the feedback improvements, I asked Craig and Tom for some ideas to improve the base gameplay. They both said that since one of the teams have to capture all 5 squares, it could become very long-winded with one team constantly capturing one of the 5 bases infinitely, making the game possibly never end.
Tom’s suggestion to fix this problem: “The board game could potentially be long winded, so you should implement a lockdown system that really creates an end point. Perhaps an extra counter moves every time the player rolls a certain dice number, and when this counter reaches its goal, the game instantly ends?” This is a very clever method that they’ve devised, as it ensure games are fast and snappy, while still allowing the game to instantly end if one team were to capture all of the bases. It’s another thing I will definitely consider to implement further on down the line, along with a more spacious and less cluttered game board.
The last few things I made were an early proof-of-concept version of the chance cards (example below), which are drawn whenever a player lands on a purple space. I began to draft out the design using three main text boxes: the card’s actual effect, whether it’s positive or negative (while also being colour-coded to be instantly recognisable to the player as a form of semiotics which I previously researched) and also the name of the game at the bottom (to keep the game consistent and to ensure they don’t get lost somewhere else, with the owner forgetting which game they’re a part of).
Following on from this development there are various improvements and changes to be made, plus the character pieces and health tokens which have to be designed, printed and physically created, which I’ll begin to work towards in the next entry!
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