CAGD 170: Project 2

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Assignment: Project 2 - Create a board game with Constraints

Space Harvesters

            The group I was assigned to this time was "Group 7" The group consisted of me and one other person this time. This group was much more managed when it came to brainstorming as I had to listen to only one person instead of two. We were given constraints of the game must be made for two players, and must not have a traditional game board. Specifically for "Group 7" we had to create a space-themed game that was for the ages of 6-12. So my partner and I created a space exploration game where players traversed through a plethora of planets searching for precious valuables and treasure.

The Game

            The game is called "Space Harvesters" The game consists of players traveling to various planets where they are given a series of options of what to do at each planet. Each option allows the player to earn points which ultimately will end up deciding who wins the game. The options can either positively or negatively affect the player so they must choose wisely. Players are also able to spend points to gain perks that can benefit them gain more points if used strategically.

The Audience

            With this assignment, we were given certain constraints regarding the audience of our game. The age range we had to encompass was 6-12 which meant it had to be appealing enough for the younger of that age range while still being difficult enough for the older of that age range to stay interested. This game targets multiple types of players, for example, the competitive types who thrive on beating their opponents, having the most points, the explorer types who love adventuring, traveling to distant planets each having new opportunities, and finally the storyteller types who like to live in fantasy or imagination, traversing this fictional realm of planets for riches.

The Boards

2 Player Board

3 Player Board

           The boards themselves are a work of themselves, the two-player board is loosely based upon the design of a Catan board, the three-person board was created as we realized that it would be beneficial for those groups that were larger. The boards are straightforward and just illustrate what the environment looks like to the players. The player would use an item to place on the board and use that as their spaceship and move it during their turn. We used Photoshop to playtest so we drew circles on different layers to move them. The other main part of the game is within the rule sheet where the prompts for the planet choices are along with their answers.

An example of the prompts for the planets.

          

An example of the answers for those prompts for the planets.

Taken Mid-Play Session

The Journey

            Initially, I had the idea for a space game where you were given options to choose options A or B but I was having trouble imagining this in a way so it could become a reality. My partner helped me create this vision mine with creating these player boards. We went through many iterations of boards until we found ones that provided enough material so a game wouldn't get boring and not too much to think that the game itself was too short.                                                                                                                     After designing the game visually and its board mechanics we then had to tackle the biggest challenge we had which was how to create a way for a player to choose between option A or B on a Word document. We initially just covered the dialogue options with black highlighter, which worked on Google Docs, but this was not feasible on a PDF or printed out. This took a large chunk of our development time to figure out how to solve this issue which we eventually got on the final revision by moving the answers further down and color-coded the document to ensure clarity. Constant brainstorming really allowed us to overcome that tough hurdle we set for ourselves. We had small additions such as the points shops at the home bases that allowed players to purchase perks these were relatively simple to put in but the points for the perks had to be tweaked as the original amount was too high for it to be a feasible strategy. The planets that were word-driven where you had to unscramble the letters to earn points were clever but they did not really have replayability after continual visits, we debated on a word bank but were unsure of how to implement this.

The Result

            In the end, "Group 7" was able to create a tangible board game that checked all the boxes that we were asked to do with it being space-themed, designed for the ages of 6-12, and not using a conventional game board. We received many critiques from peers and from ourselves after playtesting, each time one was pointed out we addressed it to make the game more enjoyable, with each update we made the more clear and concise the rule sheet became in regards to the "Planets Details" and "Planet" Results". And with the final iteration of "Space Harvesters" done I can personally say my vision of a space-themed board game has amazingly come to fruition.