board reconfiguration

So this is the direction that I went in with the board.  I reduced the number of information realities to just the real world and the internet.  The game has eight puzzle cards, which are spread evenly through the deck.  The spots for the cards are marked with the numbers surrounding the board.

game redesign rough

This is the quick rough that I created for the redesign.  there are multiple levels because I realized that players that can't figure out the puzzles even with help and discussion, and hints, will become justifiably frustrated.  so to keep them playing even when they hit a dead end, I decided to use the purchase away your problems idea.  There are some cards that place on the board small cubes, these cubes represent the information that players would have to be climbing through to find what they are looking for.  The players gather these off of the board to be able to buy a card out of the game.  It's impossible to buy away all of the cards, but it makes it so people can buy themselves more time.  The different levels are the different levels of reality that people would find information in the game: the internet, the real world, and in print.  The players need a certain amount of information from each to buy away their problems.

early board roughs

this was the early board rough designs, first the one that I had to axe because it just didn't work.

it was a race to the end, each space was marked by a card type which had a puzzle on it, or a hint on it.  Players needed to exchange information to get to the end box, because unless you could instantly figure something out by looking at it you needed other players to figure out what to do with your puzzle.  You could use any information means at your disposal if players were not willing to share their information.

website

The information for the website took a while to write up.  I lessened my scope for the number of websites greatly down to just one.  This site is part of the ground work for the ARG.  I am on the second version of the site, not because it was redesigned, but because I lost the original.

board game Redesign

At the end of week 8 I did the sensible thing.  Because the original board concept of a race to the finish where you need other players assistance wasn't working, I axed the design.  The redesign focuses solely on the co-operation aspect of the game.  The players all win together or they lose together.  The testing period was much shorter, but all in all the game works.  The main concern that I have at this point is that the board is to small.  or that there are not enough spaces, which I am probably right, but the right size would be determined by testing, which I do not have the time to do.

playtest failure

The entire design of the board game portion of my project did not work design wise.  It took a lot of time away from em, and ended up in needing a complete redesign.  How I handled the testing was I sent pdf's to players of the board, and used the email account to track the player movements.  the original design had the players competing against each other as well as against the game itself.  However it was obvious early on who would win, if any players won.  Players focused more on the competition aspect making the over all experience with them unpleasant.  I tried to keep this aspect, but then when a player seemed like the were going to lose, the players Sore Loser personality took over, making it so they would refuse to talk to anyone, or take their turn.  This also made the overall testing slower than necessary.  It was clear that there wasn't enough incentive for them to work together, and to many people were okay with the "If I don't win, then no one will" concept.

investigationg internet powered

my concept of having the game run on a website that would track player movements within the board game was part of my original concept.  A friend of mine who plays a lot of board games over long distances and time told me about a website called spiel.  They track player movement.  I referenced this site for when I was playtesting.