Day 4: Playtesting from Day 3 (The Worst Case Scenario Survival Game)

Yesterday I playtested three boardgames with some friends; The Worst Case Scenario Survival Game, Cluedo and Scrabble.

We began with The Worst Case Scenario Survival Game (TWCSSG). The choice of this was pretty interesting as I gave my friends the option of which game they wanted to play out of the above games and Risk, (Simpsons) Life and Monopoly (Original, Star Wars: Saga, Star Wars: Clone Wars). They chose TWCSSG over the other games.  What did they base their decision on? Well none of us were familiar with the game rules so that ''mystery'' probably somewhat fuelled it. Furthermore in my previous posts I have been talking about how games often use bright colours or gimmicks to attract an audience - but yet TWCSSG has an extremely basic package design. It is simply yellow with the title in a basic typeface. Around the writing there are a few illustrations of sharks or jungles (clearly as signifier exotic dangers). I think given that they both could take a good solid look at the game box, they could make their decision out of that curiosity. However i wonder if the same could be said if it were one game amongst several in a shop like Langley’s or Toys 'R Us.

TWCSSG took only around 2 minutes to set up and had only 4 aspects to its contents;
-The board (which had a twisting ''track'' of footprints with small illustrations in a similar style to the box adorning the edges)
- The cards (these were some yellow cards with two sides of writing. They had a bold question title at the top of both sides and three questions below. One of the answers was in bold)
-The card box (this was made of plastic and just fit all the cards)
- Four coloured playing counters (The colours were Red, Blue, Green and white. They were in a similar shape to a traditional chess pawn)

After one of the players read the rules, he explained that:
- The order of turns is determined by who is the youngest and the oldest goes last
-The player rolls the dice.
-Another player picks a card randomly from the card pack and reads out the two questions - making sure that the other players can’t see it.
-The player choses which question they want
-Then all the three choices are read out and the player choses their answer.
- The ''reading'' player declares whether it is correct or not (the correct answer is bold on the card)
- If the answer is correct then the player moves according to their dice roll. If they are incorrect, they cannot move.
The aim of the game is to reach the end of the track.

From this description, it is safe to say that TWCSSG is a ''Race'' game as the aim is to reach the end of the track before other players. It also mixes in questions much like trivial pursuit. It is these questions that are the Unique Selling Point of this game. They are Survival based questions that will often rely on a player’s general knowledge being applied to a bizarre situation or on common sense. As a player several times I had to rely on ''informed guesses''.
Of course, due to not answering the question causing players movements to Holt, the gameplay time is determined by how successful players are at answering questions. Our playtest took an hour and twenty minutes to complete the game. This would probably extend to further with the maximum playing (four players (we had three)).


Pros:
-Unique slant on traditional race games and question/ answer games
-Very quick to set up
-Simple Rules

Cons:
-Can drag on if players cannot answer questions
-Basic package design won’t stand out enough on a shelf full of interesting, bold and licensed games
-While it is ''mysterious'' to new gamers, they are not likely to play it a second time and perspective buyers are not likely to buy the game based on just that

Day 4 (Market testing from Day 3 - Langley's)

Again, unlike Toys 'R Us, Langleys (Toymasters) allowed me to take photos of their rather gargantuan board game collection.

Day 4: Team Meeting

Given that our group hadn't really had much in the way of inter team discussion, the group meeting that was held today was pretty impressive. Several members shared their own research and clear tasks were identified for each person over the next couple of days. My own 'task' will be to look at the way a game can use slight variants to attract different audiences. This is well suited to me as I have three variants of Monopoly at home and some of my Market research shots had many variants of the same game.
Of course, given that this was the task set by my team mates, I will put some of the other notes i want to make on a lower priority and tackle this task tonight.

Day 4 (Market Testing from Day 3 - Jarrold's)

After visiting Toys 'R Us, I checked out the toy section of Jarrold's Department store (on the top floor). Happily, they allowed me to take photos in the store so I got a much more extensive coverage of their store layouts. Here are the photo's I took:

Life drawing classes

Despite the research I’ve been doing over the past couple of days, I'm rather happy to have received an email recently that revealed that the Art School will be holding Life Drawing Classes. Given that both at GCSE and A level I haven't had any proper taught lessons in body proportions, I will be aiming to seize every opportunity to do so. Hopefully it will lead to a massive improvement to my understanding of human anatomy.
Note about the days (so I don’t miss any)
Wednesday 13th Oct 1.30-4.30(NOT on the 27th Oct or 3rd Nov)Wednesday 10th Nov 1.30-4.30
Wednesday 17th Nov 1.30-4.30
Wednesday 24th Nov 1.30-4.30
Wednesday 1st Dec 1.30-4.30

Day 3: End

I looked at 2 more stores today, and also held playtests of the classic board games Scrabble and Cluedo, along with a unique game called 'Worst Case Scenario survival game'. Unfortunately it is getting too late for me to post what I learnt today, but hopefully in tomorrow’s early morning Media Lab session will allow me to post at least some of that (also I will get a chance to speak more with my group and learn what they have been researching for these past 3 days).

Day 3: Market Testing (Toys 'R Us)

I decided today to explore some of my local town's toyshops to examine how they market board games to the current market.

Toys 'R Us

(Unfortunately when I asked in store they didn't want me to take many photos of their displays so I only have a few).

The Norwich Toys 'R Us is probably the largest board game seller in the City, with a large wall -extending almost the width of the building, taken up with purely table top or board games. As I couldn’t take many photos I couldn’t analyse their particular placement pattern in store in terms of appealing to certain demographics. However that said, a few products stood out for me in terms of targeting particular age groups;

 

These two shots help depict how a modern board game such as Monopoly uses licensing and bold package design to entice its target audience. Given that SpongeBob is a children’s cartoon, it is safe to say that the above copy is targeted at children between 8 and 13. The designer has used the bold yellow of SpongeBob to increase the games shelf exposure and furthermore used a holographic material for the iris's to again add an aspect that will attract that age group. The bold colours and gimmick of the eyes will help a child pick out that game, amongst the hundred + on sale and proceed to attempt to get the parents to buy it. Also it works the other way around. Parents, knowing their child/children like SpongeBob, will notice the bold design and buy that board game variant over several others due to the licensing.  (Also on close inspection of the photo, it is much bolder due to the positioning of it next to a plain monopoly edition)
The pink design is a spin on this logic, clearly aimed at young girls. This is due to the bold pink package colour and slightly more 'fancy' style of the writing and presentation. Of course this is a rather stereotypical view on the power and meaning of such a colour; however in today’s society colours will often power a young Childs choice (pink remaining the most popular with girls). Interestingly, both games were almost next to each other. This is likely to be down to the division by board game type on the isle, but also it could be due to when family’s (with multiple sexes in their offspring) go down the aisle, both children will want some form of variant of monopoly - most likely leading to the buying of one of the two (with the emphasis being on the SpongeBob edition as a noticeable 'exclusively to Toy's R Us' sign is clearly visible).

 

While those images show how two versions of the same game can often fight it out on the same shelf or isle for the buy, one noticeable thing about Toys 'R Us is their large display unit upon entry. This has been a feature of the store since it opened and has featured many new children’s films or toys. Now that most board games shamelessly use licensing to keep interest, many 'Toy Story' related games are amongst those action figures. This means that the designer of the game packaging - knowing how the high interest will lead to special advertising spaces, can focus on retaining a template style for all their games.


I would have liked to take more photographs, but even when I couldn’t, there was much to be learnt about how much each game leans heavily on having a powerful and appealing box art. When the game may be one of hundreds or even a few, having a visually powerful image that can single it out from other more well-known (probably well licensed) would be crucial to its success.

Note to take from this:  Package design is incredibly important and needs to be carefully thought about to target the demographic chosen next week. Stereotypes could be exploited to do so.

Day 2: Modern Board-game history

Having gathered some information about ancient board games played (and subsequently spread) through the ages, I decided to look at some more modern examples of games using a combination of information gathered from two books; 'How We Played: Games from Childhoods Past' and 'The Encyclopaedia of Games'.


Monopoly


The origins of monopoly date back to the late 1800's when games based around properties became immensely popular. It is often thought that the game Monopoly bears a striking resemblance to 'The Landlord's Game' which was patented 30 years before Charles Darrow secured the patent for Monopoly. Elizabeth Maggie, the owner of 'The Landlords Game' had never properly marketed the game; however it gradually grew in popularity as friends and acquaintances created homemade copies. When Darrow had played The Landlords Game in the early 1930's it had evolved from a simple property game where rents were charged for landing on opponents squares- to include names for individual properties, the concept of collecting groups of properties, and placing houses and hotels to increase rent (Also the inclusion of Community chest and Chance cards).
In historical context, the game massively became successful at the time not because of rules of the game, but rather through the unique combination of competition and power struggle through acquisition of properties. In a time where The Great Depression meant times were hard for most of the population, the game offered a brilliant means of escapism by offering players a chance to feel 'powerful' and wealthy. Ironically whereas Charles Darrow took Monopoly to such a level that it became an Icon for the Capitalist culture (players battling it out for property and money, whilst aiming to bankrupt their rivals), Elizabeth Maggie had developed the game as a means to demonstrate the flaws of Capitalism (landlords charging unfair rent).
This Capitalist status leads to it being banned in several places including Cuba, China and North Korea. One of Fidel Castro's first acts after seizing power in Cuba was to denounce the game as 'Symbolic of an imperialistic system'.

Charles Darrow, brought two key aspects to the development of Monopoly. Having not really invented the game, on the other hand he used his draughtsmanship skills to produce an attractive looking game board. With his business prowess, he quickly copyrighted his version and began to quickly produce copies - selling them to both local shops and friends. Eventually he was led to approach the games manufacturers Parker Brothers as he identified a more commercial avenue was needed. They initially rejected the game, stating that there were '52 Fundamental errors' but soon changed their stance when Darrow had sold 5000 copies by Christmas (1934) just in Philadelphia and New York.
Parker Brothers offered him a high royalty which he 'accepted and never regretted'. By the age of 46 he retired and when he died in 1967, he left his heirs a fortune.
Just one year after acquiring the rights to Monopoly they had to expand their work force after receiving demand of over 20,000 copies a week. Furthermore they discovered that there were two patents that were similar to Darrow’s (The Landlords Game and Finance). To save themselves a large scandal they bought the rights to both for small amounts.
The success of Monopoly was so high that they rapidly secured deals of foreign versions of the game. In the UK Waddington’s took the game and made a few alterations (Dollars to Pounds, Property Names). In the Second World War Waddington’s were commissioned to produce special copies to send to POW camps, which included a secret map out of the camp and real money that coincided with where they were positioned. It is also said that the Great Train Robbery of 1963 passed their time by playing Monopoly with real money - the two million pounds from the Heist.

From when the Parker Brothers in the Mid 1930's acquired the rights to Today, Monopoly has sold over 125 million copies, been sold in more than 40 countries and is available in upwards of 20 languages.



Risk

Risk was invented by a French film director called Albert Lamorisse and initially released as 'La Conquete du monde'.The rules often vary as publishers in slightly different countries chose to use slight variations or different rules. (I couldn't find much more about the process behind the origin of Risk; however in the anniversary edition of Risk, Hasbro included a brief history of the game):

RISK TIMELINE
1950s - Parker Brothers forms an affiliation with the Miro Company in France.
1957 - A representative of Miro approaches Parker Brothers with La Conquete du Monde (French for "The Conquest of the World"), a game designed by Albert Lamorisse. Lamorisse (a movie writer and director best known for The Red Balloon) and Michael I. Levin are co-credited with the game design at BoardGameGeek.com.
1959 - Parker Brothers first publishes the Risk Continental Game in the United States.
1986 - The game Castle Risk (played on a map of Europe) is published.
1993 - The rules for Secret Mission Risk, which had been a variant in Europe, are added to the United States edition.
1999 - A limited edition of Risk is published in France, as 10,000 copies of Risk Edition Napoleon are released. An expansion in 2000 added the Ottoman Empire.
2001 - Risk players can now conquer the moon and underwater territories with Risk 2210 AD.
2002 - Risk moves to Middle-earth with the release of Lord of the Rings Risk.
2003 - Risk travels deeper into Middle-earth with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition.
2004 - Risk: God storm is published, injecting mythology into the game of world domination.
2005 - Risk: Star Wars - The Clone Wars Edition is published in concert with the release of the third Star Wars prequel, Revenge of the Sith.
2006 - Risk: Star Wars - Original Trilogy Edition is published. The game features three factions, each with its own victory conditions.
2008 - A new basic edition of Risk is published by Hasbro.
Numerous unofficial expansions and new maps have also been published through the years

(Directly sourced from http://boardgames.about.com/od/risk/a/risk_history.htm )


Cluedo (Clue) - (Note used http://www.cluedofan.com/overview.htm to further source the origins of the game)

Cluedo (or Clue as it is known in America) is a game with several international connections. Originally devised in England by Anthony Pratt (a solicitors clerk from Birmingham), it made its Appearance in 1948 published by John Waddington Ltd. This was after Pratt, his wife and a few of his friends had come to pitch the idea to Waddington’s in 1946. The present day editions are published by Hasbro (as part of the Parker Bros games collection/series). As a Crime Fiction game, it is believed that Pratt based the mansion board on Scalford Hall, Leister shire - once owned by a Colonel Colman of Colman's Mustard (Colonel Mustard character references it?)

Scrabble

Like the man behind Monopoly (Charles Darrow), Alfred Butts (the creator of scrabble) found himself out of work due to the great depression. As a huge fan of wordplay based games and crossword puzzles, he found out that there was no such game out on the market. Discovering this hole in the market, he devised his own prototype game, Lexiko, in 1931. Although retaining the 100 letter tiles of scrabble, there was no board. Games would be played off the rack, with the first player to construct a seven letter word to be the winner. Each turn tiles could be exchanged and later a points system was introduced - meaning players could total their 'score' at the end of each round.
After pitching his concept and prototype to various publishers and being turned down, Butts joined forces with Jim Brunot. Brunot and his wife protected the game using the title Scrabble, refined the gameplay and began to manufacture boards by hand. Beginning in 1949, the first and second years saw losses, with a total of around 7200 sold in that time. When Jack Strauss, the chairman of Macy's in New York, became hooked on Scrabble in 1952, he made a large order for the game and had large in store promotions( This lead to four and a half Million sets being sold over the next 2 and a half years).
Eventually due to the high demand, the Brunots decided to license Selchow and Righter (one of the leading American games companies) to market Scrabble in North America. Soon UK distribution rights were granted to J.W Spear and Sons plc. In their first year of selling to the UK, four and a half million sets were sold.
Currently Scrabble is being sold in 120 Countries, produced in 31 languages, can also be bought in braille and played on the computer.


Trivial Pursuit
In 1979 photo editor Chris Hanley and sportswriter Scott Abbott purchased a brand new game of scrabble. Due to the fact that the pieces rarely stayed in the box long, this was their eighth copy. This lead Hanley and Abbott to start wondering just how many people had bought multiple copies of the same game. They then realised that there was a gap in the market that could be exploited - making them begin to develop their own game; Trivial Pursuit. Given that they were both reporters, the focus of the game revolved around current or past affairs. The game reflects this with its focus being on 'who, what, when, where and why'.
The next step for Hanley and Abbot was to form a company and market it. They enlisted Hanley's brother John and his friend Ed Werner to join them. Through raising money by investors they managed to raise forty thousand dollars. Unfortunately in1982 high production cost ($75) to low sale price ($15) they were in a large decline. However this changed when they managed to gain the interest of American games company Selchow and Righter with the idea. In 1983 the company launched a huge public relations campaign - mailing them to several Hollywood stars and also presenting it at the New York Toy Fair. The return was seen by year three. Half a million units had been sold. This is progressed further and the following year twenty million units were sold.

Today the game is distributed in 19 different languages, across 30 countries.

Day 2: Brief look into the origins of board games (Information 'stage')

Every game has a starting point, or a series of influences that shape the game to survive through several generations. Here is my understanding of some of those earlier games, which when looked at, can easily be seen as the origins of several classic games today.


(Information sources: How We Played -Games From Childhood Past, written by Carole Goodfellow, Published by History Press, Wikipedia, the British Museum's website)


Royal game of Ur
From Ur, southern Iraq, about 2600-2400 BC

                                         (Sourced from British Museum's Mesopatamia Site)

Royal game of Ur
From Ur, southern Iraq, about 2600-2400 BC

                                         (Sourced from British Museum's Mesopotamia Site)

'Royal Game of Ur' was discovered by Sir Leonard Woolley in the Royal Tombs of Ur in Mesopotamia. The game was said to be 4500 years old and was found by Woolley in the 1920's. While experts have yet to determine what the rules of this game were, an edition found in southern India has further been interpreted that the aim of the game was that a player would have to move all the counters from the start position to the finish. Moves would be determined by a throw of the dice (3 allotted to each player). The British Museum has an online version on their Mesopotamia Site for up to 2 players to try. It has been said that it has certain similarities with the game Ludo, although this may be due to the fact that it was modern scholars that derived the interpretation.

The Royal Game of Ur was the foundation for game boards found in Egypt, and one in particular; Game Of Twenty Squares.


Game of Twenty Squares/ Game of Senet (3000 BC in an Egyptian burial)

(Sourced from Wikipedia)

While bearing some resemblance to The Royal Game of Ur (TRGU), the game board is a different shape (that of a T) - with a 4 by 3 panel at the top and a tail of eight squares. Playing rules are probably the same as those of TRGU. On the reverse side of the board, often the Game of Senet can be found.
In Ancient Egypt, it is thought that Senet was one of the most popular games amongst the Pharaohs (with images depicting a Pharaoh playing backing up this claim). Some of the boards that were built by workmen remain, being of elaborate design. The game was said to be so popular it was played across the entire social scale, with peasants scratching the design on the floor.
The rules of the game once again resemble those of Ludo. The aim of the game is to move all the players’ markers around the board - whilst preventing the opponent doing the same. The playing space is an S shape and is made up of thirty squares in total. Square 27 sends the player counter that landed on it back to the start. Each player has 5 playing counters (either white or black). The board is said to represent the furrows made by oxen and that the game is a duel between the spirits of the dead in the underworld.

Mehen 

Mehen was a spiral race game that represented a coiled snake the character was the defender of the Sun Boat, usually portrayed as a man with a serpent head. The game counters are in the shape of Lions and Lionesses. The way the game was actually played is not known. However, despite this, the shape and design of the game had many variations produced in eighteenth century England.




Nard

Nard is the ancient game that closely resembles the classic board game, Backgammon. It was widely popular and forms of the game were played in Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire and China. The Crusaders are thought to have brought it over to England where it became established in pubs as a good gambling game. It still is considered both a good strategy game and gambling game - however its popularity has waned dramatically.



Alquerque

Another Egyptian game which is an early form of Draughts or Checkers. First introduced into Spain by the Moors and described in Libro de los Juegos (Book of Games), produced for the current King of Castile (Alfonso X) in 1283.
Much like checkers, each player has a set amount of counters that can be moved from 'station' to 'station' (there are 25 stations of play on the game board). If moving results in jumping over an opponent’s counter, it is removed from the game board. Several successive jumps can be made, however should the opportunity to 'take' an opponent's piece by jumping it not be taken, then the player's piece is removed from play.
Several variations of Alquerque have been spread across the world. For example in New Mexico the Zuni tribe play 'Awithlaknannai' and in Sri Lanka, there is Peralikatuma (where four triangles have been added to the original board). These variations have similarities with other board games - such as Solitaire.

Mancala (Wari or Oware)

Again, dating back to Egypt, Mancala has been played all over the world, but it has been most effective in Africa. The game was transported to the West Indies by slave trade and due to its versatile nature still is extremely popular now. This is likely due to the fact that the game can be played at any time. Game boards have been known to be constructed of wood, clay or even scooped out of the ground (with any small object used as counters). The board usually has 6 'compartments' for each player and a seventh to hold any counters she/he might capture, although the aim of the game is to capture the opponent’s compartments. Experts can play the game at great speed, and like many games there are national and international tournaments. Of course for most, playing is about the enjoyment.

Go

Aside from chess, Go is considered one of the best ancient games (originating in the Far East) played today. Unlike many games it has changed little in terms of rules. The board is a 19 by 19 gridded area, but the game is played on the 361 'points' on the square points. The aim of the game is to surround opponent counters to capture them. Once placed down counters can't move. However protective chains can be formed (although if they are surrounded - all counters are captured). 
A simplified version of the game plays much like Tic Tac Toe or Connect, with the first player to get 5 counters in a line to win. The board size also shrinks to 13 by 13.

Day 1: End

Just beginning my look into some of the older board games and have rented 'How We Played; Games from Childhood Past' (Caroline Goodfellow, 2008, History Press) from my local library. I will begin to write some notes and will have them up hopefully tomorrow. Additionally I also have a organised possible day to play board games with a few 18+ friends on Wednesday this week. Should I be able to carry this through, I will record some of their reactions to the games before and after playing. If I cannot, I will schedule days further down the week with my family (meaning I get a good age group that abides to conventional ''family'' times (for which board games are stereotypically known for).

Day 1: Morning gaming session

When grouped and presented with the project brief, our team began with some first-hand play testing of the popular but classic board game - 'Scotland Yard'
Given that only two out of eight of the group had even heard of the game, it was a perfect basis for a non-bias assessment of the game.

Early thoughts: When setting up, we discovered that it was a team based game but in a 1 v 2+ (up to 4) way. This was pretty unconventional to how games are normally split team wise (often being either team v team or free for all). Furthermore, the game uses a 'cat and mouse' scenario - something I had not seen in another game.

The game was comprised from a few basic components:
-Character pieces (which were of a basic shape)
-'Tickets' (which were small card pieces with modes of transport written on)
- A computer cut plastic slotter that a piece of A4 paper could be slid into.
- A piece of paper (for the above slotter)
- The board (this was a large A2/A1 piece of card with a map of London printed on it)
- A cap (which had 'Mr X' sown into it)

     (Image Sourced directly from http://www.puzzlemethis.com/puzzle/images/items/FXS26117.jpg)
Aside from the cap which was a gimmick of the game, this is pretty conventional of modern board games.

After around 10 minutes of setting up, the game was ready to play. This in itself was a large 'Con' as normally should a game take that amount of time to set up, the players would likely lose interest and not play. The fault was due to the disorganisation of various pieces of the game (transport cards) and also due to the complex rules, which took several minutes for a first time player to read through.

Again, as a player I would believe that this was another Con against Scotland Yard as a game. If a game has far too many rules, the instruction manual and the player who is commonly designated to read them become too integral to the game.

Soon the playing got underway and it became apparent that the player who had read the instruction manual had become the 'explainer' of the rules. During the game they would have to guide other players and often this lead to mistakes when a rule was accidently missed and had to be rectified later. This is another testament to far too complex starting gameplay.

From watching the gameplay - my understanding of the game rules were this: One player is designated as Mr X and then must escape the other players using various forms of transport (taxi, underground and bus). The detectives (the other players) must land on the same square as him to win. Mr X however must evade capture until they run out of tickets to win.

At the end of each 3rd turn Mr X must reveal his current location. Furthermore he reveals every transport he takes and gains 3 'quick escape' cards that allow him to move into any random location leaving behind his card as a clue.
The detectives have 10 taxi, 8 bus and 4 underground tickets.

From the rules we agreed the game was a Strategic Mystery game (like Cluedo) and requires the players to think hard about their next move. This is a big 'Pro' to the game as when combined with the unique nature of the scenario; it makes for enjoyable play for the group - which grew as the game went on.
However, one Con from that point is that the younger player may not enjoy such gameplay. And given that the game boasts an Age range of  '10 to 99'  our group decided at the end of play that this was slightly off and maybe 16/18 + would be a more realistic view of who will enjoy the game the most. This is not due to the content but rather to the levels of attention span the players must have to see the game through to its end.


What I learnt from this one playtest is that for an enjoyable game it must have:
- A quick to set up board (Maybe not many cards or cards held together by an elastic band?)
-Easy or simple to learn rules
-Rewarding gameplay system with clear winners (in this game while it was a group effort, the player that 'caught' Mr X was clearly happier than the other 'winners').

Deep and strategic games are also rewarding however it would change the age group to aim the game at (16+)

Project 1: Board-game design

For the first project, in small groups, we will be constructing a prototype (but working) board game. For this we will have to have a strong knowledge of Board-games - both in history and through play testing. Furthermore market research will be critical in identifying both target audience and current products on sale.

My ideas for planning this research is to look into the development of the board game in history briefly, before combining play testing with the market research by hosting/ filming people playing board games (and joining in myself). Fortunately I am well situated for this side of the planning as i have access to two key groups in terms of both age and general grouping. These are young adults (18 - 23) and a family. The one area i do not have access to is young people (8 - 13). Hopefully I will find a way to compensate for this later in the week.