GAME STUDIES- PROJECT 2 & FINAL PROJECT

April 07, 2023

GAME STUDIES- PROJECT 2 & FINAL PROJECT

Week 5- Week 14
Student: Tai Ser Yeet (0345798)
Programme: Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Task: Project 2 & Final Project

INSTRUCTIONS

MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET

Fig 1.1 Module Information Booklet, Week 1 (6/4/23)

WEEKLY ASSIGNMENT BRIEF AND TRACKER

Fig 1.2 Weekly Briefs & Tracker, Week 1 (6/4/23)

PROJECT 2 & FINAL PROJECT

WEEK 6-

TRIAL PLAYTEST 2

Today's class was all about showing Ms. Anis the concept of Duck Academia. Later on, she gave us her feedback. After class, we stayed back to discuss our game mechanics and how it can be improved based on the feedback received.

During our brainstorming session, I came across this idea to create a bucket list that the students can tick off while playing the game. Not only that, but we could also incorporate power cards that introduce an element of risk and unpredictability into the game dynamics. Nevertheless, the player who accomplishes everything on their bucket list wins the game.

And so, with the new gameplay set, we started another playtest in X-space. Unfortunately, the outcome was not as we hoped. In fact, it was almost identical to Monopoly if you think about it long enough. The wild cards represent the "Chance" cards whereas the "bucket list" represented the properties you need to purchase. Plus, the more changes we made, the more the game concept deviated from our original objective which was to enable players to have a balance social and academic life through respective activities.

Fig 1.3 Game Cards, Week 6 (11/5/23)

Fig 1.4 Trial Playtest 2, Week 6 (11/5/23)

WEEK 7-

TRIAL PLAYTEST 3

Before this week's actual playtest, we wanted to try out our new gameplay so we scheduled a meet-up at Jacqueline's dorm.

Fig 2.1 Trial Playtest 3 At Jacqueline's Dorm Room, Week 7 (16/5/23)

ALPHA PLAYTEST 1
In our very first playtest, Selina from Group 2 joined us and Ember, Pei Yun & Jacqueline were the moderators. On the other hand, Jia Hsuan went into a separate group to explore their created game. I was in charge of writing down the game improvements whereas the rest explained the game to Selina. I noticed that in the middle of the gameplay session, Selina wanted to yawn already, signifying that the game was perhaps too long and it was starting to get boring. I roughly knew the root cause of her disinterest which was that there were too many spaces in the credits board. This resulted in a longer duration to decide a winner. Not only that, there wasn't a clear winner that everyone could pinpoint.

Fig 2.2 Recording of Alpha Playtest 1, Week 7 (18/5/23)

Fig 2.3 Alpha Playtest 1 with Selina, Week 7 (18/5/23)

WEEK 9-

ALPHA PLAYTEST 2

For Playtest 1@ Round 1, I went to Colosseum Conquest whose game is all about defeating the 3 bosses. Their game was also referenced by Snakes & Ladders. From that experience, I felt that although the game concept was rather interesting, it lacked clarity and was time-consuming as luck was needed in order to be the winner. Unfortunately, I didn't document my trip to that group so written experience will have to suffix.

Meanwhile, Pei Yun & Jacqueline moderated our game once again in the first round of Alpha Playtest.

Fig 3.1 Alpha Playtest 2 @Round 1, Week 9 (1/6/23)

For the second round of Alpha Playtest 2, it was Jia Hsuan & I's turn to moderate our game instead. Honestly, it was safe to say that I truly enjoyed this experience and laughed really hard multiple times because of our guest players. They showed good sportsmanship as no challenge was ever too hard for them to complete and they were willing to step out of their comfort zone while playing the game. Kudos to them! There were still problems that we recognised during that round which was that there were too many skip or stop cards hence, we reduced those later.

Fig 3.2 Alpha Playtest 2 @Round 2, Week 9 (1/6/23)

Fig 3.3 Alpha Playtest 2's Discussion, Week 9 (1/6/23)

Now comes the Visual Design Stage where we needed to choose which duck character fits each action card the best. In this situation, we used the Card Sorting Method to complete this task. For context, each of us takes turns sorting the action cards based on each character's personality and then later snaps a picture of the arrangement. After that, we also assigned one character to each person to do the illustrations for the action cards. But before that, I want to personally thank Ember for creating such visually appealing characters as well as Jacqueline for adding the shadows and highlights to each character which in turn, adds depth and dimension to the illustration.

Fig 3.4 Card Sorting, Week 9 (1/6/23)

WEEK 10 -

Each of our members had to pick one out of 5 duck characters and later design the action cards based on that. If deemed fit, members could also insert other characters into the design, making it more interactive and interesting. Initially, I had gotten a photographer character but after much thinking, I've decided that perhaps designing the illustrations for Pepper, the Popstar would be much easier as I could personally relate to her more. Hence, I swapped my character with Jacqueline the next day.

Fig 4.1 My Allocated Action Cards, Week 10 (8/6/23)

WEEK 11-

I first created a full-color palette by extracting from Jacqueline's completed action cards and added some of my own generated color shades as well. Next, I downloaded the appropriate type families agreed upon by everyone which were Bakso Sapi (Title) & Athiti( Body Text). I duplicated the templated provided by Jac and changed all the titles and descriptions. Besides that, I also scouted Freepik for some graphical elements that I could use for my cards in order to save some time.

Fig 5.1 Doing the Cards on Illustrator, Week 11 (13/6/23)

Fig 5.2 Finding Online Reference, Week 11 (13/6/23)

FINAL ACTION CARDS

Fig 5.3 Goal Cards, Week 11 (13/6/23)

Fig 5.4 Event & Skill Cards, Week 11 (13/6/23)

GROUP MEETING (13/6/23)

The meeting agenda was to view everyone's progress on their allocated action cards. For my part, I did the character, Pepper the Popstar and was also assigned 11 event cards, 8 goal cards, and 2 skill cards. We also gave our own personal opinions on everyone's cards if there are any improvements that should be made. Next, we decided on the color of the dots for the two dice, one that has visual contrast and is cohesive.

Fig 5.5 Group Meeting, Week 11 (13/6/23)

PROGRESS CHECK-IN WITH MS. ANIS

Below are the following criteria that we prepared for today's meeting.

Fig 5.6 Ms. Anis's Instruction, Week 11 (13/6/23)

Fig 5.7 Week 11's Slides, Week 11 (13/6/23)

PREPARATION FOR BETA PLAYTEST

After the meeting with Ms. Anis, we had our own group meeting once again to delegate tasks and decide on every character's superpower in the student card, sticker design for the credits, and more. We started at 4.30pm and ended at around 7.15 p.m. (OMG!) but it was very productive.

From the picture below, I am in charge of simplifying the rulebook while Pei Yun will handle the design aspect of it (yes, they called me Grape).

Fig 5.8 Week 12's Task, Week 12 (18/6/23)

Fig 5.9 My Draft for RuleBook, Week 12 (18/6/23)

Fig 5.10 First Version of RuleBook, Week 12 (21/6/23)

WEEK 12-

BETA PLAYTEST (22/6/23)

Fig 6.1 Beta Playtest, Week 12 (22/6/23)

I was one of 4 members that went to try the other team's board game. After playing the Last One Standing game created by Group 4, I first felt that it was rather long as the winner is based on the process of eliminating players. For example, most of the players' HP & AP kept fluctuating, and there wasn't a definite winner for a moment. As a result, I became rather bored as the game wasn't going anywhere. Therefore, one of the things that I wish they could improve on was the intensity of their challenges within their action cards deck. For instance, most of the time it was either getting more HPs or APs, Never Had I Ever, Name A Thing From That Category, or getting a "Nothing Happens" card. Not only that, the winner of the game should instead be determined by whoever obtains the most HPs or APs. In terms of visual design, it was pretty decent but the action cards were merely blank card stocks with no distinct indication of which card deck is for the HPs & APs.

On the other hand, for our group, Jia Hsuan stayed on to be the observer and moderator of the game. Players from other groups such as Takuto & Carmen joined in to play our board game. Below is the recording of the entire gameplay session.

Fig 6.2 Beta Playtest, Week 12 (22/6/23)

WEEK 13-

PACKAGING DESIGN

We held a meeting to discuss the packaging design and after going back and forth, we have decided to go with a book concept as seen below. I was not in charge of this particular area so I left it to my teammates to handle it. My task, on the other hand, was to create the Video Pitching video with Jacqueline.

Fig 6.3 Inspiration for Packaging Design, Week 13 (27/6/23)

WEEK 14-

PREPARATION FOR THE FINAL PRESENTATION

Since Jacqueline was tasked to prepare all the video footage, I prepared a script for her which included instructions on what kind of clip I would want, and drew a couple of storyboards as well.

Fig 7.1 Video Pitching Script, PDF, Week 14 (5/7/23)

While waiting for Jacqueline to label and upload all the footage into Google Drive, I proceeded to record all the voiceovers using my Lavalier microphone. By the time I was done, it was already 3am but I knew I needed sleep so I slept first and woke up at 7am to start editing. It was a very anxious time for me because I only had a few hours to edit everything.

Fig 7.2 Voiceover Clips, Week 14 (5/7/23)

Fig 7.3 Editing the Video, Week 14 (6/7/23)

Fig 7.4 Editing the Video, Week 14 (6/7/23)

7 hours later, I was almost 80% done but I needed to head to school so I stopped for a while. Once I reached school, I continued with the help of my teammates and we managed to export everything in the nick of time just before our physical presentation (with some begging involved ofc).

In the video below, you can see that everyone was collectively helping my dying laptop charge because the plug was faulty and the connection was weak. If my laptop dies at that very moment, I can't export the video and we won't have our video pitching video to present >.<. But THANK GOD THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

Fig 7.5 My Extra Hands, Week 14 (6/7/23)

FINAL PRESENTATION (22/6/23)

Fig 8.1 Presentation Slides, Week 14 (6/7/23)

Fig 8.2 Game Design Document, Week 14 (6/7/23)

Link to Duck Academia's Instagram Profile: @duck_academia

Fig 8.3 Duck Academia's Instagram Feed, Week 14 (6/7/23)

Fig 8.4 Video Pitching, Week 14 (6/7/23)

FINAL PROTOTYPE

Fig 8.5 Final Prototype, Week 14 (6/7/23)

Fig 8.6 Final Prototype, Week 14 (6/7/23)

FEEDBACKS

WEEK 6 -