Hello people!
For the past few weeks, we have been working on developing a board game based on probability. I found it quite fun doing this project so I hope you enjoy!
Check out my partner:
Driving question:
How are thematic and mathematical elements used in game design?
At the start, we learnt about what tectonic plates are. In conclusion, tectonic plates are big slates are rock that sits on a rubbery liquid on top of the asthenosphere. Due to being on a non solid material, the tectonic plates move around causing earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes. In total, there are three different types of boundaries. A divergent boundary, when a plate rips apart causing new oceanic crust to form, a convergent boundary, when 2 different plates ram into each other causing the denser one to sink under the less dense one, and finally the transform boundary, when 2 plates slide horizontally past each other. To demonstrate what we learnt, we took online quizzes regularly to make sure we were learning. Here is a mind map of what I have learnt through this project:
After building our knowledge on tectonic plates, we then attempted our first milestone. We had to make brainstorm ideas to make some basic rules for the game. My partner and and I decided to name our game Outlast. When you start, you have to claim one continent. Each one has their pros and cons. After the continents are claimed, you start by rolling 1d6 and seeing how much damage it does to the other player. If you roll a 1-2 you divide your population by 4, 3-4 divide your population by 2, 5 divide your population by 1.5 and if you roll a 6 nothing happens. You can also get cards to sabotage the other player. Here is my first attempt of rules for my game:
For the next milestone, we had to write 10 key science vocabulary words that would be based on our final game. We wrote out key terms that we determined useful for our game. We also decided to ditch our old rules and create a brand new game because we found that it was to complicated. After we changed the rules, we made it so the new objective is to gain knowledge points. When you roll a number with the 2d6 you use, the number you got will allocate to one of the science vocabulary that we wrote.
When we were making the board, we were trying to create a world map with all the continents and tectonic plates on it. First, we drew out all the tectonic plates and labeled each one of them. Unfortunately, we couldn’t decide how big to create the continents and with us running low on time, we decided to scrap that idea.
Soon later, we pieced together all the things we created to make one final version. Like said before, we decided to ditch out old rules and completely change the rules of our game. The new objective is to collect 100 knowledge points in order to win. You can also die if you lose all of your knowledge points. You also travel along the tectonic plates instead of staying on the continents and trying to survive. The only thing we retained from our old game was the name of the game, Outlast. We also used probability to make sure that it was easier to get volcanoes, tsunami and earthquakes by giving them a number with a higher chance of getting instead of the traditional method of if you roll a higher number, you will get something good. At this part of the stage, we were already nearly done developing the board for our game. My final game rules:
Finally, after putting everything together, we presented it to our peers and teachers. We were allowed to wonder around playing and trying out different peoples games. I really enjoyed playing Charlie’s and Silas’s game called humans vs aliens, I suggest checking out their blog.
In conclusion for this project, I think I did an okay job but could have done better. Some things I think I did well was that I made sure to include at least 10 different terms I learnt over the course of this project and that I managed to create a decent game that was quite fun. On the contrary, I feel like our board is kind of plain and could use some improvements. Some things that we could have added was continents. If I were to do this another time, I think I would probably change the rules a bit, like removing the knowledge points, and improve the board. Here is my self assessment:
To answer the driving question, thematic and mathematic elements are heavily included to board games. Most board games rely on mathematic probability, like rolling a dice to see how much you move, or drawing a good card out of a deck. The thematic element is to make your board game visually appealing to the outside audience.
The end
-Chris