Card Creation & Testing (11/25-12/1)
This week I didn’t do as much work as anticipated mostly due to it being a holiday. I got to spend time with family and discuss my project with them, rather than physically working on my project.
Card Creation
I’m almost finished with this round of cards. From previous weeks of testing and receiving feedback, this is what I have so far. To reiterate, currently this is a card based game because it doesn’t distract from the conversation aspect. I want to engage people in conversations around grief (and other rare topics around emotions) rather than have them distracted by how to play a new board game. But by including an adventure element, there’s more interaction than simply prompting questions.
Acceptance cards (white) - set the goal
Environment cards (orange) - set the stage and where players are at on Grief Island
Event cards (red) - something happens to players, but can be avoided with the right supplies
Monster cards (dark purple) - players approach the monster and with the right items they can get past them, by asking their teammates questions, they can fully conquer the monster
Creature cards (light purple) - friendly creatures that help players reach acceptance, also ask teammates questions to acquire something beneficial
Food (light green) - players acquire food
Materials (brown) - players acquire materials, with a combination of materials players can avoid obstacles
Tools/weapons (blue) - players acquire tools/weapons, with a combination of supplies players can avoid obstacles
I added friendly creatures into the mix because I didn’t want this game to only focus on sad, dark emotions. There are also happy emotions that occur during grief and it’s important to talk about those moments. This will bring a better balance to a game centered around grief.
There are buffs when players have a combination of items in order to encourage them to want to collect items and trade with their team.
Reflection
I’m happy with the direction of this card game and I think it has potential. Once I find the right balance of the amount of cards of each category, I think this can be a fun, engaging game. It’s been a very tedious process to create a card game where I have to consider all the player interactions and design every single type of card, especially when I’m trying to engage people in conversations. Another area that can continue to improve is how the questions are worded.
Next Steps
I need to consider how to write the game rules. I will continue to test this game when possible - hopefully finding people who have experienced grief. Also, I need to prepare the presentation for the final class and bring in a testable pack of cards. I’m concerned about demo-ing this game in front of class when not everyone is comfortable with discussing the conversation topics around grief. I need to figure out the best way to demo this type of game.