Prototyping with self-set restraints

So following on form last week, students got into groups to create a prototype. This time, instead of in a few hours, this project will be over 2 weeks. The first was to show how much planning and iteration designs take instead of leaving it until last. So now all the students mistakes (hopefully) are out of the way, time to get designing. Each group had to create 3 rules which their game must be based on.

Group one set their own restraints as:
1. A single player game
2. Puzzle based
3. Designed around the word “Beard”

They spent quite a while throwing out different ideas so didnt really get going until the end of the day. However I was impressed with the willingness to scrap crap ideas and to start fresh when they realised it wasn’t really working instead of just forcing the design.

Keeping in mind the students didnt have to do a paper prototype, it could be engine/software/life based, the second group initial went with using UDK. However, they soon realised they were shoe-horting their designs to fit with their own skill of UDK rather than letting the design direct the project. They soon went back to basics and started developing an interesting Photoshop prototype.

Their rules were:
1. Fixed game space (i.e a board)
2. Turn based
3. Gameplay must be defined by a dice role.

The came up with a prison game (kind of like cluedo) where they each role a dice (done on the computer) to check the order of play. Theres a central ‘Warden’ who controls play by assigning cards to the players. Players start in their prison cells and are each given a target. They must hunt down their target without their target realising and kill them. When killed, players spawn back in their cells. End game is defined by how many turns you want your game to have then the person with the most kills wins.

10minute board prototype with grid

Excel sheet with a ‘random number generator’ to simulate dice roles for people – Genius