Dev Log

This is a log of all of the work I have specifically done in the group project.

Week 1 (31/10/2022 – 6/11/2022)

For this week, my role was to design the game board, cards and their sizes. I had to consider the size of the cards that will be used. Eventually, I decided with my teammates that the cards should be playing card size (64mm x 89mm). This is a manageable size. The board then had to be designed around the size of the cards and it went through a couple of iterations until the group decided on a 10 x 12 square checkerboard style. I considered 14 x 14 but this would have been absolutely massive and would not be able to fit on most tables. The board that we will eventually make will be in 2 separate boards with foldable parts to make storing the game easier.  

As the group needs 4 ideas before we choose the final one to develop. I created 2 extra ideas for board games, one a geography dice game where the goal is to traverse the globe and be the first person to reach 10 points. My second idea was another dice game for four players who each represented a colour. A12 sided dice would be used on a hexagonal board and the goal would be to have the most colours on the board after 10 rotations. 

Weekly Reflection

I feel that I have made a good start on developing the concept of our group game. I formulated two board game ideas, which I think are fine. The main board game initial idea was created by another member of the group but we have all been collaborating to some extent. I am quite frustrated with some members of the group as they continue not to take the project seriously and have made entire chunks of work which cannot be used either due to plagiarism, copyright or not matching the theme. I have tried to explain what needs to be done, but unfortunately they are not listening. I know that this is a collaborative project but it feels that I am taking on more work to cover the other two members of the group. If this does not get better, I will need to discuss it with the class tutor. 

Week 2 (07/11/2022 – 13/11/2022)

This week I have been focusing on the board game progression. I made two prototype boards out of different materials and shortened the width of the board (due to the limitation of the materials that I had at the time) so it is now 10 x 10 squares. Originally I had designed the squares the same size however, I added smaller gaps in between as this will be where the wall prototypes will be placed (I also made these from materials that I had. Below are two board designs that I physically created. 

The top design had 3 foldable sections  which meant pack away and travel with but it was made out of plastic which was hard to work with and was quite sharp. The bottom was my final design prototype with just one foldable crease in the middle. This was made from mountboard material which was easier to manipulate and does not have the risk of damaging the cards. 

These are my initial thoughts on the materials that I could use, looking at the advantages and disadvantages. 

Issues – protection of the line markings and possible illustrations that will cover the inside of the board

Solutions:

1. To use sticky back plastic cover over the top of the board which will provide an airtight surface and protect both
2. To digitally produce the artwork and have the line markings on top of the artwork. This then could be laminated and each foldable section could be cut out and tape used to enable the sections to fold. The laminated sections could be stuck to the initial board using double sided tape. 
3. Large plastic photo frame cover could be used, but there may be difficulty in adhering this to the board – also it will need to be cut to the size of each section and this will require possible hand tool use. 

Initial prototype  – Materials, plastic, mount board.

Plastic Advantage –  hard wearing not easily damaged – cutting the mountboard leaves sharp edges which need to be sanded.  

Disadvantage – might not stick 

Mountboard – more manageable – adaptable – lightweight – can have things adhered to it. 

Disadvantage- may not be as durable – could be easily damaged.

The initial card designs had already been created by a team member – after consulting with me, we just needed to decide how we were going to present these in the game. Our initial idea was to have 2 printed sides with cardboard sandwiched between, to give them a rigid exterior. However, the cards could get damaged or bent because there is no protective covering and the cardboard can bend easily. They would also feel uncomfortable to hold. One positive benefit to this would be that the cards physically hold weight as though they are trying to hold their entity within them. This would make the player more immersed in the game as if their decisions have consequences. Another option for the cars was for them to be laminated. This meant that the front and back of the cards would be stuck together and then laminated, providing a protective covering for the cards so they would not get scratched. A positive about this method was that the cards moved along the board quite smoothly and they were also easy to handle. However, cutting the laminated cards meant that the edges had to be rounded or they were quite sharp.

Reviewing both designs, we had to consider material costs. If we were making a deluxe version of the game it would be made with more expensive materials such as the cardboard however, we decided on the laminated card version for ease of use, lower material costs and durability. There is also more scope to make extra packs so that extra themed cards can be purchased and the decks could be mixed and matched in (this would work really well for an online and digital version). 

Weekly Reflection

I feel better about the project this week, everything is working fine and things that we needed to get done have been done. I think the group is on track, however, I am still doing the work of 3 people as some of the group are still not pulling their weight. I am not nervous about the presentation which is coming up because I know what I am talking about and feel confident in our ability to express our idea and game concept in a detailed way. I am pleased how my designs have evolved and changed along with the game idea and are developing from a concept to a physical prototype. I have no concerns at this point about the next few weeks. 

Week 3 (14/11/2022 – 18/11/2022)

The game has progressed well this week. I have been focusing on laminating the playing cards and getting the art on the game board design finalised. I have been using Photoshop to design the board design and different AI art generated software to create images based on keywords. This generated lots of images and it took me a while to look through to find the images that were more suitable for our game. Depending on the AI programme, I also had to specify what artstyle I would like the images to be so the images would fit together. Again this took a while just to get the images that I wanted. 

Weekly Reflection

At the start of this week, I felt that I did not have that much to do however, now I feel that I have a lot to do. The week has gone quite well, and the group is way ahead of schedule, so much so that the week after next the tutor has told us we can start work on the digital version. I feel pretty good about this as it gives us more time to make everything look more professional. The lamination of the cards took more time than I thought it would, but now they are done they look pretty good so I am pleased with these. One of my group gave me  ideas on how I should design the board, which were different to my ideas. We discussed how our ideas fit into the theme and came up with one general idea that we both liked. This made it a little easier for me as I had an idea of what I now need to produce. 

I feel a little bit of pressure, I know that the board designs will be easier to do and I have already got the card aspect sorted so that is a big chunk but I will need to consider how to make the box as well. It’s all just down to me, but I know I can do this on time. 

Week 4 (21/11/2022 – 25/11/2022)

With the cards finished, this week mainly focused on creating and printing off the illustration for the board design. Once I had the image sorted, I needed to make sure that it was in the correct size and format and once I had done that I added the dividing lines. As the board is custom made, it had to be printed on an A1 sheet and I chose a Satin finish so that the image was not glossy. Cutting down to size and sticking the images on the board did not take too long however, there was an issue. As my team had started the digital part of this project, they found that the lines on my images did not align properly when they faced each other. I had to go back into photoshop and get rid of the lines, save the images without the lines, put them both back in the same photoshop file and draw on new lines that would match (from the top of one board to the bottom of the other). The walls, I thought, looked quite rough in their current stage (cardboard and masking tape) so I wanted to make them fit in with the theme of the board. I researched brick images that would have been in ancient Greece, imported an image into Photoshop and then cloned this to make a larger image. I imported this image onto a Docs page and then copied and pasted it to make a large A4 size image. Once printed I cut to size and stuck to the cardboard walls. Finally I used a black sharpe to make the base more pleasing to look at. 

Unfortunately, I did not have a lot of materials to work with but I found a box base that I could use as the base for the game box. I had to create a lid for the box with other materials that I found. Once the basic structure was made, I decided to add some aesthetics to make it look more professional so I created some designs which fit the theme. I am still working on these. The last thing I have worked on this week is updating the digital production document, the game manual and rules. 

Weekly Reflection

Basically, I have felt quite relaxed this week. There was little stress because mainly I had practical stuff to finish. I think we have worked well as a team as we have all had individual tasks to complete such as getting people to game test and provide peer feedback, working on the digital version of the game and gathering information and survey feedback. I believe our group is ahead of schedule as we are the only ones to have a working prototype that has been game tested and we have feedback for. This takes the pressure off as we now have a good time to finalise any amendments to the game. Personally, I have done the best I could with the digital designs and the creation of the physical board and I am happy with the results. 

Week 5 (28/11/2022 – 02/12/2022)

Feedback (Evaluative Reflection)

The physical board design, cards and pieces have been finalised this week. This has left me more time to consider the feedback that the group received from the play testers. The group’s chosen method of getting feedback on the game play was from a survey conducted on Google Forms. This was the first method that the group thought of as it was considered the easiest method of enabling the class to participate in the feedback process.  For the student that played the game, 9 responses were given. Reflecting on the questions within the form, they may not have been as comprehensive as I would have liked. Some of the questions gave the options of rating the games mechanics on a 1-10 scale with 1 hating it and 10 enjoying it. Whilst this gives a good general indication, it does not provide lots of information why they like it or hate it. I think that only using one method of feedback may have restricted our data collection and potential for further development. The more feedback the group could have got, the more suggestions for modifying and refining the game. Another form of feedback we could have used is post-it notes which, after playing the game, the player could have written their immediate response giving more in depth feedback.

Reviewing the feedback there were suggestions on how to improve the game but changing the stats or the power given to certain stats. Discussing this with the group, we came to the conclusion that changing the stats or limiting the power to cover the imbalance would only lead to more stalemate situations, so we kept the game as it was. The group did refine the wall mechanic which originally, players could cross diagonally however, now players can only move left and right. This means that it requires more moves to go around the wall and the wall can act as a defence mechanism. A card rule was also modified to make the game more exciting. Originally, when a card was flipped it moved exactly as it did when it was faced down; however, this has been changed so that the flipped card can move both left and right now. This adds more strategy and movement to the game as well. After playing with the new rules the game has changed quite dramatically in terms of strategy and game play. It was worth getting feedback in order to develop the game to this standard. 

Bibliography:

Card icons and images:

-Free icons and stickers – millions of images to download (no date) Flaticon. Available at: https://www.flaticon.com/ (Accessed: November 3, 2022). 

Artstation – Theoretical Part (no date). Available at: https://www.artstation.com/theoreticalpart (Accessed: November 17, 2022). 

Artstation – Guilherme Motta (no date). Available at: https://www.artstation.com/motta (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Hermes god wallpapers – wallpaper cave (no date) WallpaperCave. Available at: https://wallpapercave.com/hermes-god-wallpapers (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Artstation – Dionysus (no date). Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/QrYzLB (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

✨Roy the art ✨ on Instagram: (no date) Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJLxdBwDnid/ (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Hestia (no date) Greek. Available at: https://greekgoddesses.fandom.com/wiki/Hestia (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Eros (no date) Gods and Demons Wiki. Available at: https://gods-and-demons.fandom.com/wiki/Eros (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Chimera (no date) Gods and Demons Wiki. Available at: https://gods-and-demons.fandom.com/wiki/Chimera (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Hill, B. (2022) Cerberus: Legendary hell hound of the underworld, Ancient Origins Reconstructing the story of humanity’s past. Ancient Origins. Available at: https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/cerberus-legendary-hell-hound-underworld-003142 (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Typhon (no date) Gods and Demons Wiki. Available at: https://gods-and-demons.fandom.com/wiki/Typhon (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Echidna (no date) Gods and Demons Wiki. Available at: https://gods-and-demons.fandom.com/wiki/Echidna (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Sirens (no date) Cryptid Wiki. Available at: https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Sirens (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Jaya, S. (2021) What does it take to feel sympathy for a monster?, Medium. PaperKin. Available at: https://medium.com/paperkin/what-does-it-take-to-feel-sympathy-for-a-monster-3f88a2727b0c (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Pennell, A. (2015) Ally pennell, Passion Blog. Available at: https://sites.psu.edu/mythologicalcreatures/2015/03/18/the-hydra/ (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Dave, D.M. (2021) Torax, minotaur barbarian: NPC for dungeons & dragons fifth edition – dmdave: All things fifth edition, DMDave. Available at: https://dmdave.com/torax-minotaur-barbarian/ (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Scylla (no date) God of War Wiki. Available at: https://godofwar.fandom.com/wiki/Scylla (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

R/greekmythology – charybdis- a sea monster whose inhalations formed a deadly whirlpool (no date) reddit. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/GreekMythology/comments/wkcp6o/charybdis_a_sea_monster_whose_inhalations_formed/ (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Free PSD: Abstract golden arrow direction on Black Metallic design modern luxury futuristic background (2022) Freepik. Available at: https://www.freepik.com/free-psd/abstract-golden-arrow-direction-black-metallic-design-modern-luxury-futuristic-background_27915031.htm#query=gold%20arrow&position=9&from_view=keyword (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

Tartarus image research:

Tartarus (no date) The Demonic Paradise Wiki. Available at: https://the-demonic-paradise.fandom.com/wiki/Tartarus (Accessed: November 18, 2022). 

(no date) Industrial Hellscape Oil Painting Print Sunset Fire War Scene – Etsy UK. Available at: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1067256078/industrial-hellscape-oil-painting-print (Accessed: November 18, 2022).

Golden border, PNG photo frames borders amtframe – gold frame border png, transparent PNG , transparent PNG image – pngitem (no date) PNGitem.com. Available at: https://www.pngitem.com/middle/hwwRToJ_golden-border-png-photo-frames-borders-amtframe-gold/ (Accessed: December 1, 2022).