Diploma 09

Insectopia

Insectopia is a large sized physically engaging board game for children that allow them to explore the various attributes of insects and their living environments.

Goals:

The different goals being explored while developing the concept:

§  Survival of the fittest/ adaptation: first one to finish by passing the challenges wins): there are different danger zones, some based on quizzing (cards), and some based on different processes of the insect the person is. E.g.: If you are an ant, skip a turn and clean up the acacia plant. The game also involves physical limitations with each player depending on the attributes of the insect they are. For instance, if the player is a ladybird, then they are allowed to only crawl, until they adapt to the next insect.
§  Storytelling: unraveling a story through the physical board game where each person has to complete the story by finding different bits of it through a series of clues.
§  To reach to your food
§  Save your friends of the forest

Physical structure:

The game could come in the form of modular cards that can be arranged and rearranged to create new pathways for every new game, thus bringing in a sense of randomness each time it is played. (There will be certain guidelines to be followed while laying out the board)

The board can use set spaces that already exist within the playing environment for e.g.: staircases, garden, corridors etc to make the board more interesting. Even naturally occurring material can be integrated into the game, like say real grass can be used as a card/tile when the board is laid out in the garden.

Materials:

Some of the materials that could possibly make up the modular cards:

§  Wood with grooves to change cards
§  Cloth with silkscreen prints
§  Cork sheets
§  Printed foot mats
§  Rubber mats
§  Jute  or coir mats

Further Thoughts:

§  The cards shouldn’t be too bulky and slippery, as it needs to be portable and also stable on the floor.
§  Being a group game, is there a way of sharing resources? How does it get distributed?
§  Is there a way of adding more modules to the game, to bring in an opportunity of a variety of knowledge?

User Test Observation:

§  The children enjoyed the scale of the components of the game. Dice rolling, physical actions etc.
§  Materials were a bit of a constraint: weary of stepping on paper, dice too hard
§  The rules were a little blurry to the children: What insects is a player when he first starts the game? What are the guidelines when in danger zones? And so on.
§  Difficulty levels need to vary for different age groups
§  Got the children interested in insects, that they wanted to continue exploring each other’s knowledge on insects by playing dumb charades, 20 questions etc.

Refrigerator magnets:

Content:

§  Caterpillar to butterfly
§  Life of a damselfly
§  Lifecycle of a cicada
§  Spot the praying mantis/ grasshopper
§  The building of an ant colony?
§  The chat between the ants/ attack of the enemies
§  The insect friends (the ants and the aphids)

Physical structure:

§  Simple shapes that can be put together to form a story. (the pieces could lend itself to new self created ones as well: kind of like tanagram)
§  Space limited to metal surfaces ( a possibility of it becoming a social space)

Materials:

§  Wood with lacquer paint or silkscreen print
§  Could be plush with a wood and magnet base, where the plush pieces are switchable

The ants and the aphids: A short story to illustrate the magnets

Ramu the gardener was one day in his garden tending to his plants when he saw what he was very, very scared to see.

Aphids!

Aphids were insects that were always hungry and they ate a lot of the plants in his garden. All the human gardeners hated the aphids. But aphids had very close friends in Ramu’s garden.

The  Ants!

The ants loved the aphids so very much and took good care of them by keeping all of the aphids’ insect enemies away. And so, in return of the favor, the aphids used to give their ant friends little dewdrops of sweet honey. The ants love the honey so much!

One day, when the ants were slowly stroking and chatting with their aphid friends, a big monstrous creature creeped upon their plant. He was a large red monster with huge black spots on his back.

The ladybird! The ladybird started looking around; hungrily waiting to find the juiciest aphid he could eat up! The ants quickly realized and started attacking the ladybird! They tried grabbing his big red and shiny shell, but it was so polished and smooth, that it was hard to catch!

Finally, after a lot of struggle, the ants managed to throw the ladybird away from their house, and they rescued their aphid friends from such grave danger! The scared little aphids, felt such a sigh of relief!

“Ah!” Said the aphids,
“you saved us from that big and scary ladybird! For this we would like to give more of our sweet drops of honey!”

The ants readily took honey from their aphid friends, and from then on, they continued to share and protect one another.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a children’s book written by Eric Carle, first published by the World Publishing Company in 1969. The winner of many awards,it has sold 30 million copies. It is highly popular and has been praised for its use of easy-to-read words which makes it good for teaching young children to read. The book contains 225 words and large, colourful illustrations. It follows a caterpillar as it munches its way through a variety of edibles such as ice cream, salami, watermelon, one slice of Swiss cheese, and a lollipop before it finally pupates and emerges as a beautiful butterfly. The story teaches counting to 5, the names of the days of the week, and about different types of food. The caterpillar’s diet is a fictional fantasy but the story does introduce the magic of the metamorphosis from egg to caterpillar to butterfly. It is widely regarded as one of the best children’s books ever written.

Source: Wikipedia and Youtube