Hi. I am Pallavi, a student of Visual Communication Design, from Srishti school of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, India. This blog is a documentation of my Diploma Project. Please feel free to leave your comments and feedback. You can also follow me on twitter @pallavimanchi.
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.
