Author: Amber Holt

Short Summary

This game was for my Writing and Pr Class. We needed to come up with a campaign and host an event for it. Our campaign was about Earth Day, preserving the environment, and sustainability. The game I decided to develop (I mostly did this part) was an unwanted item gift exchange. 

This encouraged people to repurpose items that they don’t really need or want anymore and challenge modern day overconsumption. The game also sprinkled in some education and facts about Earth Day and its history. 

Primary Audience: PR and Advertising Writing Class (although this game could be used for other audiences as well, mostly as an Earth Day introduction!)

Design Process & Thought Process 

Iterative Design: 

There wasn’t a lot of visual design associated with this game. The game was mostly something with verbal instructions, and the physical components were contributed by the players themselves in the form of gift exchange gifts. These assumed a few different forms, but mostly they were in brown paper bags because the audience forgot to bring most of their gifts. Other gifts were in old grocery bags, boxes, etc. 

In the background of the game, was a slideshow that introduced the game and the idea of Earth Day, it remained in the background to help set the tone of the game. 

Game Mechanics: 

Players gather in a circle. They are asked to listen to a story for directional cues to pass around the gifts. When you hear LEFT, pass it to your left. When you hear RIGHT, pass it to your right. When you hear REVERSE, undo your last pass. At the end of the script, players are allowed to open whatever gift landed on them in the end. 

Player Goals: 

To gain a better understanding of Earth Day and understand the importance of reducing overconsumption. Every player essentially “wins” with each player receiving a prize that is different than the one they brought in.  

Gameplay Sequence: 

BEFORE STARTING: Ask if everyone has brought an item and if they have it “wrapped” or in something concealed. If there is anyone who doesn’t have an item or have it wrapped, quickly arrange to get this sorted out. 

THEN ASK: Will everyone please sit/stand/gather in a circle with their items? And follow the following story based on the directional cues. When you hear LEFT, pass it to your left. When you hear RIGHT, pass it to your right. When you hear REVERSE, undo your last pass.

AND THEN THE SCRIPT IS READ. 

Game Board & Components: 

A script and unwanted item gifts (contributed by the class). I also supplied some extra gifts in the event that players forgot to bring one in and another group member brought in brown paper bags to put any “unwrapped” items in. 

The wrapped gift picture is a craft set that I wrapped with paper packaging filler and decorated using a ripped Trader Joe’s bag. Players were encouraged to come up with similar gifts for their contribution. Also pictured is the gift that I received from playing the game, as an example.

Rulebook and Playtesting 

Rulebook Sample:

(rules were mostly written by Amber, with some contributions from other group members)

Playtesting Notes: 

Overall, I learned that no matter how many emails you send out to a class, you can’t expect everyone to remember to bring stuff to contribute to the game. With finals and the Great RMU Blackout happening all around the same time, it was a little bit expected that not everyone would remember; however, there were about 2 people that actually remembered. Despite this, the game was still able to work, but it was mostly just with items that people had in their backpacks that they didn’t want anymore. This was luckily able to still reinforce the concept of overconsumption and sustainability. 

Players seemed to receive the story and content of the script super well. With a couple people commenting that they really enjoyed it and that it was a cute idea. Players were forced to pay attention to the story so that they could listen to the directional cues, making them more engaged in the facts about Earth Day.

• What questions did your players have? Players were confused at times but the misleading directional cues. Some of the words such as “WRITER” intended to make them still pass the gifts to their right, but many people asked if they were supposed to. 
• How quickly did they learn to play? They learned to play fairly quickly, although the script needed to be restarted because I don’t think everyone was fully paying attention, which is important for a game that involves a high level of observance and attention. 
• What kinds of interactions did the players have? Players passed gifts back and forth to each other, which involved a lot of laughing and confusion at times when there were multiple directional cues back to back. 
• What confused players? I think sometimes players got mixed up with their left and right, especially when the directional cues were so close together. It especially made it hard when a reverse was thrown in the midst, and players weren’t sure what way they needed to move to undo their last pass. 
• What made players excited? Players really enjoyed opening their gifts at the end and listened to the story in anticipation of the next directional cue. 
• What did your players enjoy doing? Opening gifts and passing them back and forth. 
• Did any aspect of the game frustrate players? The most frustrating parts for players were the confusing directional cues such as WRITER and maybe not a slow enough pace for reading the script. 

Game Reflections: 

To reflect on this game, I honestly feel like this was a pretty good way to give people an introductory understanding of Earth Day and its history. I could see something like this being especially helpful at a high school level, maybe on Earth Day itself. Unfortunately, we were unable to hold our event on actual Earth Day so that is one limitation to the effectiveness of this game. 

In the future, I would like to correct some of the confusing directional cues that I included such as WRITER. Or clarify that even if it is not technically RIGHT if you still hear it, you need to pass it. I would also like to make some improvements to the process of contributing gifts to the game. I like the idea of everyone bringing their own gift but in a scenario such as this, someone is always going to forget unfortunately. The pacing of telling the script is also integral to the gameplay experience and the comprehension of information. I would consider maybe a pre recorded script for this or nominating someone specific who can rehearse the script prior. 

Email Promos:

I started to vaguely work on structuring out my interactive fiction game… nowhere near done but this exploration helped me get started to see how I want to continue in the future. I might explore other programs, since it was difficult to find much information to style the pages, especially since there are like 4 main types of stories in Twine. I know a lot of it involves a CSS stylesheet, but at that point I might as well just make my own from scratch.

Future Considerations

To continue on with this on the future, there are numerous things I want to do to this game. First of all, I need to actually finish it and refine the content. But here are some other things I might want to work on as well:

• add an anxiety-inducing soundtrack (fast-paced, unnerving, etc.)
• add even more text animations and shakes to the screen to make the decisions and content reflect the feelings expressed in the text
• make it so that the text appears on the screen in little chunks, so that the player is more likely to read the text
  • could even make it more of like a kinetic typography kind of thing!
• add little illustrations occasionally (kind of in a sketchy style or the one below)
  • could do these illustrations on scratchboard and then scan the drawings!!
• consider maybe both “good” and “bad” endings. For instance, maybe the one offers some tips to help deal with these anxious thoughts and they are hence resolved and then the other the bad scenarios do come true, but it still works out in the end!
• playtesting!!

I couldn’t figure out how to link to the file, but you don’t wanna see it anyway. This is pretty much all I have.

This game is nowhere near done so this is more so a pitch for an interactive fiction game I want to continue to develop!

Here is some brainstorming and research I did for the National Park game that I didn’t even end up making. I still might want to do this someday though, just not right now..

Short Summary

As rival funeral directors, compete to have the highest total score by appeasing deceased and loved ones’ wishes, while also trying to reduce negative environmental impact. 

This game is heavily based on the idea of green final disposition (a concept explained at the beginning of rule book). This game is both meant to get people to emphasize with people and think about how loved ones may have different wishes than the actually deceased and to also educate people about some of the harmful effects of “mainstream” final dispositional methods while also teaching about some more green alternatives!

Primary Audience: 13+ at minimum because it has some darker themes, particularly people interested in funeral services like people studying to become morticians, alternative people, etc. 

Design Process & Thought Process 

Iterative Design: 

For the initial design, I made different tile designs based on the different disposition methods. This was made using Adobe Stock Imagery, to get a baseline down for a prototype. In future iterations, I will draw this imagery by hand, but still keep a more simplistic, cartoony art style. 

The token designs are simple icons that represent the different things like energy, emotion, CO2, etc. I drew these vector icons myself in Adobe Illustrator (not that impressive, but you know). 

The card design was also entirely drawn by me, with the people being in a very cartoony, simplistic style, that is honestly purposefully bad-looking. I tried to switch up the people’s hair and skin colors to vary it a little bit, but in future designs, I want to give them more variety and character. I may also consider giving some of them religious garments that players will want to factor into their decisions they make. For the Deceased cards specifically, I just took the Loved Ones cards and put a blue tint over it so they looked more “ghostly”. In future versions, I’ll also want to give these more variety and might make them a little more “ghost-like”, without getting too far away from being human. 

Game Mechanics: 

You draw both a “Deceased” and a “Loved One” card each turn. You must look at what their wishes are and try to make a judgement about what disposition method they would be the happiest with. This can be a difficult decision, because the deceased and the loved ones can have conflicting opinions. 

To select a disposition method, you trade in the required number of resources to place the deceased on that tile and lay them down. You can only do this if the tile hasn’t reached it’s max capacity, so you may also need to use your resources to purchase a tile if none are available. Different methods cost different resources and different amounts of them, so that is another thing that factors into the decision to use a method. You then reveal what methods the loved ones and the deceased were okay with and award yourself emotion tokens based on this. 

With there being max capacities to tiles, it makes the game exciting for multiple players since you can use up the tiles and force someone else to purchase a tile on their turn. 

Player Goals: 

To try to appease both the “Deceased” and “Loved Ones”, while trying to still run an environmentally-friendly funeral services business. Ultimately, you want to have the most trees, energy, and emotion tokens, but have as little as possible of the CO2 tokens. Based on this, the player with the highest score wins. 

Gameplay Sequence: 

On Your Turn

1. Draw one “Deceased” and one “Loved Ones” card

These are the “clients” for your turn. You must consider both of their personalities and wishes when making a decision for how to lay the Deceased to rest. DO NOT look at the back of either of the cards. 

2. (Optionally) Purchase and Place a Tile

Using your resources, you may purchase and place a tile during your turn. SEE TILES SECTION FOR MORE DETAILS. 

• Cemetery tile
• Crematorium tile
• Green burial tile
• Human composting facility tile

3. Decide on which Method of Final Disposition to Use

Once you have decided, place the card of the Deceased on the tile according to the method you wish to use. SEE TILES SECTION FOR MORE DETAILS. 

• IF you cannot lay your client to rest during your turn, you will lose 2 emotion tokens

4. Collect and Discard Corresponding Resources

1. Flip both the Deceased and Loved One card over to see the effects of your decision. If you selected a final disposition method that is in red, lose one emotion token. If you selected a final disposition method that is in green, collect one emotion token. 
2. According to the method of final disposition, collect and discard the resources that correspond to that method. (See the Tiles section for more information)

The gameplay ends based on the number of players. For 2 players, play until everyone places 7 Deceased Individuals. For 3-4 players, play until everyone places 5 Deceased Individuals. 

Game Board & Components: 

As of right now, there isn’t one centralized game board, but instead, you start the game with one cemetery and one crematorium tile and the game “board” is built throughout the game, as players purchase more tiles using their resources. In the future, I think a board that tiles fit nicely into would be a nice addition. This could also have the first cemetery and crematorium tile built into it for easy set-up. A centralized game board will also help guide players through the game more easily, with there maybe helpful reminders on the side about the resource cost of tiles. 

I also have a few stipulations to building the game board, like with the cemetery tiles, you have to always place them against each other. I think it would be interesting to add more rules like this to the game board building process. 

Rulebook and Playtesting 

Rulebook Sample:

Playtesting Notes: 

Overall, from playtesting I learned of certain things I can do to help players be guided through the game more easily. In the future, I should have reference cards or something on a centralized game board that quickly overviews the effects of using the different disposition methods. I should also include somewhere, like on the tiles themselves for instance, how much they cost so that players don’t have to constantly refer to the rules. 

I also need to revisit the cost and benefits of the more “green” alternatives, because I don’t think anyone ended up using the human composting facilities. See below for more notes.  

• What questions did your players have? There weren’t a lot of questions, but they would ask each other about the requirements and what would happen with each tile. 
• How quickly did they learn to play? They learned to play pretty quickly. The only thing that was a little difficult to get used to were the specific requirements and actions that happened with each tile, so a key would probably be helpful. 
• What kinds of interactions did the players have? Players would influence the next player’s turns by taking up the different tiles. Players could max out the tiles, making the next person have to purchase a brand new tile. Players also would discuss about the people and their wants and needs
• What confused players? I feel like the players didn’t really have that much confusion. 
• What made players excited? I think players were excited when they satisfied both the deceased and the loved ones. 
• What did your players enjoy doing? I think they enjoyed looking at the different character cards and how their needs and wants differed. 
• Did any aspect of the game frustrate players? I think having to refer to the rules constantly frustrated players, also not being able to obtain more energy very easily so it made them not want to do cremation or human composting. 

Other playtest notes

• clarify the way tiles are placed 
• i think the human composting needs more benefits 
• a way to yet more tokens
• get more energy 
• maybe something to mark that the tiles aren’t open when they are maxed out 
• a key 
• Maybe add how they died, with effects from that
  • extra card and it could effect if they get buried or cremated 
• maybe green burial plots need to be separation 
• maybe the green ones can’t be near a crematorium 
• pretty easy to learn but there were a few things that they had to keep referring to

Game Reflections: 

To reflect on this game, I honestly feel like I have a pretty solid start to make this a decent game. Playtesting was great to see that players actually enjoyed making the decisions about how the bodies should be “put to rest”, and I like how it also became something that was almost storytelling (like how are the deceased connected to the loved ones?). 

Still, there are definitely some things I would do differently next time and with future versions. First, I want to fix all of the comments that I made based on my playtest notes. Specifically, I want to work out the resource values of the cards, and really refine the balance of that. I also need to find a way for players to get more energy tokens in the game. 

I also think it would be interesting to add some more information about the different disposition methods, just for the sake of the player’s education. A few of my players didn’t know about the other alternatives such as human composting, and I think that would really add to the purpose of my game. In addition to that, I would also potentially like to add more disposition options, and maybe even some of the more ridiculous ones like being sent to space or turned into a diamond. 

The game tile pieces would also need some refining, in both the design and in the feel. I like the idea of using magnetic tiles so that they don’t shift around, or maybe 3d printed or nicely cut woodblock tiles. I toyed around with the idea of velcro, but on second thought, I’m really not sure about that. 

I really hope I get to revisit this game someday! 

Short Summary

We Didn’t Start the Fire is a song from 1989 by Billy Joel. It contains references to popular culture and newsworthy, significant events from around the world and the United States (over 100 references mentioned). In 2023, Fall Out Boy released an updated version of We Didn’t Start the Fire, with events from 1989-2023 (over 80 references mentioned). 

In the game version, players answer trivia questions about history and pop culture from the time period of either song. When players answer questions correctly, they are able to move their token closer to the fiery finish line. 

The purpose of this game is to make a fun reference to the songs, and also provide context and background information to some of the lyrics. It is important to be educated about both world history and culture. 

Primary Audience: Billy Joel & Fall Out Boy fans, history/pop culture enthusiasts 

Other than the primary audience, I feel like this game could be enjoyed by a large number of people. Trivia games have pretty mass appeal to people, so someone that enjoys a trivia game would enjoy this game. 

Design Process & Thought Process 

Iterative Design: For the design of this game, I kept a red, black, and white color palette. I wanted to have experimental typographic lyrics on each of the cards so that players can refer to the lyrics that the trivia question pertains to. I varied the typography by using varying weights, as well as oblique and italic type. The backs of the cards have photoshopped pictures of either Billy Joel or Fall Out Boy, in a context that I felt pertains to the game (either from the music video or pictured with fire). The fronts of the cards have a red gradient behind the lyric typography, with a black box that contains the trivia question. 

For the future, I would like to continue working on the design of this game. I need to redraw the images of Fall Out Boy and Billy Joel so that it will work better for copyright purposes. This will also help me get a more unifying style for my game. I likely want to keep the same color palette, but I could also explore using blue flames as well. The typography also needs some refining, and I want to fit all of the lyrics into one unified block, keeping all of the varying weights. I would also consider having different card backs (maybe with just different pictures of the artists), just to make it a little more visually exciting. 

Game Mechanics: Players pick up cards, answer trivia questions, and discard cards when they are done. The players advance their player token when they answer a question correctly.

Player Goals: In the first iteration, the players goals were to be the first player to reach the end of the board. This is accomplished by answering 5 trivia questions correctly. I would like to make this number a little bit higher in the future, or potentially have it adapt depending on the number of players. I would also consider making a game board with spaces that make you pick up the trivia cards versus picking up a trivia card on every single turn. 

Gameplay Sequence: The sequence of gameplay is as follows: decide who goes first, another player picks up the card for the player whose turn it is and asks them a trivia question, if the player answers correctly they advance forward on the game board, it cycles to the next player’s turn. The first player to get to the end of the game board wins and the game ends. 

Game Board & Components: In the current game board, players start at the top and move linearly down to the bottom of the board, moving one step with each card they answer correctly. In future iterations, I would like to add more tiers to this game board and consider a nonlinear path that players could potentially follow.

Rulebook and Playtesting 

Rulebook Sample:

Playtesting Notes: Overall, from playtesting, I learned that this game is a feasible idea. Players enjoyed the trivia questions and learning more about history and culture. No major frustrations presented themselves throughout the game, but I feel as though I could still make the game more interesting and exciting for future players. 

• What questions did your players have? The game was pretty straightforward so there weren’t a lot of questions. I think the questions were mostly about the song itself and some of the pop culture and history questions. 
• How quickly did they learn to play? The players learned extremely quickly since it was a simple trivia game. 
• What kinds of interactions did the players have?  Players discussed the different historical and pop culture events and asked each other and answered questions. 
• What confused players? The only thing that was confusing was having to keep track of your own points and keep the card that someone else asked you about. 
• What made players excited?  Players were excited to answer questions, get questions correct,etc. 
• What did your players enjoy doing? They enjoyed answering the questions. They enjoyed the challenge of it and some of the questions provided a good discussion. 
• Did any aspect of the game frustrate players? Players didn’t have any frustrations. 

Game Reflections: Developing this game allowed me to learn more about history and culture myself, as I was developing the game I didn’t know a lot about the topics that were mentioned in the songs. Next time, I would probably develop this concept a little more to make it go beyond a trivia game, like including some unexpected elements or not having each player’s turn be exactly the same. I also didn’t anticipate that players would want to continue answering questions beyond the 5 card winning point, and I thought they would have gotten sick of the same format, but surprisingly, they really didn’t and wanted to continue answering the questions. 

To develop this game, Sara and I really just wanted to make a game that kind of mimicked how we felt about life at the moment (probably more so myself, though). Somedays you really just need to talk it out when you’re having a bad day, but there are also good days along the way (hence the happy cards). However, on top of all of these overwhelming emotions doing schoolwork can also become a lot, which is where the frustration of the game design questions comes. This game is definitely not made out of hate of game design, but more of the disappoint that we can’t put effort into the class because we are already so drained from other stuff.

A big part of the process for this game was the brainstorming we did on the whiteboard (what we wrote is a secret though). We originally thought of having Ames having laser eyes or flames that dry up your pond and then you have to “cry” (or really just talk about your emotions) in order to fill it back up and hop along the lily pad spaces. We elected for something that fit with the pond theme a little bit better, but having spaces disappear and reappear may be something we revisit for future prototypes.

For the design, I did the basic card templates and the pond design. Sara did the fabulous drawing of Ames as the Vengeful Water Spirit.

stay tuned for more… surprise collab with Sara