Category: Game Design Studio 2

Short Summary

The game, “Cry me a Pond” is about sharing experiences that create a sense of empathy among students that have experienced the struggles of life, generally through college, coming of age, and of course game design. While the game has a generally niche audience, the concept is based on sharing thoughts, feelings, and answering real questions that were part of the reading and assignments posted on Professor Ames’ website. 

Primary Audience: 

Generally the audience is media arts students that have a general understanding of being in a creative funk, but it can also be played by students who have general knowledge of game design skills. 

Design Process & Thought Process 

Iterative Design: 

Amber: For the game board design, I decided to just do a simple pastel blue/green/purple gradient. I chose these colors because they are soothing and relaxing, which felt fitting for an empathy-based game. We decided to cut the pond shape out and I placed different colored lily pads as the spots to move on the game board. The font is simple, sans-serif, clean. We used Montserrat specifically. 

The happy and sad card designs are very reminiscent of the pond game board design. The use the same gradient in the background with the same fonts. The backs of the cards are very simplistic, with a vector symbol to indicate the type of card and the words “Cry Me a Pond” for branding. The size of the cards are 3.5 x 5.75 inches, making them fairly large. 

Thinking about what I would do differently for future versions, I don’t think I would change much aesthetically. I think the simple, pastel aesthetic is fitting for the type of game we decided to make. I would change a little bit of the board design though, since people were a little bit confused about what lily pad to move to next. I would also toy around with the idea of having some of the spaces become “flooded”, so maybe the lily pads are extra game pieces aside from the board. 

Sara: For the design of the “Vengeful Water Spirit” I decided to create the ‘sprite’ using Procreate on my ipad. I stuck to a more chibi style of the Ames-esque look, as I wanted to maintain the simplicity of the overall style of the game Amber created with the soothing and relaxing colors, while also adding the comedic value to the character. 

The water spirit cards also follow the basis of how Amber created the happy and sad cards, with a similar gradient, but in the color orange (as its Ames’ favorite color) and simplistic with the drawing of the vengeful water spirit in the middle of the words “Cry me a Pond – Vengeful Water spirit Professor Ames” the size of the cards is consistent for  the game, being 3.5 x 5.75 inches. 

Thinking about what I would do differently for different versions, I would have to agree with Amber on sticking to the same overall aesthetic and the new features she mentioned. For myself, however, I think I would spend a bit more time considering what the Vengeful Water Spirit cards would say, so there’s more aspect to knowing the concepts we learned in Game Design. 

Game Mechanics: 

Players will collectively roll a die as a group, and communicate their feelings and thoughts according to what type of card they get from the three types. Based on their roll, being a 2 or a 6 or what color lily pad they land on. The game only ends once players reach “happiness” 

Player Goals: 

To discuss emotional experiences with fellow classmates, while also practicing your understanding of concepts mentioned in Game Design classes with Professor Ames. 

Literally (in the game rules): get to happiness. 

Gameplay Sequence: 

When the game is set up, with the gameboard in the middle, and three piles of both happy and sad cards, one player will roll the die for the whole group (players can alternate amongst themselves who rolls the die each turn) with the role player will then move the duck the number of spaces as indicated on the die EXCEPT IF YOU ROLL a 2 or 6. If you roll a 2 or 6, pick up a Vengeful Water Spirit card and follow/discuss the card . DO NOT MOVE. However, If you land on a dark green space, pick up a happy card (the smiley face 🙂) and if you land on a light green space, pick up a sad card (the teardrop) after this is performed a few times – the game is over when you reach happiness.

Game Board & Components:

Our game board is both literally and figuratively a pond, where the one end of the board is depression and the other end is happiness. You want to move towards happiness so you use your duck to hop along the lily pads. The duck represents the whole group’s progression from depression to happiness. This definitely needs improvement in future versions since the current method of movement was confusing to players.

The different colored lily pads indicate the different cards that you need to pick up, with the light green being the sad cards and the dark green being the happy cards. 

The other components of the game are the happy, sad, and vengeful water spirit cards. The happy and sad cards ask thoughtful questions to try to arouse meaningful discussion amongst the players. The vengeful water spirit cards are specifically game design oriented questions, that are more so based on memory recall, versus a meaningful emotional discussion. 

Rulebook and Playtesting 

Rulebook Sample:

Playtesting Notes: 

The biggest lesson we learned from playtesting was that we need to work on a better way to balance the amount of times you get an Ames Vengeful Water Spirit card amongst all of the other cards. With the original rules and board set-up, it was nearly impossible for players to come across the vengeful water spirit just because they weren’t rolling the right numbers. There were also two few lily pad spaces on the board and it made the game go a lot faster than intended. So both the number of spaces on the board, the movement amongst the spaces, and how likely it is to come across the vengeful water spirit are all factors that we will need to improve upon in future versions. 

Game Maker’s Play Test Notes – Cry Me a Pond

• What questions did your players have? Players started asking questions about the movement of the duck, especially when we started to modify the rules a bit to make the game go slower. They were also not entirely sure about the path of movement and what lily pad to go to next. 
• How quickly did they learn to play? The players learned pretty quickly because a lot of it was simple discussion-based cards 
• What kinds of interactions did the players have?  Players engaged in really good discussions with each other, as was intended. 
• What confused players? What space to move to next, 
• What made players excited? The idea of the Ames water spirit card 
• What did your players enjoy doing? Players seemed to enjoy answering the questions and listening to other players’ stories and answers. 
• Did any aspect of the game frustrate players? I think the movement more than anything, but also players didn’t like the game design-related questions as much (kind of reinforcing the concept of the game though). 

Game Reflections: 

Sara: I overall believe that this game has genuine value from its creation, and from its concept and playtesting. I really enjoy working with Amber, and being able to knock out a game really quickly that combines our sense of humor, and love for game design as a whole has been really enjoyable.

 With the concept creation we also had a lot of fun, and found humor and lightheartedness in making our very appreciated professor into a silly vengeful water spirit. I also think that the value that came from playtesting was that others understood and appreciated the concept of letting loose and feeling your emotions, while also understanding the importance of how game design works is like a combination of both malicious compliance with Professor Ames in making a game, but also a nod to his hard work in getting us to appreciate the concepts of game design. 

Amber: I’m honestly pretty proud of this game. While it first the crazy concept of it started out as a joke, it seemed to actually be a feasible empathy-based and educational game. I really wanted to make a game that captured my feelings of being so emotionally overwhelmed with everything going on and then at the end of the day having to still go home and work on design projects (like game design..). We definitely didn’t make this game out of hate for game design, but out of love, and the feeling of unfortunately feeling too burnt out to make a game that we are passionate about and proud of. 

For future iterations, I think we could definitely add more discussion cards. I think we could lean into the happy and sad a little bit harder, besides some of the more general questions that we asked. Like we mentioned earlier, the game board design also needs some work, particularly in the layout and the number of spaces. The rolling of the dice is also a kink to be worked out eventually. 

I also think it would be interesting to play around with the idea of the pond flooding or drying up, so that it affects the board’s spaces. We originally wanted to make Ames have laser eyes that would dry up the pond and you would have to “cry” (really just talk about your feelings) in order to make the pond fill back up again, thus allowing you to move. I think it would be worth it to revisit this concept in some fashion. 

Finally, I think there is an alternate timeline where we could have this game not just be relevant to game design students, but we could still have some kind of general “monster” that people want to avoid. Maybe the monster is asking math or history questions.. 

I unfortunately did not get to work on this much more over this past week because I got sick. I did however come up with a few more ideas. Adding cards to slow down or speed up other players.

So the last game ended up way better than the first, the only problem I ran into was the material of the cards. The cards got ruined very easily and had to be replaced within a week or two. Other than that, I am trying to work on another drinking game. I know its not original for me but the reason I enjoy making drinking games is because thats what me and my friends and family enjoy playing when we are all together. So far the idea is gonna be a bank heist theme. Still working out the details so no physical copy is made yet. The concept is that the player draws cards and works towards a goal. (Not Sure What That is Yet) You win the game by getting into the vault. The vault is a drink of choice from each player playing. So think of it more like gambling. Its a board game but you essentially wager with a can of White Claw for example. I think its a cool concept, just need to figure out the smaller things.

Similar to last week all I did to update my game was changing the way some of the questions are asked. Other than that I continued to come up with new card ideas.

I fixed a few mistakes I made with spelling on some of the cards. I also renamed some of the cards so its more fitting with the game. A big request instead of having a card where its called story time, they recommended to just call it two truths and one lie. I personally like it a lot better

My game 2 is essentially the same game as the first one but theres different rules and new cards. I also changed the name because I originally could not come up with a good name. I added specific cards to go with certain music cards to get music involved with the game. Becasue of it being a drinking game, an example could be like a guitar song where it could be like “Drink whenever theres a guitar solo in this song,” or at least something similar. This second version has been working out a lot better. It makes people pay closer attention and allows me to drop the number of drinking cards becaseu the players ended up drinking more during these cards. Easiest way to put it is that it makes the game last longer. And I did not mention earlier but the original name of the game was BrayCup and the next version or technically BrayCup 2 is called ChugCup now.

I forgot to post all these so I apologize for that, but since my first prototype the game has been running a bit smoother. Theres still a few flaws in the game where its as simple as people not liking a specific type of card because its too boring. The only other thing is that I had a few spellcheck issues. Other than that the game ran great. Only thing that I saw is that there may be a bit too much drinking cards in the game. I may lessen it so theres not as many

Short Summary

Sustainable City Builder is a strategy board game where players take on the role of city planners tasked with creating a thriving, eco-friendly urban environment. Players must manage resources like money, energy, and waste while balancing environmental challenges, including climate events and population growth. The game encourages sustainable practices such as building renewable energy sources, improving public transportation, and increasing green spaces. It’s designed for 2-4 players, ages 12 and up, who enjoy strategic planning, resource management, and tackling environmental issues in a fun, competitive way.

This should describe our game, what do players do and who is it for?

Design Process & Thought Process:

• Game Design Document (GDD):Include a concise GDD outlining the game’s core concepts, message/purpose, rules, and mechanics. 

Game Design Document (GDD)


Core Concepts:

Objective: Players aim to build the most sustainable city by managing resources effectively and overcoming environmental challenges. The game ends after 10 rounds or when a player reaches a population threshold.

Message/Purpose: The game aims to raise awareness about sustainability and environmental issues while providing a fun, strategic gameplay experience.

Rules: Each player builds their city by constructing buildings (residential, industrial, commercial) and managing resources like money, energy, and waste. Players face climate events and challenges that force them to adapt their strategies.


Mechanics:

Resource Management: Players must track money, energy, population, and waste throughout the game.

City Construction: Players build and upgrade buildings, focusing on renewable energy, green spaces, and waste management.

Climate Events: Random events like droughts, pollution spikes, and heatwaves affect the players' cities.

Challenge Tokens: Players face challenges like population growth or economic crises that impact their resource management.

• Iterative Design: Showcase how you iterated on the game design, highlighting the challenges you faced and the decisions you made. 

I iterated on Sustainable City Builder in several ways:

Initial Concept: I started with a broad city-building game concept. The first draft included basic resource management and construction mechanics but lacked a cohesive theme or focus.

Early Playtesting: During my first playtests, players found the resource management too overwhelming, leading to overly complex setups. I simplified the number of resources tracked (e.g., removing excessive types of tokens) and introduced a more intuitive system for balancing energy, waste, and money.

Introducing Climate Events: One of the major improvements I made was adding climate event cards, which introduced a level of unpredictability and forced players to adapt quickly. This helped maintain excitement and challenge throughout the game.

Victory Point System: Initially, players simply tracked their achievements. Later, I added victory points for sustainable practices (like reducing carbon footprints or increasing green spaces) to provide more meaningful goals and competition.

• Game Mechanics: Explain the key game mechanics in detail, using diagrams or screenshots, or photos to illustrate them. 

Game Mechanics


Key game mechanics include:

Resource Management: Players must manage their money, energy, population, and waste levels. Mismanagement can lead to penalties during climate events.

Example: A player who builds too many factories without adequate waste management will face penalties when a pollution spike occurs.


Building and Upgrading: Players choose which types of buildings to construct, such as residential areas, renewable energy plants, or transportation hubs. Each building has a cost and a benefit.

Example: Solar panels provide energy but cost money to build. The player must decide whether the long-term benefits outweigh the immediate cost.


Climate Events: At the end of each round, players draw a climate event card that affects all players. These events can either help or hinder the cities.

Example: A heatwave increases energy consumption, so players with a renewable energy grid are better equipped to handle it.


Challenge Tokens: Random events or thresholds in a player's city trigger specific challenges, such as population growth, economic downturns, or environmental disasters.

• Player Goals: Clearly define the players’ objectives and how they achieve victory. 

Player Goals

The goal of Sustainable City Builder is for players to build the most sustainable city by the end of 10 rounds or when a population threshold is reached. Players win by:

Accumulating Victory Points (VP) through sustainable actions such as building renewable energy, expanding green spaces, and managing waste.

Managing their city’s resources effectively, ensuring the balance between energy consumption, waste, and population growth.

Overcoming challenges and navigating climate events to avoid penalties and maintain the growth of their city.


End Game & Winning:

The game ends after 10 rounds or when a player reaches a certain population threshold (e.g., 100,000 citizens).

At the end of the game, players tally their Victory Points (VP) based on their sustainable actions:

Energy Sustainability: Using renewable energy vs. non-renewable sources.

Green Spaces: Number and quality of parks and green areas.

Waste Management: How efficiently waste was handled.

Public Transportation: Efficiency and coverage of transit systems.

Bonus Points: For achieving milestones like zero carbon emissions or 50% renewable energy.


The player with the most Victory Points wins the game!

• Gameplay Sequence: Include images or videos demonstrating different stages of gameplay, highlighting key moments and player interactions. 

I really didn't take many pictures of this process either.

Game Setup:

Board Setup: Place the game board in the center of the table. Shuffle the City Cards and Climate Event Cards.

Player Setup: Each player receives a player board, starting resources (money, energy, population, waste), and a set of City Cards.

Draw Challenge Tokens: At the beginning of the game, draw a few challenge tokens that will affect players as they progress through the game.


Gameplay Sequence

Planning Phase: Players choose cards to build or upgrade structures in their city. Strategic decisions on what to prioritize (e.g., public transport, renewable energy) are made during this phase.

Building Phase: Players use their resources (money, energy, etc.) to construct buildings, such as residential areas, parks, or recycling centers, to improve their city’s sustainability.

Climate & Challenge Phase: Players draw a climate event card, which affects all players. They also draw challenge tokens, which may create additional problems or opportunities based on the state of their cities.

• Game Board & Components: Show good pictures of the game board and components, explaining how they guide or influence player actions. 

Game Board:
The game board represents a city with several zones and areas for development. It’s laid out on a grid where players can build their sustainable infrastructure.

Zones:

• Residential Zone: Where players build homes and increase population density.

• Industrial Zone: Areas for factories and waste generation that need careful management.

• Commercial Zone: For businesses and green technologies.

Special Areas:

• Renewable Energy Spaces: For solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal plants, etc.

• Green Spaces: Parks, gardens, and biodiversity areas that enhance public health and happiness.

• Waste Management Areas: For recycling centers, composting plants, and waste-to-energy facilities.

• Transportation Infrastructure: Locations for public transit systems, metro stations, bike lanes, and electric vehicle charging stations.

Map Layout: The grid layout allows players to place buildings strategically across the board, making every decision impactful.

Victory Points Track: A continuous track on the edge of the board that records the players’ sustainability achievements, such as reducing carbon footprint, improving public transportation, and building green spaces.

2. City Cards:
Cards that represent various types of buildings and infrastructure, like solar panels, wind turbines, parks, recycling centers, and metro stations. Each card has a cost to build and offers benefits (e.g., energy production, green space, waste reduction).

Resource Tokens:
Represent the essential resources used for building and maintaining the city:

Waste Tokens: Track the amount of waste generated, which needs to be managed.

Money Tokens: Used to construct buildings and pay for upkeep.

Energy Tokens: Represent the energy produced and consumed by the city.

Population Tokens: Represent the number of residents in the city.

Population Tokens

Energy Tokens

Money Tokens

Money Tokens

4. Climate Event Cards:
Random events that add unpredictability and require players to adapt. These events can either benefit or hinder players’ progress, and they can affect all players.

Pollution Spikes: Increase waste and impact public health.

Types of Events:

Storms: Reduce energy production or waste management efficiency.

Droughts: Affect water resources and agricultural production.

Heatwaves: Increase energy consumption and waste.

5. Challenge Tokens:
Tokens that represent various challenges faced by players during the game. These can be drawn at the beginning of a round or triggered by specific conditions.

Environmental Damage: Pollution or loss of biodiversity affects happiness or requires immediate action.

Types of Challenges:

Population Growth: Requires more resources to support a growing population.

Economic Crisis: Players must reduce their spending or energy production temporarily.

6. Player Boards:
Each player has their own board to track progress and resources. The player board includes:

Turn Summary: A quick reference to track what has been achieved at the end of each round.

Resource Tracker: Displays money, energy, population, and waste levels.

Sustainability Milestones: Tracks goals such as reducing carbon footprints, improving public transportation, and adding green spaces.

Energy & Waste Consumption: Tracks energy production vs. consumption and waste generation vs. management.

Victory Points Tracker: Shows the player’s progress in terms of sustainability goals.

Victory Point Tokens:
Players earn Victory Points (VP) based on their sustainable actions, such as:

Reducing their carbon footprint.

Increasing green space.

Successfully managing waste.

Improving public transportation.

Reaching sustainability milestones.

Rulebook & Playtesting:

• Rulebook Sample: Include a sample of your rulebook, demonstrating your writing and communication skills. 

• Playtesting Notes: Share any notes or feedback from playtesting sessions, showcasing your ability to identify and address issues. 

Playtest Session 1:


Feedback:

Positive:
Players enjoyed the strategic aspects of building green spaces and investing in renewable energy. The sense of long-term planning and the satisfaction of seeing their city grow sustainably was very engaging. They also appreciated how public transportation reduced traffic congestion and emissions.

Challenge:
Players were unsure about how to handle Climate Events. They found it difficult to anticipate how these random events would impact their city, leading to some frustration when their well-laid plans were disrupted.

Challenge Tokens caused confusion, especially with dice rolls and thresholds. Players weren’t clear on when these would be triggered or how they interacted with the resources on their player boards.


Adjustments:

Quick Reference Guide:
Introduced a Climate Events guide explaining how the Climate Event Cards work and their potential effects. This also included examples of Challenge Tokens and how dice rolls can trigger challenges, with clear thresholds for each resource type.

Victory Points Tracker:
Added a more visible Victory Points tracker on the board to clarify how players earn points. Now, players can easily see how their investments in green spaces, renewable energy, and public transportation contribute to their score.

Clarified Challenge Token Rules:
Simplified the explanation of Challenge Tokens by introducing a step-by-step visual guide for triggering and resolving them based on dice rolls and resource thresholds.



Playtest Session 2:


Feedback:

Positive:
Players appreciated the variety in Challenge Tokens, as they made the game feel dynamic and kept them on their toes. The Victory Points system, once clarified, provided a satisfying sense of progression. Players particularly enjoyed the moment-to-moment decisions of balancing energy production, waste management, and population growth.

Challenge:
Some players felt overwhelmed by the need to track multiple resources at once, especially in the early game. They struggled with balancing money, energy, population, and waste while also trying to grow their city sustainably. This left some players feeling like they couldn’t get a solid grasp on where to focus their efforts.


Adjustments:

Early Game Bonus:
Introduced an early-game bonus in the form of additional starting resources (e.g., 1 extra energy or money) to help players get a smoother start and allow them to better balance their resources as they progress.

Resource Balancing Tutorial Phase:
Added a tutorial phase at the beginning of the game where players could take a couple of turns to practice managing resources without worrying about Challenge Tokens or Climate Events. This helped new players understand how to balance their resources and made the early game feel less overwhelming.

Additional Clarity for Resource Tracker:
Made the resource tracker clearer by adding resource icons next to the amounts on the board, so players could more easily keep track of their resources and see where they needed to adjust.
Overall Observations:
Strengths:

The game encourages long-term strategic planning with a focus on sustainability.

Players enjoyed the mix of competitive and cooperative elements, especially when discussing strategies to tackle challenges.

The Victory Points system was well-received once players understood it, and the satisfaction of balancing sustainability elements was high.


Areas for Improvement:

The early game felt too overwhelming due to resource balancing. The amount of management required, particularly in tracking resources and planning for challenges, could be simplified for new players.

Climate Events and Challenge Tokens were still a bit too disruptive and unpredictable for some players, especially when they caused unexpected setbacks.


Next Steps:
Continue refining resource management to ensure players can balance them more easily in the early stages. Explore introducing resource milestones that give players clearer objectives on what to prioritize.

Further clarify Climate Event rules and Challenge Token triggers. Consider streamlining these mechanics to reduce randomness and make the game feel more controllable, even during these phases.

Expand the tutorial phase to give players a better introduction to how they can build a sustainable city. This could include a goal-oriented setup where players focus on specific objectives (like a goal to reduce waste or expand green spaces).

Test additional balancing mechanics for players who may be falling behind, ensuring that all players feel like they have a chance to win up to the last round. Perhaps add an "environmental recovery" system that rewards players who fall behind in sustainability.

• Game Reflections: Discuss what you learned from the development process and what you would do differently next time. 

Game Reflections:


What I Learned:

Balancing Complexity: Early feedback showed that players felt overwhelmed by too many mechanics. I learned that while it's important to have depth, the game needs to be simple enough for players to grasp quickly. Introducing mechanics gradually would help players ease into the game.

Resource Management: Managing resources (money, energy, waste) was tricky for some players, especially in the early rounds. I realized that a clearer starting phase or tutorial could help players focus on balancing these resources from the get-go.

Climate Events: While the unpredictability of climate events created tension, it sometimes disrupted players' plans too much. A better balance would give players more control and preparation options.
Victory Points: Players had difficulty understanding how different actions earned Victory Points. I learned that the connection between actions and rewards needs to be more obvious to guide strategic decisions.


What I’d Do Differently:

Simplify Resource Management: I'd reduce the number of resources players need to manage or make the tracking system more intuitive to prevent confusion early on.

Balance Climate Events: I’d refine the climate event system to ensure they’re challenging but not game-breaking. Giving players more ways to prepare for or deal with them would make the game feel fairer.

Clarify Victory Points: I’d make it clearer how each action contributes to earning Victory Points, possibly with a visual tracker that shows progress in each area (like energy, waste, green spaces).

Add More Interaction: I’d introduce a few cooperative elements or give players the option to form temporary alliances to make the game feel more dynamic.


Next Steps:

Refine the Climate Event System to make it challenging but not too disruptive.

Simplify Resource Management to reduce complexity early in the game.
Clarify Victory Points by improving the tracking system and the connection between actions and rewards.

Test Cooperative Elements to see if they increase player engagement.