Game Log 2: Play

Use the following questions as a reference for your documentation. Feel free to edit the format. 

From the game-making process:

• What have you learned, what decisions have you made, and how have you progressed in your thinking?

We've realized that our game and story can change a lot and rapidly. Based on feedback and our own insights we've changed a lot within just one day. We needed to make the game understandable and playable, while also keeping the story fun and progressive. We've gotten a lot of very useful feedback from experts, which we will use to improve the decisions we have made and will make later on.

• Share any pictures from your game design process. 

From the expert council:

• How was the engagement with the EU values perceived by the expert council?

They were implemented into the game in a clear way, but we could also have added another value: democracy. We could make the players work together more that way. We could make them vote for choices and explain themselves or even persuade eachother. We were told to rethink how we would implement this third  value as well as the other two, in order to make the awareness we want to create even more clear.

• What can be improved?

We could implement the "Freedom" value a bit better, by making the players take on a role that has certain restrictions (on land or in character or resources). Then the players could come up with solutions  and help eachother in order to lift those restrictions. That can also be done by adding the new value Democracy. Equality was also implemented well, but could also be made "stronger" by letting players take on a more important role (government-like for instance).

• How playable was the prototype according to the experts?

We haven't playtested the game, as we were still working on key elements, like characters, resources etc. But we have explained the playing cards and the general use of resources and how and where the players start the game on the board.

• What was their feedback regarding the instructions?

The cards were clear in what the players needed to do with them, although the Risk and Resources weren't that clear. The board needed to be a little more clear at a glance, because the NAP was harder to read and the small streams of water didn't quite make sense. The introduction of the game and its story wasn't quite clear, as we went into the details and rules too fast. The goal of the game wasn't always clear and would probably not leave the players thinking about it later.

• What could be changed to improve it?

We could definitely add a legend to explain the board better. We were also told that the story needs to be more clear before starting the game, so that the players can get into it immediately. We could make the NAP a bit more visual, by adding props were the water is higher. The cards could use more context or story. They could also be replaced by a voice on a device. At the end of the game, we need to have told a good story, to leave the players thinking about what they have experienced or done during the game.

• What was their feedback regarding the mechanics?

They often told us that the amount of mechanics was a lot, but in a fun way. We've taken influence of a lot of games and that was great. The consequences of the players' choices could be a bit more dramatic and impactful towards other players, to create a bit of conflict or chaos, as the game is a bit "tame" now.

• • What could be changed to improve it?
  The game mechanics we've come up with from other games could be researched further to see WHY they will work and how they can work together better. We could also make the consequences of player's choices and actions be made visual on the board to make it even more immersive.

What are your action points for the upcoming day?

We want to finalize the story and decide what the characters will be. We've heard a couple of idea's of who the players could be playing as and how that will affect the cooperation and how (and if) educational that will be. This is because we could shift the game from a fun one to an educational one. We also got the idea to let the game take place in the past, even though it's now taking place in the future (2100).  Hopefully we will also have a "finalized" board at the end of the next day.