Week 1: Concepts and Primary Research

'Kerrison Toys', one of the many Toy Shops we encountered.

To kick-start our project, we thought it would be a good a good idea to play-test some existing board games for some inspiration. We ventured out to Toy Shops, and looked into all sorts of different games. We looked at games based on their art styles, gameplay morales and if they caught our interest, we'd take a deeper look into it. Luckily for us, Norwich has a fair few Toy Shops on offer, all packed to the roof with board games.

 The Lego game 'Minotaurus' (left) was a very interested one, as it took the normal Lego concept of 'build it yourself' and put it into a maze-style board game. In this game, the goal is to lead your 4 pieces into the middle of the board, while avoiding the Minotaur and placing bricks to hinder your opponents. We loved the idea of having to build your own path, so we play-tested this game for ideas on how we could adapt this to our game.

Though we couldn't get a chance to try out 'Warrior Knights' (right), we all agreed that the art style was exceptional. We thought that something similar to this would be a good fit for the idea we had in mind. The gameplay itself, however, looked a little too complicated for what we were going after.

There are so many different games in the world, that it would be difficult to make something completely new and unique, especially as all board games link somewhere down the line. We wanted to keep our game as simple as possible, but also keep that strategic element to it as to not make it a chore to play through. With all the games we'd looked at, we agreed that a 10+ age range would probably be the best way to go, as it would give us a good range to make the game a little more edgy and risky.

We also found a game called 'Labyrinth', which looked notably similar to the idea we'd had in mind. In Labyrinth, there a tiles that are fixed to the board, which players can slide around the board to create new paths for them to follow. Though we thought this was a fun concept, we believed it would lead to the same game every time we played it (though we could be wrong). We decided that we'd have to find a way to make the game play differently each time to shake things up a bit.

Labyrinth: The Duel (left) is one of the many expansion packs for the original game.

Another game that caught our eye was 'Citadels' (below), a Medieval card-based game. We loved the idea of the player creating their own path to reach a certain goal from Minotaurus, so we took this and started to brainstorm around mixing the two styles of gameplay.

'Citadels' was a key part of our ideas process.

Using a mixture of ideas taken from our research, we went with the idea of starting with an empty board, and having the players place down their own tiles to make the path for themselves so that they could reach the goal. We also to the idea of players having the ability to hinder their opponents movements with the addition of cards, to give the sense of fierce competition similar to that seen in Minotaurus.

Next, we all went away to research a little more on ideas to make our game stronger. When we came back, after some more brainstorming, we all sat down and put our thoughts together to come up with a set idea that we could develop. We decided that instead of 4 generic character pieces, each piece would be different and have it's own special ability. We came up with 4 recognisable characters from the Medieval era, which were the Knight, Mage, Archer and Thief. We then started to think about the board layout, and worked to create something similar to  this:

Our Board layout.

Going with our path tiles idea, we knew this kind of set-up would be perfect for the gameplay we had in mind. At this point, we all assigned ourselves to parts of creating the game. Me and Gavin were given the task of the game's mechanics and rules, along with creating the instruction manual. At this point we had to figure out the basics behind the rules, such as ways of getting to the middle, how the tiles and cards are used and how players might interact with each other. To make this task a lot easier, Gavin created a mock-up of the board (below) so that we could play-test the game to see what would and wouldn't work. During this time, Paul created the pieces that would represent each character (below, shown on board) using 'Super Sculpey' modelling clay. They came out wonderfully, and this helped Ilze and Jay with their task of creating the artwork for the game.

Original mock-up of our game, with character pieces.

Before we continued with making the game's rules, I thought it would be a good idea to continue my reasearch into wake make a good game, and what makes a bad one so that we could apply this research into the creation of our game.

The History of Games

As many people know, board games have been a part of human civilisation for a long time. History has told us that games played on boards have been a prominent source of enjoyment and intellectual development for around 4000 years. Over this course of time, games have gone through some major changes. Most of this could be because of advancing technologies, or popular culture, but the fact is still there and the premise has stayed the same. "Almost all board games are imitations of situations in real life." (1 p1) It's strange, as somewhere down the line, all games can somehow be linked to each other. I'll show some examples of that in the following:

'Senet' (or 'Senat') is often thought to be the oldest board game in the world. It has been found in Egyptian burials dating from around 3500 BC and also featured in the tomb of Merknera around 3300 BC. Though "the rules for Senat have not survived" (1 p162) it is thought to have been very similar to 'Backgammon', a very well-known game in today's society.

A beautifully crafted game of 'Senet'.

Backgammon is a simple game combining a mixture of luck and skill. Each player starts with 15 checkers, which must be moved into the Home Board so that they can be removed from the board. The first player to remove all of their coloured checkers is declared the winner. The origins of Backgammon lead to back to possibly over 5000 years ago, starting with the Iranian game "Nard". Although it has been refined (and named Backgammon) since around the 17th Century, the basic play of Backgammon was enjoyed by the likes of the ancient Greeks and the Romans. Names from these eras range from the Roman "Ludus duodecim scriptorum" and "jeux de tables" in France. Still very popular today, Backgammon is played by millions of people all over the world, with online internet play, tournaments and even gambling purposes.

A virtual game of 'Backgammon', as seen in 42 All-Time Classics for the Nintendo DS.

Another world-famous game that springs to mind is 'Ludo'. This could be called similar to the previously mentioned games, but it's definitely unique in it's own right. The basic premise of the game is to get your pieces from your home base to the middle of the board using die rolls, and this basic play has stuck with each version of the game that has been produced. Originally named 'Pachisi' and originating in ancient India (which in turn originated from another race-style board game named 'Ashte Kashte', also from India), it has undergone several transformations throughout the years, if only minor. Over in the States, the game 'Parcheesi' was copyrighted by the Selchow and Righter company in 1938 (2), though it is unknown exactly when the boards were commercially produced. Variations of the game have appeared in many different countries, including the German "Mensch ärgere dich nicht" which means "Man, don't get irritated". The game in question, Ludo, made it's way to England back in 1896 during the time of the British Raj and was patented. Ludo is essentially a simplified version of Pachisi, with a more commercial look to the board.

A traditional game of 'Ludo'.

Now I finally look at what is probably the most well-known board game in the world, Monopoly. "More than 275 million games have been sold worldwide and it’s available in 111 countries, in 43 languages" (3) Monopoly is based (and named) around the idea of buying and dominating properties to gain the series' signature paper money to avoid bankruptcy. The initial concept of this type of play was first conceived "in 1904 (by) Elizabeth J. Magie, (a) fledgling game inventor from Virginia, (when she) patented a forty-space game board that included railroads, utilities and the treacherous corner "Go to Jail". She called her game "The Landlord's Game". Rents were collected on real estate of increasing value, the properties were nameless and contestants travelled clockwise along the board's square pathway" (4). Around three decades after Magie had patented her game and had it distributed for a fair few years, in 1935, a man by the name of Charles Darrow saw real commercial potential in the premise. With his vision and the Parker Brothers' marketing muscle, they teamed up to make the game we all recognise today. One of the main additions made to Darrow's concept was a mascot for the game, originally known as "Rich Uncle Pennybags", now renamed "Mr. Monopoly" due to it being the more popular and referred-to name. Over the years, many editions of the game have been released, including those based on famous places, movies or even cartoons and video-games. In recent years, an electronic money system has replaced the old paper method to aid quicker and less fiddly gameplay. Monopoly is still going strong, even today, being released in new ways all the time. People can now play in almost any way they choose, with iPhone Apps, home console games, and as always, the traditional method of a board, die, paper money and the iconic tokens.

A Nintendo edition of the classic game, 'Monopoly'. Proof that there's a version for almost everybody.

So there's a brief history of the more popular board games. All of these games have many things in common: they're fun to play, create tension and provide an escape from reality. In my opinion, if a game doesn't have any of these things, then it's a bad game. Next in my research, I'm going to be looking at what makes a good game, and what makes a bad one.

(1) Asterie, B.P and Eugene, F.P (1990) Favourite Board Games You Can Make And Play, Courier Dover Publications.
(2) http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/Whitehill/parcheesi/index.html
(3) http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/en_GB/discover/75-Years-Young.cfm
(4) Kennedy, R. and Waltzer, J. (2004) 
Monopoly: The Story Behind the World's Best-Selling Game, Gibbs Smith.

Board Games...Where To Begin?

When we were given our brief for this project, I didn't have any idea as to what could come of it. I knew that working in teams would definitely aid the experience, with many varied ideas coming in from each of us.

So first up, we decided to research the History of Games, focusing on the most famous examples.