CREATING A GAME

Being a design student, I get a lot of assignments and projects. So far, my favourite project has been ‘to create a game.’

My classmates and I were asked to create our own game/ toy/ puzzle taking inspiration from any childhood games/ toys/ puzzles individually. We were allowed to change the functionality, character, rules, materials, visuals, scale and challenges of our picked game.

The game which I chose was ‘Guess Who?’

At first, the idea of creating an entire game by myself was daunting to me. That too in a short time frame. I never thought I would be able to complete it but I proved myself wrong. I did finish it within the given time frame and I’ve never enjoyed so much while making a project.

THE PROCESS

‘Guess Who?’ is a the mystery face game where you flip over a collection of faces with different hair color, eye color, hats, glasses, etc. to deduce who the secret person is that your opponent has chosen. you flip over the hooked tiles as to narrow your choices by asking characteristic questions.

Now, I have made some variations in the game, keeping the basis of guessing things as same. To bring novelty to the game and make it more complex and intriguing, I have changed the game from ‘Guess Who?’ to ‘Play Detective’.

‘Play Detective’ is a murder mystery game for the 8+ age group. In this game, the player has not only to guess the character but also the weapon of crime and the place of crime.

After finalizing the idea, I tried out this idea with a few of my friends and my parents and they all loved it.

A murder mystery at a simplistic level and guessing game with a twist makes it appealing to all age groups 8 and above.

Initially I thought of selecting a theme like marvel characters or superheroes but the weapon of usually all superheroes/ marvel characters is well defined. Mixing them up with another weapon did not appeal to me and hence I have kept the characters informal.

After freezing the idea came the complexity of constructing the game. Sunboards, digital tracing, paint, toothpicks, paper, are some of the materials I used in constructing the game. It involved a great deal of technical accuracy and guidance to plot the boards, the cards and the grooves for the cards to hold uptight. I painted the toothpicks to make them look like scoring pegs.

Then came selecting the characters, weapons, places, and tracing them digitally and shrinking them to fit on the cards. Keeping the color scheme in mind – red, blue and yellow.

Next step was framing the instruction and rules sheet ensuring the game is explained in the simplest terms to make it player friendly.

And finally, the packaging. All of us know a good packaging and visual presentation is very important. I have tried creating a logo and an appealing box.