Major Project 1 - Task 2: Design Proposition
26/02/2025 - 05/03/2025 (Week 4 -Week 5)
Aisya Diva Anwagodsa (0365505)
Major Project 1 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 2
Table of Content
- Instruction
- Task 2
- Feedback
- Reflection
Instruction
Task 2: Design Proposition
Google Form - Week 3
Before switching to the storytelling game, our group initiated an online survey based on our first idea card matching game. We got a good feedback from our respondents. However, the survey was about the card-matching game so we only used some legible feedback for our new concept. For the survey can refer to the PDF file below:
Fig. Online survey
I noticed that based on the responses, people tend to play the game because of the 'challenge' or the game mechanism, they also preferred a good illustration compared to other design elements in the card sample that we have attached on the survey.
Below is the card design that was sketched by Sheryne and Ying Ying:
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| Fig. Card design sketched by Sheryne and Ying Ying mockup by Lizzie |
Concept Changing - Week 4
Continuing the progress of our project. After receiving feedback, we get to change/improve our project. The main issue that was highlighted during our presentation on week 3 is 'replayability'. So we consulted with Ms. Anis via Microsoft Teams and she showed us a game called 'Story Teller'. This game is basically an interactive game, where the player should arrange different scenes (provided by the game) and the ending should be aligned with the instruction given by the game. Later, after we understood how the game worked, Ms. Anis suggested we adapt the concept, but for our project, we will turn it into a physical card and focus more on the character. I personally think that this was a good idea because it offers a solution for the game's replayability and is considered an engaging game that can be played together with family and friends.
Fig. Story Teller game trailer
After understanding the concept, we tried to make the game mechanism first. During the discussion, we found that each of us had a different opinion about the game mechanism. But we had a final thought that the game flow should be like this:
- The cards will be divided into 2 categories, character cards that are based on characters in Indonesian folklore and narrative cards, which consist of different scenarios that will lead the player to make the story.
- Each player will be given random character cards from Indonesian folklore.
- The players should pull one narrative card in one round, the narrative card could be the beginning, middle, or ending of the story (there are 2 options for using narrative cards; it's either each player got one narrative card or one narrative card for the all of the players.)
- Then players will take turns making the story based on the character card that they get within 15 to 30 seconds.
However, the idea of storytelling is good, but we still find it confusing, Sheryne, and Lizzie, think that as Indonesians this game would be fun because we understand the original story of the character. So we thought that people should understand the folklore first and then they can play the game. In this phase, we planned to bring back the idea of a card-matching game again, but the purpose is to understand the story. Me And Sheryne had an idea to make the book as simple as possible by turning the whole paragraph into a conversation or comic look alike, so the players can understand the stories without taking a lot of time reading.
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| Fig. Book idea |
At this point, we have different opinions and understanding so we need to take a break from the game mechanism. Meanwhile, days after our discussion, one of our members Ying Ying, gave us another idea that still maintains our matching card game but in a different form. There are some cons to the storytelling idea that we initiated:
- The game seemed too complicated and not appealing to foreigners if they had to read and understand the folklore before playing the game.
- Current game mechanics were not engaging.
- Indonesian folklore did not appeal much to Malaysians.
- etc.
This idea was based on opinions collected from Ying Ying's family as a Malaysian who's not familiar with Indonesian folklore. The ideas are:
- Matching game: matching the correct story or scene
- Folklores will come up with various ending cards, but there's only one correct ending among all the cards.
- Players are able to choose an ending card based on their opinion and they should explain the reason why they selected that card.
- Players should discuss which card is the correct ending, the most voted card will be the final answer.
- After deciding on which ending card is the answer, players can check the correct answer in the book.
- Matching card game: collectible card concept
- Folklore will remain as their true story, but in this game, players could customize the character's face, weapon, and landscape based on regional specialties. The concept is similar to 'Love and Berry'. Where player should collect cards that have different elements like clothes and other items.
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| Fig. Alternative idea by Ying Ying |
I tried to place myself in the same perspective, and yeah our game rules and plans are way too complicated (I guess we just overthink). Every time we discuss our game, we always find a dead end, flaws, and things that bother us in continuing the game. Having opinions from others is a good thing because we're able to see what people think about our idea or maybe we can find out in which area we have something to improve.
Book Layout & Card Design - Week 5
Before the consultation, our group decided to go with the storytelling idea regardless of the thoughts and doubts about the game. Because, if we keep thinking about the flaws, we will not move on and stuck in the process. So we decided to brainstorm our idea one more time and chose the storytelling game, this was also because of the feedback we got from the lecturers about the game. We also decided on the game mechanism. One thing that makes this game exciting is that players will not know what kind of character they get. After further discussion, we decided to fix the concept as below:
Card concept & design planning:
- We will use an illustration of the character as the main point of the card design.
- For the description and to help players understand the character, we will use personality and a description of the character based on their origin story.
- A book about the characters' origin stories will be included in the game, so players can get knowledge about the folklore itself.
Game flow:
- Each player will get character cards.
- The story will be determined by one narrative card for each round (it means that all of the players will be focusing on one narrative card).
- Players will take turns to use their character cards and continue the story from the previous player.
We also showed the initiative design for the storytelling game and the book layout design below:
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| Fig. Card concept and book layout (card drawn by Sheryne) |
Ms. Anis and Ms. Vitya also told us to bring the printed book and card the next week. During this feedback session, we online fixed our game rules and showed our initiated design. After that, we focused more on finalizing our PPT for the task as below:
Fig. PPT Task 2 (Continuation of Task 1)
Feedback
Week 4
Specific feedback: Changed our concept from a matching-card game to a storytelling game that is based on Indonesian folklore characters by adapting a game concept from the 'Story Teller' and adding our own idea to maintain the first idea of educating people about Indonesian folklore.
Week 5
Specific feedback: Fixing the game mechanism and making sure that the whole group got the same understanding of the game. This week, our lecturers also said that our progress was pretty slow because we kept focusing on the game mechanism, so we had to keep up with the branding of the game as well.
Reflection
Experience: Working with 4 brains would be nice because we had 4 different sources of ideas. But the hardest thing was to make sure that all of the group members got the same vision, it took us too much time because our progress was pretty slow, and kept on and off about the game mechanism, which at some point my group mate having difficulty in letting go our first idea of the card-matching game. However, after a long discussion, we thought that our final decision to switch the concept was the best decision for our group.
Observation: The game should be fun and playable by anyone, I think that is the main point of playing the game and the hardest thing in inventing a new game. I realize that my group was too overthinking about the game mechanism, resulting in us always in a dead end and running out of ideas because we kept thinking about the game 'replayability', now I realize that some games are not meant to be as replayable like when we first time playing it. It is just how the players could make the atmosphere good or fun, if you already know the flow of the game then you feel bored maybe it's time for you to introduce the game to other people. Also, a matching card game that was purposely made to educate people was made so players could be familiar with the folklore itself. I am saying this on my blog because I realize, how the way we present ideas and react to other people's opinions really matters and has a huge impact on our outcome.
Findings: I Find a lot of new things during this project. Especially from weeks 3 to 5. I learned how to stand up for things that matter to us and believe in ourselves if we are sure that our idea is good, but of course, we also need to consider the feedback given by others, especially in doing a big project like this. I am glad that my peers and lecturers provided us with a lot of good insights so we could grow better and come up with our final idea of making a storytelling game based on Indonesian folklore characters.
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