When I was a teaching assistant for The Ohio State Introduction to Game Design class, I saw that students frequently stuck to the required materials when designing games. These included 1 set of polyhedral dice (1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 2d10, 1d12, and 1d20), some colored markers, and some index cards. They were also encouraged to bring a standard deck of playing cards.
I was frustrated by how often the students seemed to limit their designs to the affordances of these components. Components matter. They subconsciously suggest design decisions to us.
The goal of this project was to enable students to make more interesting decisions about board game components by providing them a wider breadth of components to consider while designing.
The process of making the toolkit started with a focus group where I worked with 3 other instructors familiar with game design to create a paper prototype of what the box should contain. I then did a review of board game design kits sold on commercial marketplaces and marketed on Kickstarter. I also followed up standing questions from the focus group on the BoardGameGeek.com forums.
Putting the kit together required a combination of curation and making. Many of the pieces were purchased online. The acrylic tiles were cut from a sheet on a laser cutter. Other pieces were repurposed from packaging or generously donated by design professors from other toolkits.
We prototyped the initial packaging from recycled cardboard, and then instead used repurposed clear plastic containers so that students could consider components while they were still in the box or unopened. I consulted with a product designer from the OSU Design Department in making adjustments to the packaging and presentation of the box.
We then tested the kit with students for 2 group projects. We gathered photos, observations and in-vivo feedback from the students about what was there and what was missing. At the end of the first project we ran conducted a discussion with the two sections to gather feedback and administered a survey about the box. As a result of the observation and feedback, we removed, replaced, and added several components to the kits.
We didn't do any formal evaluation of the impact of the kit on student creativity, but the perception of both the students and the instructors was that the kit enhanced creativity and improved the quality of the games created.
The kit is a living artifact, so there still remains outstanding improvements to be made to both the packaging and the contents. One unexpected aspect of the project was that instructors contributed back to the project, with one instructor upgrading packaging and adding components (right).
