TRANSFORMING PC PLATFORM GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE ONTO A BOARD GAME

Thesis Project Presented

By

Filiz Durgun

To

The Department of Art + Design

In partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Science in Game Science and Design

Northeastern University

Boston, Massachusetts

April, 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement 2 Abstract 3 1. Introduction 3 2. Background 4

2.1. Background 4 2.2. Related Examples 5

2.3. Platformer Games 7 3. Approach 9

3.1. Procedure 9 3.2. Limitations 9 4.Design Concept 9

4.1. Game Elements 14 4.2. How to Play the Game 15 4.2. Rules of the game 16

5. Game Design 175.1.Mechanics 17 5.2 Dynamics 22 5.3 Aesthetics 23

6.Results and Discussion 23 6.1. The Objective 23 6.2. Platform Design 24 6.3. The Event Deck 25 6.4. The Secret Rooms 26 6.5. The Design of the Scene Cards 27 6.6. Mechanics 27 6.7. Customization and Hero Selection 28 6.8. Special Attack Item 29 6.9. Dying and Respawning 29

7. Future Development 29 8. Conclusion 31 9. References 32 10. Appendix - Design Document 35

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Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my friend Jing Kang and my thesis instructor Chris Barney for playtesting

most of my prototypes throughout the development process and for helping me with their

feedbacks. I am also grateful to Chris Barney who helped me to think from a different

perspective with his suggestions, especially when I had a hard time figuring out the moving

mechanics.

I also would like to thank my Thesis Advisor Derek Charles Curry for helping me with his

constructive criticism and feedbacks and advising me throughout the semester. I would like to

thank to my friends who were supporting me morally and to all playtesters who had been

participating in playtesting sessions. Thank you all for your support, time and feedbacks. And

my sincere thanks goes to my family who continues to support me while I am achieving my

dreams.

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ABSTRACT

This paper presents my experience of transferring a video game-gameplay experience onto a

board game. The mechanisms of the board game are designed according to the mechanics of PC

platformer games. The board game is playtested with gamer playtesters to understand whether

the game gives them the familiarity of their experience playing a platformer game. The paper

concludes with a discussion of what went well and what went wrong during the development of

the game.

1.INTRODUCTION

I proposed to develop a game that transfers the gameplay experience of a PC-Platform game onto

board game, where I integrate board and card game elements. The goal of this project is to

transfer a digital game experience from a screen to a physical platform. Likewise, the objective is

to create a competitive and a non-repetitive game that gives users the freedom to create their own

flow of events.

The design problem I worked on is the difficulty of transferring a virtual experience to a different

medium. “Having a digital version of a board game for many people is tremendously appealing”

(Kiley, 2015). There are classic tabletop games, such as Ludo, Chess, and Backgammon, which

are the games that are transformed into digital platforms. This provides players with the option to

play these games with other people whenever it is convenient for them to do so. What I am

proposing is the opposite, where I transfer the game experience from digital to analog.

Changing the medium of a game experience also required me to transfer game mechanics as well

as the terminology of platform games. In PC platform games, the players are not able to see the

next frame unless they move along with the given path. The focus of the camera is on the avatar

and it moves according to the avatar’s movement. In the platformer games, the incoming scenes

from the point that the player is standing are unpredictable since the whole map is not provided

to the player. If a platformer game which has similar obstacles on each frame, the map will

become repetitive. With a repetitive path, the player will learn and master how to overcome the

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same obstacles, or expect what the next obstacle can be. According to Csikszentmihalyi's

‘Theory of Flow’ (Baron, 2012), the balance between challenge and ability of the player needs to

be stabilized in order to have a player is engaged and immersed to the game. If the game is too

challenging, it will cause the player anxiety . Likewise, if the challenges that are in the game are

too easy compared to player’s ability, it will cause boredom. And relatedly, the player will lose

interest and motivation since the game is not challenging enough. Nevertheless, this does not

change the fact that the first-time experience of a gameplay is always exciting. “The players

often judge the games based on the first impression” (Isbister & Schaffer, 2015, pg.107). The

first impression of a gameplay is one of the determining factors for players to play the game

again or not. My challenge during this project was to provide the first-time excitement of a

gameplay experience by arousing the players’ curiosity for each time they play the game by

designing a non-repetitive board. Since each game session will be different from each other, the

expected first-time excitement will provided to the players who are beginners and for the ones

who are already played the game before. The players will be able to create new paths for

themselves but also for their opponents by creating a difficult path or challenging situation for

them.

2. BACKGROUND

2.1. Background

What I aimed to accomplish with this project is to design an innovative board game which differs

from other board games not only by having the transmission of a digital game gameplay

experience and platformer game mechanics onto a board, but also by having a non-repetitive

board design. From this experimental project, I gained awareness of how changing mediums of a

gameplay experience can led the mechanics into a change, especially when the players won’t

interact with mechanics or game elements as I planned. What I learned from this project will be

described in the Results and Discussion section in detailed.

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One of my biggest inspirations for designing a multiplayer-competitive platform board game was

a video that I have watched of a 4-player Super Mario gameplay by a Youtube Channel, named

Rooster Teeth (2012). The name of the game is ‘Mari0”. The ‘0’ (zero) in the name represents a

vertical portal since the shape of ‘0’ (zero) seems like an ‘o’. The name of the game refers to

Super Mario and Portal. The game has original Super Mario mechanics. What is different from

the original game is that the players have a Portal gun in their hand. The players can place portal

entrances and exits on the platforms. If a player steps on an portal entrance, the player will go

back to where the portal exit was placed on. This will make the player fall behind the other

players. In the video that I have watched, four friends were playing Mari0. They were having fun

while setting up portal traps for each other. The players were competing for the high score while

completing the level. The reason why this video inspired me was that I got highly fascinated by

how merging mechanics from two different games can create a new experience of a gameplay.

Not only this, but also I liked the communication between four friends while playing a

competitive game. Therefore, I decided to develop a competitive board game which contains

platformer game mechanics. This project successfully implements mechanics from a digital

platformer game in an analogue board game.

2.2. Related Examples

Another major inspiration for this project was the board game The Amazing Labyrinth (Image

1). It is a game that I was playing a lot when I was a kid. The game board is a maze. The players

needs to rearrange the tiles to make their way to the specific tiles that have treasures on them. In

the beginning of the game, the treasure cards are distributed to the players. And the players’ goal

is to reach those tiles with treasures on it and complete their cards on their hands. The Amazing

Labyrinth gave me the idea of having a strategy of replacing tiles to make your own path or to

block your opponents. The idea of moveable tiles made players think and imagine the path in

their mind before changing the places of the tiles. It requires strategy and imagination. A tile that

can open a player’s path can be the same tile that causes another player to become stuck.

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Image 1 (above): The board and the treasure cards of the board game, Amazing Labyrinth [image

taken from publisher Ravensburger’s (Ravensburger, n.d) website]

Another game that inspired me was Pixel Lincoln, which is considered “possibly the very first

side-scrolling card game”, published by Championland (boardgamegeek, n.d.). It is a card game

where the player plays as Abraham Lincoln, who battles with creatures and travels the world to

save the American Flag. The side-scrolling mechanism in Pixel Lincoln gave me the idea of

having a platform game on a board with cards to create a path. I decided to have a grid system on

my board after exploring this game. Moreover, I decided to have path cards which will represent

the scenes in a platformer game and will be placed onto the board by players in turns. By this

way, the board would not be repetitive and the players will have a chance to change their path.

I was also inspired by Snakes and Ladders, which is a board game that mostly played by

children. The goal of the game is that the players needs to make their way to the end of the board

by rolling a dice. The board has numbered grid system from 0 to 100 that has both shortcuts and

obstacles represented by snakes and ladders. The numbered grid system gave me the idea of

combining a board with cards on it to create layers which has platforms in it. Snakes & Ladders

has shortcuts and obstacle mechanisms. This mechanism gave me the idea for a similar

mechanism where some obstacles might lead the player to go backwards and some shortcuts will

lead them closer to the end point. Snakes and Ladders has a mechanism where the players needs

to roll a dice to move. However, the events that occur when a player lands on a ladder or a snake

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are not choices made by player. In these situations, the player has no choice but to either climb

the ladder or slide from the snake. This mechanism is the opposite of what I tried to achieve in

this project, which is giving players the opportunity to strategize their own moves.I wanted to

design a game where players will have more than one option where they can strategize their

moves and play accordingly.

Another inspirational game for me while working on my design question was Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong is an example for platformer-puzzle game where the player must overcome the

obstacles on platforms by dodging or jumping on them. I wanted to create a board game that

would mimic movement mechanics in digital games, such as move, jump, dodge, and

double-jump.

“Card-based strategy games are games where cards are the primary game element. These games

usually have a heavy element of luck or randomness” (Silverman, 2013). Some board games

where a player rolls a dice also have the same randomness which depends on the player’s luck.

For instance, in Snakes and Ladders, when a player steps on a grid that has a snake on it, it

causes player to go backwards on the board. Similarly, if the player is lucky enough to step on a

ladder, it will lead them closer to the end point. But the result of going backward or moving

forward does not depend on player’s skills or their strategy but on their luck. To reduce the

amount of randomness, player’s strategy will determine their destiny in my game rather than

their luck.

2.3. Platformer Games

A Platform Game is a genre of a video game where the player controls a character to overcome

the obstacles and to complete the objective of the game by using the given movement controls.

The most basic game mechanics in platformer games are the ability to move up, down, left, and

right and the ability to jump.

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According to the IGN’s ‘Top 100 Video Games of All Time’ (IGN, n.d.), Super Mario Bros.,

which was released in 1985, is ranked the 14th best video game of all time. There are six more

Super Mario games in the list, including Super Mario World, which is ranked #1, Super Mario

Galaxy, and Super Mario Odyssey. “Super Mario, the original game is one of the world’s best

selling games, and still very playable more than two decades after its release in the

mid-eighties”(Pedersen, Togelius, & Yannakakis, pp.133). The original Super Mario Bros. game

is a two-dimensional platformer game where the player play as a plumber who tries to save the

Princess, runs and jumps through the platforms, tries to get the highest point by killing the

enemies and collecting coins until the very end of each level.

The core experience of Super Mario Bros. is defined by Morrison (2011) as if it makes players

feel like ‘exploring and conquering a strange world’. In Super Mario, the player is not given the

information of how many levels are there or what the next obstacle is (Morrison, 2011). What is

expected from the players is to find out what is next by progressing in the game. The design of

Super Mario Bros. was influential to this project. In Super Mario, there is a consistency in level

design both aesthetically and in terms of mechanics. It is easy to learn the controls, however it

takes time to master. The spatial obstacles are not extremely hard to overcome but they require

quick eye-hand reflexes and the ability of quick decision-making.

Ralph Koster, author of ‘Theory of Fun’ (2013), says that games teach players. “Games teaches

you how aspects of reality work, how to understand yourself, how to understand the actions of

others and how to imagine” (Koster, 2013). In terms of the relationship between the spatial

environment and the player, 2D platformer games teach players how to interact and overcome

puzzle or obstacles. What is learned from a platformer game can be used into other games since

the player now have prior knowledge and experience.

What a digital platformer can do compare to a board game is to provide feedback to the players.

With audio and visual feedback, the player can use their senses to understand what is going on in

their surrounding. Visual feedback helps the player understand how attacking works between

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players, or the interaction between the player and the objects in-game, where on a board game

this process needs to be imagined.

3. APPROACH

3.1. Procedure

During the development of the game, the mechanics were updated weekly in response to

feedback from playtesting sessions and from my thesis advisors. The game was playtested with

various numbers of people: 2-players, 3 players and 4 players.

Playtesting sessions were conducted on the campus of Northeastern University. Playtesters

consisted of students and instructors at Northeastern University who were all between the ages of

20 and 40. In order to see whether playtesters can translate the platformer game mechanics onto

the board game, playtesters were chosen from people who had experience playing platformer

games before. All of the playtesters are informed about the rules of the game in the beginning of

every playtesting session.

3.2. Limitations

The game is playtested with young adults and middle-aged adults. The playtesters who had

experience playing platformes games before did not have any difficulty understanding the

terminology. In fact, the terms used in the game are common for platformer games.

The appropriate target audience of the game can be enlarged to include teenagers. In future

development, the game will be playtested with teenagers to understand whether to include

teenagers into the target audience or not. There are no risks involved with this project.

4. DESIGN CONCEPT

The game has two decks of cards, the scene cards and the event cards. (Image 2). One of the

important element of the game is the Scene Deck. Scene Cards are designed in order to provide

moveable tiles to the players. The Scene cards are a representation of a ‘scene or a frame’ in a

platformer game. The path and the course of events on the cards won’t be visible until the

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players place the scene cards on the board. Each turn, a player will draw a card from Scene

Deck and place it on the board, and then roll the dice and move accordingly. The reason why

players should place the scene card first and then move is to prevent possible inequity among

players. The scene card that are placed on the board must be connected with a scene card that is

placed beforehand. The End and the Start scene cards are the parts of the board and they are

mounted on the board. The reason why the cards needed to be connect is because there should be

a leading path to the end point. The scene cards will be placed one by one in each turn. This

reduces the possibility of having the same board more than once.

Image 2: Scene and Event Deck

Each Scene Card has three horizontal and three vertical blocks, in total one card has nine

divisions (please see below). Each division, called a “block”, is equal to one move unless there is

an exception. An example for an exception is the obstacle ‘Mud’. The player needs to count two

moves for stepping on a mud since mud is sticky and it is hard to move on it. Some blocks have

platforms on it while some do not. The players can only step on platforms which are represented

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with white and black rectangles at the bottom of the blocks (please see Image 3 below for

detailed description of platforms). The players will move onto these platforms. If the block is

black, the players cannot step on the black block in any occasion.

The details of each element is stated below;

Image 3: Platform descriptions

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Image 4: A scene cards with platforms and obstacles on it

Image 4 (above) represents a possible scenario, there are several entries and exits on the card. As

mentioned before, the player can not move across the black rectangles but they can move or

jump through white platforms.

Image 5: The explanations of the obstacles and elements on the Image 4.

The dimension of the board where the Scene cards will be replaced is a rectangle with 51x31

inches. The Image 6 (below) represents how the board will look before the game starts. The Start

and End Scene cards will be the only two cards which will be mounted on the board. The three

small boxes on the sides which are surrounded with white frame are designed for players to place

their Heart, Mana and Special Attack Item’s in it. By this way, the players will be able to

recognize and distinguish every other players’ items and won’t lose set of items.

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Image 6: The board

Image 7: A digital representation of the board as if players are placing the scene cards

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4.1. Game Elements

Image 8: Game Items and Hero Pawns

The game can be played with the elements that are shown above (Image 8) which are:

-One 6-sided dice

-Keys in this game represented with a small blue pyramid. Whoever finds a Key card from the

event deck will pick one of these Keys and keep it until the end.

-Red Heart icon is commonly used mostly in retro games as a representer of Health of the player.

This is the reason why I choose to have Health icon as a heart.

- In this game, Mana term has been used to reflect the power to use certain ability or skills. Mana

has been represented with a blue star-shaped item.

-Color-coded hero pawns and Special Attack Items of heroes.

-Black token chips are used for marking the blocks. When a player draws a card from a block

that has ‘draw a card’ on it, that player needs to place a token on that block. The reason is to not

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to forget and to prevent players to draw another card from the same block that has been already

used.

4.2. How to Play the Game

Image 9: Whole set of game items and the board

The game can be played with 2-4 players. It is a competitive, fast-paced, platform board game.

Depending on the numbers of players playing the game, the duration of gameplay changes.

Approximately, one game session takes 30-40 minutes. The goal of the game is to find the key

(represented with a blue pyramid in the game) and then be the first player to reach the End Point.

In order to play the game, the players need to follow these steps in the beginning of the game:

1. Shuffle the Event and Scene Decks and place them next to the board.

2. Each players chooses a hero and according to the color of the Hero Card, everyone gets

their Special Attack Item, which are represented by beans (see Table 2). The number of

the beans will change depending on how many players are playing at that time.

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3. Every player places their pawns at the “Start” point. (The color of the pawns are matched

with the color of the Hero Card).

4. Each player rolls the die in turns. Whoever rolls the highest number will start the game

first.

5. The first player draws a card from the Scene Deck and place it on the board. After

placing the Scene Card, the player rolls the die and moves their pawn a number of spaces

equal to the number on the die.

6. Other players repeat Step 5.

7. The player who found the Key and reaches the Endpoint first wins the game.

4.3. Rules of the game

1. The players cannot attack and cannot be attacked in the first “Start” scene card.

2. The first Scene card that will be placed on the board needs to be placed above or to the

right side of the “Start” scene card. Basically, a side of a new scene card needs to be

connected with a side of the previous card on the board.

3. The players can place their Special Attack Item (SAI) on the blocks that they just landed

on. If a player steps within the range of another player’s Special Attack Item, it will be

activated and they will receive damage according to the damage level of the attacking

player. Therefore, everyone needs to know other players Special Attack Item and AR

(attack range). After the player’s turns ends, they cannot change the placement of their

SAI.

4. If a Special Attack Item is placed on a square which has no platform on it, it will fall

down to a platform underneath.

5. Players only can attack vertically or horizontally, not diagonally.

6. Attacking costs a player one Mana.

7. When a player dies, he/she will start again from the beginning (Start Point), and +1

Movement will be added to their movement. For instance, if the player rolls 3, s/he will

move 4. If the same player dies twice, add +2 Movement.

8. When a player dies, he/she recharges their Mana, Health, and Special Attack Item.

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9. Players can only step on a block that has a platform on it.

10. Players can go back or move to the other scene card without stepping on each block on a

scene card.

11. If a block does not have a platform, gravity will force the player to fall downward until

they land on a block with a platform.

12. If a player is almost out of mana or health, they can pass one of their turns to recharge x1

health or x1 Mana. However, if they passed one turn for another reason, this does not

count for recharging. In order to be recharged, player needs to pass one turn with his/her

own will.

13. Only one player can stand on a single block. Two or more players can not step on the

same block.

14. Special Attack Items cannot be placed on Start Scene Card.

15. When a player steps on ‘draw a card’ block, and draws a card from the Event Deck, she

or he needs to place a black plastic chip on that block. This chip means that no other

player can draw a card when they step on this block. They can still step on, or fight on the

block, but they cannot draw a card if someone already drew a card there.

16. Players only can attack vertically or horizontally, not diagonally.

5. GAME DESIGN

5.1. Mechanics

To decide what movements would be integrated into the game, I listed forty different moves

(table 1) from the most popular PC platform games and from my own experience playing

platformer games such as Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong. Five of the mechanics were

chosen to be implemented into the board game. These mechanics are: jump, double-jump,

airdash, hide and attack. Some other mechanics like throw or trip up are also implemented as

Special Attack moves, but they are designed specifically according to the roles of the characters.

Switching platforms

Jump Double jump

Airdash Dash Sprint Flying Swim

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Roll Wall jumps

Kick Swimming in the air

Climb ladders/wall

Swing ropes

Crawl Hide

Collect Jump over/onto/into

Dodge Turn over/walk back

Punch Grab Attack Flip

Hover Push Throw Trip up Spin Move Toss Fling

Spin Lean Switch Swirl Blink Teleport Invisibility Throw

Table 1: Examples for Platformer Game Mechanics. Five of them which are written in bold are

the chosen ones.

The objective of the level is to find a key on the board which opens the gate at the End

point. The players first task is to find a key which opens the gate at the end point. The second

task is to be the 1st person who reaches the End Point. Whoever reaches to the end point first

with a key completes the first level of the game. If a player reaches to the End point without

having a key, that player needs to go back and search for a key on the board.

The game starts by distributing Mana, Health and Special Attack Item beans to the

players. The number of the health, mana and special attack item depends on how many players

are playing (table 2). The number of changes according to the number of players because the

chance of encountering fights or obstacles increases with the number of players. It is less likely

that two players will encounter each other on the game board, therefore two players will start the

game with x3 mana, x3 health and x4 special attack item, while four players will start with x4

mana, x4 health, and 4 special attack item (table 2).

# 2 Players 3 Players 4 players

Mana 3 3 4

Health 3 4 4

Special Attack Item 4 3 4

Table 2: The distribution of Mana, Health and Special Attack Item

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If a player is almost out of mana or health, they can pass one of their turns to recharge x1 Health

or x1 Mana. It is upto the player to pass on his/her turn more than once to recharge their both x1

Mana and x1 Health. They can not move during this waiting period, however they can be

attacked by other players. Additionally, if a player dies after losing a fight or stepping on to

many obstacles without considering their health, they have to start the game from beginning

point. To prevent the frustration to catch the other players speed, a player who dies will gain +1

speed to their movement. For example, if they roll a 2, they will move 3 spaces. This gives

players who have been sent back to start the opportunity to catch up to the other players. Also,

this mechanic was designed to balance the game and still make it possible for a player to win

after they have been sent back to start. Furthermore, a player who dies and starts from the Start

Point will recharge their health, mana and Special Attack Item. That player will keep the

remaining of his/her Health, Mana and Special Attack Item when they die, and they will add a

full package of Mana, Health and Special Attack Item. Likewise, if a player dies twice, they will

add +2 speed to their movement, as well as will recharge their items.

After distributing the starter items to the players, everyone will pick a hero and roll a die

in turn. Whoever rolls the highest number on 6-sided dice will start the game. The game will

continue in turns of rolling the second or third highest number.

The players cannot attack and be attacked in the first scene card. Once the players are

stepped out of the first scene card they can attack each other. To attack, they need to use x1

mana. Moreover, attacks can only be done horizontally and vertically but not diagonally. If the

attack range is reasonable enough, it does not matter if the players are standing on the same

scene card or not, they can call fight from two connected scene cards. Along the path, players

can use their special attacks and place their special attack items on the floor. The special attack

items can be called as “traps”. The traps will give damage to the first player who is in range of

the Special Attack Item. After a player got damage from someone else’s Special Attack, the

Special Attack Item will be removed from the board.

The skills that are listed below (table3) are valid to all kind of characters. While jump and hide

does not cost any mana, others do cost movement and mana.

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# Skills Mana and movement cost

1. Jump Costs no mana

2. Double Jump Vertically only. Costs 1 movement + 1 mana

3. Attack To attack, use x1 mana

4. Airdash Horizontal only. Costs 2 movement for 3 squares + 2 mana

5. Hide Costs no mana. Become invulnerable.

Table 3: Mana and movement cost of skills for every character

Jump

The players can jump to the upper platforms and stay still there if there is a platform on the

block. ‘Jump’ does not cost any mana.

Double Jump

There are some blocks in the game which do not have a platform on it. Because of gravity, a

player who stops on that rectangle will fall down until they land on a platform. Thus, the reason

why mana and movement cost differs between ‘jump’ and ‘double jump’ is because to give the

option to the players to have a strategy. They can either use one Mana and double jump to be

able to step on a platform or they can choose to take another path if they are lack of mana in

hand. The players needs to manage their items and move along.

Attack

To attack, players need to use one Mana. If they do not have mana, they need to choose a path

which is far away from other players to prevent a possible fight, or before they come closer to

the opponent, they can pass one turn to recharge their mana. The players need to consider their

attack range while attacking. And attacking is not mandatory even if an opponent is in range of

your hero. Attacking depends on players strategy.

Airdash

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Airdash can be done only if there are 3 blocks placed horizontally without any obstacles on it. It

will costs x2 movement rather than x3, but x2 Mana needs to be used to be able to display

Airdash. If there is a red or black rectangle on the way, the airdash cannot be displayed. The first

two blocks do not need to have a platform since the player will step on the 3rd block, which must

have a platform.

Hide

If players step on a bush, they become invulnerable until they leave the bush block. Two or more

players cannot be stepped on the same bush. You, as a player, cannot be attacked since you are

invisible and in stealth mode, but you can attack people since they are not able to see you in the

bush.

Each character in game has a special attack and attack range depends whether they are ranged or

melee (table 4). To have a fair fight between ranged and melee characters, the attack range’ and

the attack damage’ are stabilized. While melee’s have more damage compared to ranged

characters, their attack range is shorter. Additionally, to prevent the superiority of ranged

characters against melee characters in terms of attack range, evasion is added to the melee’s.

When melee’s are attacked by ranged characters, a shield will activated which repulses 1 damage

(table 4).

PLAYER 1 PLAYER 2 PLAYER 3 PLAYER 4

Name Elder Panda Bomber Spitter Troll

Type Melee Ranged Ranged Melee

Special Attack Item

Deadly Sharpened Teeth

Mine Bomb Throw Saliva Poisonous slime

Special Attack Range

2 damage (per), 1 Attack Range

1 damage (per), 2 Attack Range

1 damage (per), 2 Attack Range

1 damage (per), 1 Attack Range

Core Attack Swings his bloody skullcutter. 3 damage, 1 attack

Throws gas bombs to opponent. 2 damage, 2 attack

KIIIICK: 2 damage, 2 attack range

Swings Nailed Bat: 3 damage, 1 Attack Range

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range.

range

Shield activated:

Shield activated when attacked by a Ranged player. x1 Evasion : Repulse 1 damage

N/A N/A Shield activated when attacked by a Ranged player. x1 Evasion: Repulse 1 damage

Table 4: Features and skills of the characters in game

Image 10: Color-coded Hero pawns, Hero cards and their Special Attack Items

5.2. Dynamics

The players tend to use their movement number that they rolled in a best way possible by using

double jump or air dash skills. One who uses double-jump or airdash will be in need to use one

of their Mana, however both of the skills will cost lesser movement. By this way, they will have

one extra movement.

In the beginning of the game, the players are told that they can place their Special Attack Item

(SAI) on the blocks that they have stepped on. They are not being informed about where to place

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it exactly, except they know that they cannot place it on the Start Scene Card. However, as the

game proceeds, the players get to know where to place their Special Attack Item by observing

the other player’s paths. This gives them a sense of strategy. One of the most common places

where players place their Special Attack Item is above and next to the Start Scene Card. The

reason is, once a player dies, that player will start from the beginning and take the paths that the

others are already passed. Thus, there is a high chance that they will step on a player’ Special

Attack Item.

5.3. Aesthetics

In terms of aesthetics of the game, it is a challenging-discovery game. The game expects players

to be competitive. It is important to have a strategy to reach the End Point, however the strategy

might be changed since the course of events are constantly changing around the player. Not only

the player itself affects the game, other players also affect and change the following course of

events. This competitive aspect created a tension between players because they may be attacked

if they are within another player’s attack range.

6. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

6.1.The Objective

The primary objective of the game is to be the first player to complete the level. However, while

playing the game with this objective, playtesters tend to ignore the left side of the board and try

to find the quickest way to be able to reach the end. By following this strategy, playtesters were

ignoring to step on ‘draw a card’ blocks (event cards) because they were able to complete the

game without drawing an event card. To encourage players to utilize the entire board, a second

objective was added. Before they reach the End Point, players must now find a key that will

unlock the gate to the next level. By enlarging the objective, players are led to move around and

search for a key on the board. Likewise, the new objective also makes people draw cards from

Event Deck since the keys are hidden in Event Deck.

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6.2. Platform Design

In the early development of game, some of the scene cards included 2 platforms in a single block

(figure 1 below). The double platforms were designed in order to make players strategize their

path since the double platform takes x2 Movement. In this example below, a player who starts to

move from A point is trying to reach E block. Since C platform is closed platform, the player

cannot jump from A to C. In this case, there are 2 possible ways to reach the destination:

1. The player will take A, B, 1, 2, D, E route where the player will get x1 damage since they

are stepping on a red block. Or,

2. The player will take A, B, 1, 2, C, E route in order to reach the destination point.

The issue with double platform was that players tended to ignore platform 2 and jump to C from

1. In follow up interviews after playtesting, players were asked why they ignored the second

platform. Their response was that if this was a digital platformer game, they would move from A

to B, 1, C and E only without stepping on 2. Because stepping on 2 cause them to lose x1

movement also it does not make sense to go forward from 1 to 2 and then to move from 2 to C.

For this reason, I came to a conclusion that the players were not responding the way that I

thought they would do. At the end, the double-platforms are discarded.

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Figure 1: the scheme of how the double platform was working in early development

6.3.The Event Deck

The Event Deck is a deck separate from the Scene Cards deck. In the early development of the

game, when the objective was just to be the 1st one who reaches the end, the event deck included

80% of advantage, 20% of disadvantage cards. The reason why the advantage cards have a

higher percentage than disadvantage cards is because I wanted to make players willing to draw

Event Cards. However, compared to what I think the players do, they mostly avoid drawing the

cards since there was no reason to do so. There were two players who were trying to step on the

platforms with event cards. When these players were asked the reason why they stepped on event

cards, one of them said “I was willing to explore because I was curious”. The other player said

that since it was his first time playing the game, he was curious because he was wondering what

can be the event cards.

The only 2 players who were willing to explore event cards used the same word in their answers

which is “being curious”. Since my goal was to design a non-repetitive game, I was thinking that

the ‘curiosity’ will be gone once the whole event deck is displayed. By improving the objective

of the game, I gave players a reason to draw cards from the event deck. Now, the event cards are

not only giving an advantage to the player and disadvantage to the opponents, but it also contains

the key cards needed to unlock the gate at the end of each level. The Event cards are listed below

(Table 5):

Event Cards

ARRGGH! “Someone” called for a vote to kick you from the lobby. You are accused for cheating. No one likes cheaters. Wait 1 turn!

You have found the KEY!!

In your next fight, add +1 Damage to your Attack Damage!(for one-use only)

Nothing to see here!

Nice Save! Block the incoming damage for one turn only

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Roll the dice when it’s someone else’s turn, move their pawn as the direction you want. (for one turn only)

Swap the Scene Card that you’ve just drew with a Scene Card that is already on the board (except Start and End Card). If there was a player on the Scene Card, place them on the same block in the new Scene Card that you will placed. Apply damage if there is any! The card cannot be used if the chosen player has to step on a black block.

You have found + Special Attack Item. Now it is time for you to place you SAI on one of the scene card which does not have a player on it.

You entered a cave full of bats! Lose x1 Health!

Table 5: Even cards with their descriptions.

6.4. The Secret Rooms

Until the very end of the paper prototyping phase of development, the game has Secret Rooms

on some of the Screen Cards. The goal of the secret rooms was to create unknown mystery as in

Platformer games. Each Secret Room has a secret message in it. The mysterious message won’t

be displayed until a player steps on the secret room and opens the door of it. The secret room

used to have both positive and negative messages such as “you entered a cave full of bats, lose

x1 health” or “you’ve found a chest, collect x1 health”.

The reason why Secret Rooms were removed from the game is because since the messages

inside of the secret rooms are written on Scene cards, so it was making the game repetitive. Once

players play the game few times and learn which scene card house to the positive and negative

messages, they will keep continue to step on positive ones where they will avoid stepping

negative ones.

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Image 11: Example for a scene card where I use color-coded and simple drawings as a reference

for obstacles. In the middle of the scene card, there is a secret room represented with two doors.

6.5. The Design of the Scene Cards

The Scene Cards are representing each frame of a platformer game. Once a player moves inside

of a scene card, the scene develops and another frame is been placed to the board. Basically, by

placing the scene cards on the board, players are creating their own course of events for a

platformer game. The scene cards are designed inspired by platform games where players move

left and right using a side-scrolling mechanic where gameplay is viewed from a side angle.

On the board only 14 of the scene cards can be placed however there are 20 scene cards in total.

The reason why there are more scene cards available on the game is because to provide variety.

This will improve replayability by providing players with different scene cards each time the

game is played. Two of the scene cards are mounted on the board which represents the Start and

End point. Each Scene card has at least one entry, one exit, one ‘draw a card’ and one obstacle

on it.

There is a negative Event Card which says, “Network connection is lost! Please check your

internet connection. Wait 1 turn” is replaced from event deck to scene deck. This card and

another negative card in the scene deck are inspired from error messages in computing and

digital games. The message of the other card is,“An error is occured while uploading your image.

Do not draw a scene card. Roll the dice, move only” is to take the player’ chance away to place a

scene card and move only.

6.6. Mechanics

In the early development, one of my mistake that regressed my progress was to define mechanics

according to an undetermined theme. When the project started, I had imagined the game would

have a dungeon or zombie theme. But during the paper prototyping process, I came up with new

ones. Every time I came up with a new theme, I start designing new paper prototype before

completing the others. Moreover, the reason why designing paper prototypes took so long was

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that as a Graphic Designer, I was giving too much importance on the artwork. This method

hindered my initial progress in the development of the game. Chris Barney, my thesis advisor,

suggested me begin by defining platformer game mechanics, which solved the problem. I came

up with 40 of them by researching platformer game mechanics. From these games, I choose the

five main mechanics that are applied to every character in the game. Accordingly, I designed a

new paper prototype using only geometrical shapes without defining a theme. This method

helped me to move on developing my game and remind me that the theme is not shaping the

elements, nor the mechanics.

6.7. Customization & Hero Selection

In the early development of the game, I designed 3 types of heroes with different Attack Range

and Attack Damage who are named as Sniper, Archer and a Centaur. In order to have a fair fight

between 3 heroes who are melee and ranged, I tried to stabilize attack ranges and attack damages

(table 6).

Sniper Archer Centaur

Type ranged ranged melee

DAMAGE * ** ***

RANGE *** ** *

Table 6: Attack damage and attange range of old heros

The players are assigned wooden pawns. What I observed from playtesting was that the players

had a difficult time getting into the roles of the heroes because they could not relate to the given

character. I believe that the reason was that I only provide them the information of their attack

range and damage, but nothing related with the characteristics of their hero or attacks that are

specific to their hero. For this reason, I decided to customize heroes since “giving the players the

opportunity to customize the game’s character, game world or other aspects of the game may

help to get the players more involved in the game” (Isbister & Schaffer, 2015, pg. 108).

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I also realized that they might not be familiar how the attack range of Sniper and Archer differs

provided in the table (Table 5). This caused me to consider the fact that not every player can

imagine how the ‘attack’ would work in a board game.

In the following prototypes, I decided to design new heroes by giving them personality. I colored

the wooden paws related with the colors of the new heros. In the beginning of the game, the

same playtesters from previous playtesting who did not show enough interest while deciding

who to play what among Sniper, Archer and Centaur, were excited about seeing new heroes with

Special Attacks and Special Attack Items.

6.8. Special Attack Items

Each hero has a Special Attack Item (SPi). The attack range and attack damage of the item

differs depends on the type of the player, whether they are melee or ranged. Each player has a

certain number of Special Attack Item that they can place on platforms. The items damage other

players that are within the range of the item (table 4).

I was expecting that the players might forgot attack range of other player’s item and enter the

range without realizing it. However, since in the beginning of the game, all players read the

description and abilities of the heroes, everyone did remember the attack ranges correctly.

6.9. Dying and Respawning

In the early development of the game, when a player died and had to restart from the beginning

of the board, it was difficult for them to catch up to the other players. This situation was causing

frustration to the players. They were losing interest since they believed that they won’t make it to

the end before others. For this reason, a mechanic is added; whoever dies and starts from the

Start Point will gain +1 Movement Speed and recharge their Mana, Health and Special Attack

Item. For instance, when the player rolls 5, since they gain +1 Movement speed, they will move

6 instead of 5. By this way, they will have a chance to change their disadvantage into advantage.

7. FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

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In terms of providing a non-repetitive experience of a gameplay to the players, the type of

the heroes will be expanded and customized in more detailed. In total, I expect the game to have

eight to ten different hero types. In this manner,if a group plays the game two or three times, it is

possible to play with a different hero each time.

For the future development, a ‘level system’ will be implemented in the game for both

Hero Upgrade and Level Design. Each level will have a different objective to complete the level.

Therefore, there will be different deck of cards for different levels.

Each level will be completed once a player completes the objective for the level and reaches the

end point. Once a player completes a level, that level is over for all the players. The cards on the

board will be discarded and the next level’s cards will be shuffled and prepared to play. The hero

of the player who finished the level first will be upgraded. The upgraded player will have a new

Level 2 Character Card with new skills specific to their hero. The other players who fell behind

in the previous level will start the new level from the start point at the same time with the winner,

however, their heroes will not be upgraded. Instead, every player will gain a new common skill

in the beginning of the each level that can be used by any hero.

The design of the game elements is what determined the theme of the game. Current

game obstacles such as mud, fog, bush and current heros like Elder Panda and Troll evokes a

theme related with a ‘Jungle’. For this reason, while the main theme of the game will be Jungle,

each level of the game might be designed with a natural event or a different day time of the

jungle. In this way, different obstacles will occur according to the theme of the level. Likewise, a

narrative might be added in terms of going through the levels.

The art assets for the game will be created using the pixel art tool, Aseprite. The reason

why I chose pixel-art is because using pixel art for the game’s graphic elements evokes the visual

experience of playing a PC game. The game is implementing digital game mechanics onto a

physical platform, therefore pixel art will match with the concept since it is a form of digital art.

Below, a scene card during development of paper prototype (Image 12) and the first digital

sketch (Image 13) of a scene card can be seen.

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Image 12: Paper prototype drawing Image 13: 1st digital sketch designed in Aseprite

8. CONCLUSION

The purpose of this project was to experiment transferring digital platformer mechanics onto a

board game and present players a non-repetitive gameplay experience. In terms of implementing

the most commonly used platformer mechanics onto a board game, the outcome mostly fulfilled

my intention. During the development of the game, I found compelling to provide Platformer

gameplay experience to the players. Several mechanics were changed and others were discarded

in response to player feedback.

There are some technical elements in digital games that cannot be reproduced in a board game,

such as audio feedback and animations. However, what I found most compelling about this

project was designing the movement mechanism between platforms and to give players a

platformer game experience. I intend to continue to develop this game by designing more levels

and different obstacles and heroes in the future. I believe that the implementation of digital

mechanics from a platformer game in an analogue board game is a contribution to the area of

experimental game design.

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Image Reference:

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https://www.ravensburger.de/produkte/spiele/familienspiele/das-verrueckte-labyrinth-26446/inde

x.html

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10. APPENDIX

● Design Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bXdvyUnFlR1sz78qNGBBRVesEw9IcONHApqrFeZTL_4/edit?usp=sharing

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