Group 4
Our game is called Sticks & Stones, a two player board game targeted towards elementary school kids. The premise is to destroy your opponents blocks and build up your own, and whoever has the most territory at the end of the game, wins. The catch is, if players want more materials, they must engage in a mental transaction - that is, they must solve a logic or math problem to gain materials, and the problems get harder as they purchase more and more materials.
Our rules were very simple. There are two players who play on a 7x7 grid game board, and start off with a certain amount of materials (5 wood planks and 3 cobblestone). These materials are used by each players to build their own territory, and also used to destroy the enemies’ territory. The game pieces were color coded, so that purple and green represent wood and cobblestone for player 1, respectively, and red and blue represent wood and cobblestone for player 2, respectively. Once players run out of materials, they may request more materials, but must solve a logic puzzle or math problem in order to purchase them. As players continue to purchase more and more materials, the puzzles and problems get harder and harder. Players build and destroy in turns, until the 5 minute play time is up. The player with the most territory at the end of the game wins.
During our playtests, we found that while our rules were relatively clear, they were too few. Most of our rules consisted of the basic mechanics of the game and did not provide much context for what players can and cannot do. This caused confusion amongst players, as players played moves that caused issues within the game, as well as some overpowered moves. Our rules were also quite vague, and requires a lot of fine tuning and details to make them better and improve the game. This limited amount of vague rules made the game extremely basic, so many playtesters suggested different features be added to the game. Some suggested that the purchasing of materials be its own turn, while others suggested new puzzle ideas.
Another very common criticism we received was that the game was not for kids. It was too basic and bland, and was not very stimulating for a young mind aside from the puzzles. There was a severe lack of structure for kids, and ended up being a pretty basic game with very little to keep kids engaged. One of the suggestions was to make the puzzles harder, as some said the math problems were too easy and made acquiring materials too simple. Others said having a different system of answering questions could make the purchasing of materials more fun, i.e. flash cards. The game was also pretty slow paced, so having a faster pace would make the game much more exciting.
For Sticks & Stones, I believe we need to make the game more exciting to play. Even though this game is an educational game, it should still be fun and stimulate the players more. One way to do that is to make the game themed. Right now, there is no story or reason for the objective of the game, so the game is already unappealing. By adding a theme and story, players are more enticed to play the game and have some fun. Another way to add some excitement to the game is by timing the problems and puzzles. By giving players a limited amount of time to solve a math problem or logic puzzle, it not only makes the problems more challenging, but also much more exciting as well. This also makes the game feel like it is going at a bit of a faster pace as well.
Sticks & Stones was not originally designed to be a 2 player versus game, but rather a co-operative building game. Both Stanley and I put our heads together to come up with the original concept with each of us throwing out ideas and considering them before fitting them into the game or discarding them. However, towards the end of our process we realized we needed to make it a competitive board game and so it was then turned into a battle board game, with building as its core concept. Stanley did most of the creative work in coming up with the ideas, while I wrote them down and worked on formatting and a little bit of imagery.
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