Ideas, Research, Ideas, Testing.

The past few days of the board game project have been, hectic to say the least. Day 3, we tested our initial board design in our group to see how long the game would take to play, and whether it worked properly. 

Paper version of the board made by Robin

 The test went well but it was apparent that the game would take a long time to complete. The main things we liked were the noises spaces and the idea altogether. After this test, I drew up a quick idea for a board which was similar but had a space in the middle for the building element of the game, and this would look like a battle field. This is when we decided to have Cowboys and Indians, and have it a battle between the two. The Cowboys would be building a guard tower, and the Indians a totem pole to act as their defenses, and whoever built their defense first would win the game. After getting a thumbs up from the group, I organised with my younger cousins for them to play a prototype and see how they like it. I drew up a cardboard version with some counters and chance cards, and took it for them to play.

The totem pole

The board with pieces and cards

Close up of corner

The test went well, with both boys really enjoying the game, and wanting to play again afterwards! Jack is 10 years old and Owen is 6 years old, 7 in November. A side note on the test is that Owen is a very sensitive boy, and generally doesn't like losing at any games (he is lucky he has such a nice brother!) which is why he got a bit upset whenever he was losing or he thought he was going to lose. However, talking to Sue and Nigel (their parents) they think this is a good thing to have in a game, where the players lose pieces as it teaches children that they won't always win at games, and this is the age when they should be learning things like this. They both enjoyed making the noises after they got into the game (they both started a bit shy, but it was because I was filming it)  and after a while they both really enjoyed it, building their tower and working out which routes to take. Jack, being a lovely brother let his brother win as Owen got a bit upset when he was losing, but they both enjoyed the game thoroughly. Afterwards I asked Jack and his mum Sue a couple of questions about the game (see video), but Owen didn't want to be filmed. I asked him if he liked the game and he said yes, and i asked if he would play it again and he said he would. I asked them both if they liked the idea of having hats, and they both really liked the idea of dressing up as it gets them into their character.