The game-making process:

Day 2 of the game jam. After we pitched our progress in the morning we made a quick plan to tackle the day.

We started making our lo-fi prototype, to quickly playtest the idea we had. We did this by making a 5x5 grid playboard, a few number playing cards and a storm card. 

You could play by laying down 4 from the 5 cards to try to get the highest value. The winner was able to play a fiche, your goal was to get 5 in a row as quickly as possible. Here’s the catch, the other player could block you with his fiche. In this case you could not continue. The storm card however was to remove a fiche from the other player to unblock your row.

Quickly we figured that playing 4 cards really slows down the game play and makes it a bit boring, also the game ends quickly if played just like this. So we decided to add a special action tile to the board so we could give the player an option to play a special card which could be in your advantage or disadvantage, like remove 2 fiches or add 2 fiches, from you or the opponent.

The 4 cards played out of 5 were changed into each draw once to decide who has the highest number, luck based, same as dicing but with cards. We also tried a dice for a change but noticed this didn't work that well and it took the speed out of the game.

After we playtested this version we noticed that, if the special card tiles were taken the game its end was already written. Therefore we decided to add 4 stormcards to the deck of numbers, the stormcards worked as follows: whenever the person pulls the card he/she has to remove 1 or 2 entire rows, which is stated on the card, in or within their advantage.

At this point everything felt alright and we made an upgraded version of our playboard.

After finishing this playboard we decided to test it with a random person and quickly figured the game was missing something tactical, but we could figure what it was.

We were all brainstorming about options on how to get a tactical mechanic into the game, quickly we came to a board with a pawn, because we didnt wanna change the entire game we just made a quick board and printed this so we could test it through another gameplay.

When we tested this version which is as follows; You start by putting your pawn on the start tile, after this you will throw a dice to decide how many tiles you may walk, you are free to move over the entire board as long as you move 1 tile horizontal or vertical at the time. While you walk over this path you will leave a trail, the old people leave a trail of oil and the new people leave a clean trail. Whenever you're blocked in you can step on your own or your opponents tile but this will resolve in you only taking 1 step, even if you threw a 6.

After a quick playtest we noticed this is very messy and intensive because you needed to play, move your pawn, lay your trail, if you pass a special card tile, draw the special card and execute the card.

Shortly after the experts came in to be informed about our progress.

The expert council:

How was the engagement with the EU values perceived by the expert council:

Two of the three groups didn't really ask about it because the message seemed clear for them, the other group couldn’t find the underlying message. They said if you change the board to dolls and make it pink it could just be an ordinary game. 

This feedback made us think about how we could change the board more so that the message is more clear.

How playable was the prototype?

The prototype was playing good, the quickness that we had created worked well to keep people interacting with the game. The only thing we missed was a good visual ending, this game could in theory continue for ages, without even making the message clear. 

Brainstorming with the experts resulted in the solution, to add ‘Trophy’s’ which you could earn by making a row of 5 without it breaking. If you collect 4 trophy’s you've won the game.

• We did not have any instruction manual yet, so we explained these verbally, this seemed all clear.

Action points: 

We divided the tasks for the weekend so we can implement our feedback into our lo-fi prototype and try to have a good base/concept by Monday so we can make a med/hi-fi prototype.

• Upgrade the version of the playing cards to make them appear the same.

• Change the action cards so you have to read the entire card instead of just the -2 + 2 part.
• Make the play board more realistic, so it appears to be a part of the problem instead of just a board.
• Upload dev1 and dev 2 log’s
• 3D print the pawns
• Make an introduction text (for on the back of the box and in the rule book)
• Maybe make a beginning of the rule book
• Implementing the expert feedback.