Created using custom made wooden tiles, this project was taken above and beyond the expectations of the team, granting it the title of the best project to be ever handed in for the module. Working as a team we have created something that has the potential to be taken to retail as a finished product.
Meet The Team
Desgin Team Size | 4
My Role - Card Desgin / User Engagement Testing / Pitch Document Design
Taking the fast paced action of Apex and morphing its mechanics and designs into a fully funcational turn based battle royale that could be played by up to 8 people was a battle on its own. From constant itterations to the balancing of the weapons to the round based combat system.
Turing 3D Into 2D
Initial concepts of the board managed to make their way to full productuon. From the start of the project we wanted to go with a hexagon style map design. This proved to be the most efficient way to get the mechanics of the open world design of Apex from the digital world to the phsyical. By encorperating the hexagon design, we could not only allow for more travseral options when compared with a square tile design. we could also allow players to custom build the map to their own design. as each tile could be rotated in six possible directions during set up, weapon pick ups could have a random element to them each time people played the game.
Rules Of Engagment
To ensure that the mechanics we had translated from Apex worked in out board desgin. it was critical to get to user testing as soon as we could, we hand drew the cards design, got some canvas and drew out a rough map. Getting people to test this basic version allowed us to see how unablanced our weapons were, what mechanics didnt translate over from Apex very well (sorry but no grenades here). We would then take these weekly feedback sessions to itterate our mechanics to ensure we could keep players engaged for the length of the game. We found that a full game using the full game board could take around 2 hours to complete from start to finish as players battled it out for victory
With the full game taking 2 hours to complete. We decided it would be good to include the option for the player to be able to shrink the board down for rapid fire matches that they would be able to play with friends and family. These matches we found had more tension added to the mix as we would shrink the ring quicker than the standard game. adding to the need for players to quickly try and loot all the weapons they could to defend themselves in the close quaters combat they would soon engage in
Suiting Up For Battle
My role in designing the cards was focused on a minimal approach. We knew we needed to provide basic infomation to the players about what the weapons they had did and how they should be able to use them. Keeping this infomation short and available would be critical for keeping the flow of gameplay. With an already moderate learning curve, we needed the design of the cards to be as minimal as possible to help keep players engaged.
This is the design i came up with. It keeps the infomation players need in a readable place while keeping the design of the cards in line with the Apex theme
these were later changed to be smaller due to costs of printing the cards. as we had opted to print the smaller versions of the cards we had to drop the backgrounds and simplfy the design alot more than we would have liked to cut costs. If we were to attempt the project again or revisit it in the future we would go with the full size cards for both weapons and Abilities
Keeping On Track
To manage the current progress of the game as well as ensure all team members knew their specific jobs at any time. We used created a discord channel devoted to the games desgin. different channles were created to track the progress of each element of the game.
This proved to be the best approach for the task of managing the games development. We could look back at the design and see how and why we changed the elements of the game to better suit the players engagment.
This project was a nice break from my traditional design procress. Designing a physical game rather than digital provides a new set of challanges to overcome. These allowed me to get a better insight into how important testing is as well as how important it is to keep a board game in the draft stages with the art side until the mechanics are fully balanced as much as possible. This knowledge will be used going forward to my digital level designs to ensure i get the mechanics and metrics designed to a high standard before i start adding detail to blockouts. As the testing process can bring up issues with the design it would be a waste of time having added detail to only have to go back and scap the section entirly if it dosent fit within the scope.