In a 5-day Game Jam, my team was tasked to create a physical board game based on an existing video game. When playing the video game, we found the most important mechanics of the game was cutting and pulling metals into a specific chute. We then used these mechanics to create a 2 player board game.
My contributions include creating game design, systems design, and art.
The given prompt to my team was to make a video game into a physical game that can be played in person. This led us to brainstorm games that would be interesting to design that would work with the theme and mechanics of Hardspace: ShipBreaker. Early in the process, we focused on putting junk into a specific target. With many suggestions of using player skill and chance, we thought of flicking counters into a goal, until realizing that was just playing soccer with your fingers. To move away from this, I wanted to challenge the player’s strategy, leading us to move valued tokens on a grid.
We were so happy that we had a solid plan so early in production. As our initial game was made, the last two days were used to playtest and refine rules and regulations. We went through many trials and errors for the elements; one of them was the placement of the tokens. We wanted an equal chance for both players at the start of the game, while still making the players strategize their future turns. In the end, we decided to have small tokens on the edge of the ship, while the higher valued tokens are in the centre, connected by joints.
