OUGD405 STUDIO BRIEF 4 - GAME RESEARCH

Before starting designing my board game, I undertook both primary and secondary source research into games in general, to get an idea of the style of games in general, and to see if there was any feature that most games had.

SECONDARY SOURCE RESEARCH

This is the multiplayer game Frustration, which is what I formed some of my ideas on in my mind map, as I played this game as a child and thoroughly enjoyed it. As you can see it is very brightly coloured, using primary colours and green. It is a 4 player game, as there are only 4 starting points for players to start at. Each player has a different set of coloured playing pieces, so that you can distinguish your playing pieces from your opponents. The board is made with a plastic structure, as the playing pieces slot into holes so keep them standing up. This is unusual amongst board games, as normally the board is just flat to save on production costs. There is also a dice clicker in the centre which you press down to roll the dice. This stops the dice from getting lost, although does mean that the board is definitely not going to be able to be folded. This is an unusual and unique feature of the game, and sets it apart from all the traditional plain board games.

Monopoly is an immensely popular game amongst people of every age. I chose to look at it because I got my idea from collecting pieces of the map from this game, as in Monopoly you collect properties to build houses onto, whereas in my game I am aiming for people to collect pieces of the map instead. I also chose to research monopoly as I wanted to see how the text it orientated around the board. Whether it all faces the same way, or if it turns with the board. As it is the text always faces the outside of the board, so that no matter what side of the board you are sitting at, the side closest to you will always be able to be read the right way around. Monopoly also uses bright colours in the tabs of the properties, grouping them together. Again it uses primary colours, but because there are more properties if of course branches out into secondary and other colours, but still keeping them bright and bold.

This is the Eco-Fun play for team planet game, and I took a look at this game game because I wanted to see the orientation of the text within the tiles, to see if the same as in Monopoly they constantly faced the outside of the board, or if they all faced the same direction. The same as Monopoly the text is directed to face the outside of the board as well. This board game also uses extremely bright colours, however they are a random mix of colours, not just the primary colours and a few others. This makes the board look way too full of stuff and different colours, it's kind of over whelming and confusing. I must make sure my board still has space around it and I don't try and fit everything in it, so that it looks aesthetically appealing.

This game, Noggin's Castle, is a similar idea to the kind of game I want to produce, with the path not just going around the outside of the board, but travelling inward too. The game also has things inside the middle of the path as well, which is what I want to to with my game, so this is an example of a game which has already done this. I think the key with this design is that although the overall appearance of the board is rather complicated, the main parts of the game are very simple. I must ensure this with my gam so that people can follow it without getting lost.

This is a bit of a different game in design compared to the other games I have researched, because the path isn't a straightforward shape like the other games, but strands of in different directions. The text also only points in one direction, so if you were sat at the opposite side of the board, you wouldn't be able to read what's in the different tiles. The whole aesthetic of this game looks old fashioned as well, as although primary colours and green are used, they look kind of faded and patchy, suggesting the game is old. I don't want my game to have this effect, as I want it to look contemporary and up to date, so that people can trust the facts in the game, without thinking they could be out of date and wrong.

PRIMARY RESEARCH - I went round Leeds into a variety of different shops photographing different games to later analyse and compare.

As you can see all of these games on the shelf at "The Entertainer" are brightly coloured and use a lot of primary colours.  Using bright and primary colours seems to be a theme amongst games of all target audiences, perhaps to attract the attention of potential purchasers, or children, who are naturally drawn to games. 

This is typical packaging for a family or children's game, using bright colours and dynamic imagery. 

This game is aimed at an older ago range, as you can tell by the imagery on the cover of the game. The imagery is more photographic based rather than illustration based like on the games aimed more at the younger audience. However the photographs are still full of colour and eye catching. 

This is definitely more of a adult game, which comes across in the design of the game, however even this game uses bright primary colours in it's design. The images are also simple and striking as they stand out from the page, contrasting with the plain background.

This research has been of great help to me as it has showed me the importance of bright, bold colours in the aesthetics of game production, as games objective generally is to attract attention of being fun to play, which is associated with bright colours. Children are normally the ones to pick out games they want to play, and are more drawn to bright colours than they are dull colours, so this could be another reason why games are generally brightly coloured. When designing my board game, I must ensure I make it look suitably bright and colourful, but no overwhelmingly so, so that it attracts children, but also so that it appears as though you could actually learn something from the game too.