Creative Workshop : Learning Games for young adults
Name : Satish Abhane and Amit Shende ( Toy and Game Design )
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DESIGN , Gandhinagar India
Guide : Kuntal De
Games ( Learning & Playing ): playing and learning are such an intrinsic part of our lives which motivates us , and the play is also the enjoyable act of learning through which one develops their physical . Intellectual ,emotional ,social and moral capacities.
Objective: The objective of the workshop was to explore the possibilities of using all principles to create a Board Game that address learning needs in the societal context.
the very first step of designing of a Board Game or anything is Researching , so before stating the mapping we started talking and thinking about different kind of issues that we have in our society like women empowerment , environmental pollution , security and rights etc.and after so long discussion we selected few areas
- Animal rights.
- Governance , rights ( power ) , constitution and awareness .
- Cyber security
After selecting these areas we started finding out the key learning points and started mapping them.
After our mapping and general observation , research we found that people ( specially young people ) they basically know about our society’s issue but they don’t know that they also have the power ( the rights ) ,that they can use it and also participate to solve it .generally we have observed that our young generation are not interested in discussing the Indian government and their policy , also they don’t know the fundamentals of Indian constitution the rights that we have and the role and the responsibility that govt have in each level as an Indian we must know about the rights and policies and also about the Indian government structure who is functioning the whole country , we also have the power but we are not aware of it , so instead of other issues we selected one ( governances , rights , and awareness ).
Indian politics is a very vast subject like india is a federal democratic republic with parliamentary system of government , which is based on U.K model . the whole parliamentary system is divided into main three parts which is also called three pillars of indian parliamentary system . first one is legislative body ( law making ) , second is executive body ( implementing of law) and third one is judiciary system ( for justice ) ,india is divided into 28 states and 8 union territories and we choose our member of parliament and government through election system.after the whole study we made a brief structure of our parliamentary system .
In our government parliamentary system we found that the election part is very interesting and there are so many possibilities of making brilliant games.
Types of election in India:
1 . Lok Sabha Election ( for Central government )
- total seats -545
- seats are divided into different states according to their population ex
Madhya pradesh — 29 , Uttar pradesh — 80 etc.
- Winning condition ( >50 % of total seats )
2. State Assembly Election ( for State government )
3. Rajya Sabha election ( Central indirect elected )
Key elements for design direction:
- Constituency ( problems )
- Policy ( solutions)
- Media
- Campaign
- Election commission of india
- New law
- Parliament
After the study of indian government parliamentary system we did a small research on various games and their principles like SASHAN , POLITICRAFT , THE AGENDA GAME etc, from where we found some interesting ideas and we started mapping the learning path the principle and the different ideations.
First ideation : Election system
Concept 1 — This concept purely based on Lok Sabha election system , where player can select any constituency for taking election and at the other side of that card there would be problem like ( girls education , environment etc. ) now player will try to math this problem with policy card now if player will get support on that issue and law card ( this issue is against to this law which i have ) and also that his/her policy can apply to that constituency ,then player can put m.p cards on that area and throughout the game if player will get maximum number of support card will able to make government .
Elements of game :
- Map board ( different states and number for election seats mention)
- Constituency card
- Policy / manifesto
- Election board
- Colour pegs.
In our first feedback we got some suggestions like this game is totally based on a particular section of the parliamentary system , not about the whole structure , so we started working on that issue and also we started thinking differently ( different perspective ) because we also wanted to design for those who don’t know anything about the indian politics.then we started our journey with three elements of design ( measurement , correction and evaluation ).
Second ideation : Indian constitution, Rights and Problems
Concept 2 — This concept is based on the civilian rights and the legal issues that we have in our society and how a civilian can approach to different kind of system for justice and it’s also about the function and role of our govt structure that how it works .Through this board game player has to play a role of civilian of our country and objective of that civilian would be to solve problem of a certain area and for that , at the end of the game , civilian will get the best civilian award from the indian government .
Elements of Game :
- Play board
2. M.P. cards ( Member of parliament )
3. M.L.A cards (Member of legislative assembly )
4. Supporters coins
5. Problem cards
6. Dice
7. Sand timer
Game elements :
- Dice -Block Board :
- Supporters coins :
- M.L.A Cards :
- M.P. Cards :
- Media Cards :
- Problem Cards :
- Law Cards :
- Dice & Pegs :
- Rewards :
FINAL GAME FLOW DIAGRAM -
Board game prototyping:
Usability, User experience and testing :
Rewards in game: Reward is something which is actually given to player .
Basically there are two types of rewards in game design that we use for games
1.Intrinsic : Rewards with in the games like new challenges ,levels points etc.
Intrinsic rewards in our board game
- Local support coin ( level -1 )
- MLA support card ( level -2 )
- MP support card ( level -3)
2. Extrinsic : Rewards that exists outside the game itself like money etc.
Extrinsic reward in our game
- Padma award ( Best civilian award 🥇 )
Incentive (Motivating factor) :
- Local support dice- block game .
- Debating , discussion .
After finalising the game concept we started working on the game components and physical manifestations of the incentives , the layout of the instruction manual , the visual and graphic part and other essentials of the game .
Board design and graphic part :
After so many ideas we finalized one idea which was the 3D pyramid board .
Q. Why 3D pyramid board ..?
Because pyramid represents the indian democracy and parliamentary system.
So basically pyramid represents the three layer system of indian government like at the bottom we have local government in middle we have state government and at the top of the pyramid we have the central government which is our main governing and powerful body.
Board design concept :
Graphic design concept:
Inspiration that we have taken for the graphics is Preamble of the indian constitution , and preamble to the constitution is a brief introductory statement that sets our guidelines , which guide the people of the nation and present the principles of the constitution . the preamble page , along with other pages of indian construction of india , was designed and decorated by renowned painter Beohar Rammanohar Sinha of jabalpur who was at Shantiniketan with Acharya Nandalal bose.
Final product:
Game cards :
Game flowchart :
Rule book :
FINAL PRODUCT-
User experience :
My experience regarding creative workshop :
Thank you !
