KLONDIKE RUSH
(board game)
GENERAL INFO
High Concept
Challenge your friends in this stylized tile-turning card game set during the Klondike Gold Rush era. Collect golden nuggets by using movement cards and manipulate the game with utility cards to either progress or sabotage your opponents. The first player to collect three golden nuggets wins, but be careful, others may also be suffering from gold fever.
The Mission
During the first term at Futuregames, one of our courses was to create an actual board game in three weeks. The goal was to become more comfortable when it comes to; turning a concept into a prototype in a fast and consistent way. We learned so much during this period. Especially, the power of playtesting and how to prepare for it. In the process, we learned about using the three kinds of playtesting: Guided / Focused / Unguided, but also how to observe player behaviors, body language, and micro-expressions during a playtest session.
DEVELOPMENT TIME: 3 WEEKS
TARGET AUDIENCE: Kids 8+ and Families
TEAM SIZE: 4
MY CONTRIBUTION
Visual Design
Most of my work was mainly focused on the game's visual design. I used Krita, taking inspiration from stylized games and other board games. One big inspiration was Blizzard's Hearthstone. Since the game is taking place in gold mines - in a fantasy Klondike era, I tried to capture a cozy, warm, but also mischievous feeling in the visual design, since our target audience was aimed at "8+ and families".
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I created the art by using free stylized textures, and then I cut out little pieces and assembled everything. If more details were needed, I would draw them in by hand.
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RULEBOOK
I used Krita to make the Rulebook, and with my fellow teammates' feedback, it turned out well. In the end, I could have done a better job making everything a little bit clearer and consistent. The Salesheet page didn't have the same style as the other pages. And the Salesheet text size is way too small.
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PUTTING EVERYTIHNG TOGETHER
On the second to last day, we focused on creating the physical product. First, we printed the game art on ordinary A4 paper. After that, we cut out all the art, followed by cutting pieces of cardboard in the same size. We then glued all the pieces together, and finally, the game cards were placed in plastic pockets. Our product was now complete and ready to use.
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Quality Assurance
During our playtests, I was one of the "writing down notes-guy". We had many discussions and play sessions together to easily address the problems that occurred. We played our game over and over again, tweaking the game's mechanics simultaneously until we felt satisfied and confident enough to arrange another playtest.
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We gathered information about the playtest sessions in MIRO, where we could look at the feedback, and discuss about the eventual rule tweaks.
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