Date of Defense

4-24-2023

Date of Graduation

4-2023

Department

Art

First Advisor

Carly Hagins

Second Advisor

Sunki Hong

Third Advisor

Michael Kahwaji

Abstract

This thesis project follows my process from start to finish of designing a board game that connects individuals through hidden role mechanics, while also filling in a gap in the board game market. According to the CDC, people in the United States spend 7.5 daily hours on screens. However, I found that board games offer unplugged bonding time for friends and family, allowing them to take a break from screen time. Additionally, I found a significant gap in the board game market. There are highly strategic games that can take hours to play, as well as extremely simple games geared towards children, however there are not many mid-level strategy games.

The game I created, Celestial Race, fills in this market gap by incorporating easy-to-learn rules, an interactive game board, and tactile game pieces. The game utilizes rocket playing pieces to conceal each player’s hidden character. Throughout the game, players can use cards to look inside of the rockets and trade their rockets with opponents. Along the path, players can pick up resource tokens. Players will lose tokens at the end of the game if they do not have the correct character inside of their rocket, and the player with the most tokens at the end of the game will win. The game is easy to learn, however there is not a quick or simple way to win. The characters get mixed up throughout the game, making it difficult to find a pattern, thus making the strategy more complex.

The final prototype consists of 3-D printed and painted game pieces, a compact cardboard game board, professionally printed ultraviolet coated playing cards, and laser cut acrylic resource tokens. Each of these components was digitally designed and modeled, and then hand crafted. The packaging and rulebook were also designed and printed. The game went through extensive testing with various test groups throughout production and it was changed numerous times. The final prototype was also tested and positively received by all of the individuals involved. My plans for the future are to have Celestial Race fully funded on Kickstarter and brought to market.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Restricted

Download

Share

COinS