Summary:
This project was developed in collaboration with Epic-We and is based on the values of the European Union. Prior to the design process, we as a group researched various board games, such as Cards Against Humanity, Omdenken and Secret Hitler. The game we developed is a social game that focuses on debate. It is played by placing a proposition on the table, after which each player must debate from the perspective of a random party assigned to them at the start of the game. The player who ultimately succeeds in getting their proposal through the most rounds wins the game.
Research:
My goal as a designer within this project was to conduct research into a specific question, using a chosen board game — in my case, Cards Against Humanity. I then used the collected data to arrive at a usable design. The central question I investigated was: ‘Does the context of the game influence the social experience?’ My research consisted of two interrelated parts. The first part consisted of observations during play sessions with two different groups. I observed how they played the game and which cards they chose. What struck me was the big difference between the two groups.
Group 1 deviated from the standard rules of the game and often chose milder cards. They regularly exchanged cards that they found too offensive. I noted which cards these were and used this data as input for the second part of the research.
Group 2 played the game as intended: they deliberately chose shocking or provocative cards because they found them funnier. I also noted these choices and included them in the follow-up.
The second part of the study consisted of a survey. Participants were first asked a number of short questions, such as whether they had any experience with Cards Against Humanity. I then asked them to rate a few cards from the first part of the study on three points:
1.How offensive they found the card;
2.Whether they would use the card in public;
3.Whether they found the card funny which is ultimately the main goal of the game.
I then gave the participants additional context for the same cards to see if their opinions changed based on the situation in which the card was used both inside and outside the game. Results The results were very interesting: With context, the cards were generally perceived as more offensive. At the same time, participants also found the cards with context funnier, although this varied greatly from card to card. With context, the cards were also rated as less socially acceptable.
The Proces:
A major part of this project involved researching the target audiences and aligning their needs with both user requirements and client expectations. Throughout the entire process, we continuously tested with representative users to validate our decisions and uncover new insights at each stage.
We began by designing the political party cards. These went through several iterations before reaching the final version. One key improvement was expanding each party’s viewpoints from two to four, giving players a more detailed and balanced understanding of their positions.
Once the parties and names were finalized, we selected additional content cards and conducted sorting sessions where test participants categorized them based on EU values. Using those results, we refined, rewrote, and translated the content so it better matched the game world and its characters.
Early in the process, we also created a quick board sketch using post-its to map out the gameplay structure. I later developed this into multiple board layout concepts, gradually refining them until we arrived at the final design used in the game.
If you want to see all of our iterations in more debt you can find them here