80% Done (Posted by Kyle B)

Game is coming out great so far. Rule book is being made in InDesign, Game Bits are all being painted and/or stained, and the box art is being created in Illustrator.

Below is some updates on our pieces, we changed the look of the beetles since they looked very close to an alien head before...the new design is much better. We also have a base laser cut! This will be stained along with the beetles shortly.

Great Progress (Posted by Kyle B)

We have made great progress this past week. We met with the other groups in our class on Sunday and we all played each others games while providing feedback. It was a must for all groups involved. We learned that our game has a few faults we are addressing. If you win the game you're not sure if you won because of your own actions or your opponents. We have addressed this issue and are working on changing up the way the beetles interact with the board.

Laser cutting has been done and it's looking great. We are going to be staining the wood and painting the leaves 3 shades of green, all matte. The flowers and buds will also have their own matching color...I believe we are going to go with violet, orange, blue, and yellow.

Below is the most updated images of our game.

    

Close ups of the laser cut pieces and labels for what they are 

Playing The Game (Posted by Kyle B)

So far we've been having a fun time playing our game. We are constantly making small changes to our game while playing it and cutting whatever doesn't work.

Game Concept - All players work together growing a plant that is essentially the game board. Player's gain points by locking down leaf chains. They do this by placing flowers at the end of a leaf. A flower takes 2 turns to bloom since it starts as only a bud. Thus giving the other players one turn to block that player from growing a flower. Once a flower has bloomed no more leaves may be placed on that same leaf, locking down the chain. Points are gained by counting each leaf from the flower back to the branch, each leaf is worth 1 pt. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. There are events that occur that can change the game state at the end of a cycle. Those we are currently testing and the next post will have more information about them.


The only thing we are worried about is the laser cutting. We are finding out this Thursday if we are able to use it or not. If we can then we are getting cuts done immediately to see how the pieces connect together. If we can't use it...we are still working on that. Only other option on the table is to take our prototype foam pieces and make them look as professional as we can.


Image of our first prototype game

Physical Prototypes (Posted by Kyle B)

While we are working on getting our pieces laser cut we need to have something to work with for time being. Pink Insulating Sheathing from home is perfect for this. We all took home a 4 ft x 2 ft section of this and are currently cutting it up into very specific pieces so we can meet this coming Sunday and work on our game.

Below is an example of what I stated above, with a quick preview at how these pieces will be combined together to build a structure.

Concerning Gulfstream Cut-outs and Mechanics (posted by Patrick R)

Today we inquired about getting the cuts of game bits over at Gulfstream Hall. The good people over at the cage in Gulfstream were incredibly helpful. Team Plant implores any ITGM students to seek out laser printing services if they need 3D pieces for a board game.

For more information concerning laser printer cuts, visit  blog.scad.edu and click on the section "digital technology lab."

In order to further develop the mechanics of Grow, we are looking into prototype materials. Home Depot has 1/2 inch pink foam core listed for 13.99. That seems like a good starting place. Then we can figure out our mechanical dynamics.

Prototype Research

Let's make a game with over fifty individual two-inch wooden discs that click together and climb vertically Good idea. Now let's figure out how to physically manufacture the prototype. Here are the options Team Plant has come up with:

-Balsa Wood 
             // PROS: Cheap, Flexible, Easily Altered, Accessible // CONS: Cheap, Flexible, Easily Altered


-Plastic 
             // PROS: Sturdy, Sleek, Sexy // CONS: Very Difficult to Access



-Paper (Too Flimsy)
             // PROS: Cheap // CONS: Flimsy, Unprofessional Looking, Bad for Mechanics


-Foamcore
             // PROS: Cheap, Easily Accessible // CONS: Delicate, Too Light for Mechanics


In the end, we chose to use a foamcore board for the prototype until we can find a more resilient and dependable material to reflect the mechanics of our game.

Dev Blog Update 01: Welcome to the Grow: Dev Blog! (Also Design Process too)

This blog chronicles the game development process of Grow, a three dimensional board game

about collaboration, resource management, competitive play, and experiencing a unique and

powerful interactive piece of artwork.

Mechanics Development

After settling on the idea of a three dimensional plant-growing game over a game about the methamphetamine trade or a kid's game, we set out to determine how the game bits would mechanically interact with each other in a way to yield strong dynamic diversity and how we could develop goals around the gameplay.

So far, we have come up with an interesting method of connecting disk-like bits to form the stalks and branches of plants (Courtesy of Chris Hassebrook)

As pictured above, the game bits we have determined to use as a spring-board for the mechanical functions in the game are disk-like pieces which would intuitively interact with each other in visually apparent ways.