Evaluation / Brief 2 / D&AD Brief Collaboration / Hasbro Brief

The final outcome of this brief has been one of the highest-quality physically pieces of work that I have made over the last three years of this course. This is due to working on a really tight schedule and pushing ourselves to the best of our ability in a small amount of timescale. We Personally feel that we have answered the brief question which was to make an old traditional game played by a target audience 16-26 that wouldn’t be appealed to the old traditional game.

The game is very quick to learn with a simple instruction guide and can be played for up to, or longer than 30 minutes. Deceit is a suitable party game because it allows the players to change the rules of the forfeits, giving the game more customisation and freedom to play.

The feedback from the target audience and the people who were part of the filming the promotional video, really enjoyed the game and concept as they agree it’s aimed at the right people as the game can be customisable to a certain degree allowing it be more engaging with the audience. The feedback that we got about the quality and material of Deceit was really good people were really impressed by the standard of the game even though the production was done at a very low price which means if the brief was going to be taken further with Hasbro’s they shouldn’t have issue making it to the masses. 

In the project, Matt took more of a manager role which at first I wasn’t particularly happy with as some of the ideas clashed and we wanted things differently to each other. It was the best option to allow Matt to take more control as when I do go into industry, I’m not always going to get my own way with some aspects of the project, so instead of clashing and not moving the project forward I  thought it’s only best to work with matt instead of disagreeing. This allowed the project to be a lot stronger and we were really organised to a point where I feel like I’m becoming more industry ready.

The only improvement that we thought could have been considered is when promoting the video was using a variety of people as when filming the game we only had men at the time who were willing to be apart of the video, but also I felt the video could have been done in a studio which could have made the quality of the video a lot higher! however, I was still happy with the end video. 

As overall view I feel like this was one of the most enjoyable projects i’ve done so far and being a designer who usually work digital has made me come out of my comfort zone and allowing me to go to parts of the university (wood work) that I thought I would never use and get some really crucial feedback on how to make the production of the game a lot better. My knowledge and understanding of design has significantly improved from this brief

Brief 2 / D&AD Brief Collaboration / Hasbro Brief / Final Outcomes

For the final outcomes we decided to book out a photography studio to gives us the best results. As I had more experience in photography I took more of a leading role.

I decided to bring my own camera as I felt more comfortable with my camera settings but also i brought along a few lenses to get some macro shots as we personally felt the small details needed to be seen.

Brief 2 / D&AD Brief Collaboration / Hasbro Brief / Further Development

Once we got the cards and the protective covers, we thought we needed a little bit more branding to the game and started looking at what boxes we could use to hold the cards in. We started to research Asian cultures and the positives effects on the earth and what makes a game more attachable to the consumers. We managed to find a wooden box that has two dividers for two poker card decks to fit in which we made sure before purchasing the box that our cards will fit nicely in without any struggle to the user to get them out. The price of the box was under £3 meaning that if the game was going to be mass produced it wouldn’t be cheap to produce. 

When the box came we noticed that it needed some work to the wood as it felt quite rough and cheap. we decided to get some help from the wood technicians at the university who were really helpful in giving us feedback on how to treat the wood. We began coating the box with Danish oil and leaving it to set overnight, however, we noticed that the box was beginning to warp which meant we could only coat it once but the result was a lot better. We were also suggested by the technicians to sand down the box once the oil was completely set to give it lot smoother finish and made the quality of the box a lot higher.

Brief 2 / D&AD Brief Collaboration / Hasbro Brief / Digital Development & Production

When making the content for the cards we decided that we should make all of the cards which in total is 52 actions and 52 forfeits that the players can possibly do. As we are not directly allowed to put drinking in the game we made a card that allows the player to chose the forfeits themselves if they wanted to add it to the game. The other forfeits are humorous and aim to make the game as fun as possible.

As we are submitting as a competition brief we felt the game concept will be a lot stronger and beneficial if with submit a physical game and not just digital mockup as it shows it can be produced to the masses and that we’ve made more of an effort.

We decided that making the cards ourselves wouldn’t be to the standard Hasbro are looking for so we decided to contact a card company that can print at the professional standard at the affordable price.

When the cards arrived we also bought protective boxes as allows the cards to be more organised and easier to use but also we bought plastic ones as they will last longer than white card packs.

Brief 2 / D&AD Brief Collaboration / Hasbro Brief / Initial Ideas

After reading over the brief we decided that it would be best to expand on our research and think of three-game concepts on our own.

We then schedule a  date and time to swap ideas and discuss our thoughts and concepts on the brief and what will be the most effective game for the target audience that Hasbro is looking for. (16-26-year-olds)  Matt presented a range of ideas which I personally thought were a lot stronger than mine due to fact that matt later explained that in the brief it states that drinking should not be promoted and that the use of screens and phones should not be a necessary part of the game. However, this didn’t say we couldn’t try to incorporate the idea of adding social media and drinking in different areas of the game but this would be decided by the consumer and not the game itself.

This can be done by making expansion packs that can be bought, as when I presented the idea to the fellow peers in the class by doing forfeits that are social media related, making players do things such as change their Facebook name or upload an embarrassing picture. People really enjoyed the concept however it couldn’t be the main focus due to the brief.

The idea that personally I felt was the strongest concept was matt first idea which was inspired by the traditional game ‘simon says he explained that it’s a card game that “challenges the memory skills and reaction times of players”.

The aim of the game is to try and trick other players by using the ‘Deceit’ cards. When reading out an ‘Action’ card, players can act their individual deceit to try and catch players out. If a player completes an action whilst the reader acts out their deceit, they lose a life token and must give it to the reader. If a player loses all their life tokens, they are out of the game. The winner is the player with the most life tokens left after 30 minutes of play. If players are tied, the player with the least ‘Action’ cards wins

Brief 2 / D&AD Brief Collaboration / Hasbro Brief / Research

Hasbro

I Began the Hasbro brief by conductiong my own primary and secondary research, as it's important to find out why consumer buy certain party games and it's also key to have fresh, unused data to help determine what party game we should create and how we should go about making the product. I have noticed that, a vast number of board games are badly designed, with too many pieces, rules, and faff. Lose one small element and whole, game can be ruined.

Target Audience

I started to research into old games by hasbro's and one game stood out to me and that is Sorry. A board game that I remember playing as a kid and due to the brief being aimed at 16-26 year olds. I Personally feel that creating a game based on nostalgia is a great way to attract people into a new game with a twist from the past. However even though the brief has asked for a target audience of 16-26, a game that is mult-genreational would be very hard to pull off but would make it more succesful as the audience would be a lot wider and example of this is chess. 

Sorry
Sorry! is a board game that allows the player to try and travel around the board with their pieces called pawns aster than any other player. The game was originally manufactured by W.H. Storey & Co in England and now by Hasbro, Sorry! is marketed for two to four players, After doing further research about the game the title comes from the many ways in which a player can negate the progress of another, while issuing an apologetic "Sorry!"

Nostalgia 

Nostalgia has the ability to harness the power of the past, the connection between nostalgia and marketing is an effective way for companies and brands to connect with people (social connectedness). The interaction of people using many forms of communication to tap into the past, and to utilise campaigns, tag-lines and products embedded within people consciousness. Regardless of the era revisited, this strategy enables consumers to relive memories, and if done correctly this creates positive brand association.

Time

Board games need to be easy to set up. You shouldn't need anything other than a medium space to play.

Organisation 

Making sure the game pieces are put away in the correct organizer once the game has ended is important. It cuts down tear down time, as players put their pieces in the right bags, but it also makes set up the next time easier, as you do not have to search the box for the starting pieces. This is the whole point of having organizers and while it may seem like a little extra work, taking care of the game means it will last longer and retain its quality.

Cards
Most of the time card games are compact and to not take that much space on the shelves and for travel. The duration of a card game most of the time will play within an hour. So it great to simply take out and play when you have a couple of minutes. Cards may have a lot of information on them and they may have many uses such as a randomizer instead of dice. They tend to be a lot cheaper to make and the play area is usually pretty small so playing on the corner of a table is possible.

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Brief 2 / D&AD Brief Collaboration / Hasbro Brief

In the Second Year, Matt Fraser and I created a collaboration project on Instagram called designbytwo which improved my knowledge and understanding in the Adobe suite and also cinema 4d. We also entered the Hasbro brief with 2 illustrators who very disorganised and we felt that we were doing the majority of the work and personally it was a setback for us as we still had to keep them involved in the project that they did very little work for. We did not make it through last year with the brief, however, after discussing with each other about doing it again this year we felt doing it just us two will be a lot better and much stronger concept.

Our aims this year is to produce a game that as at a much higher standard than last year and hopefully we can get out the game idea into D&AD this time around.