Game Log 1

1. Topic and values 

In the beginning of our project, we had the opportunity to choose one of the six following topics: mental health, colonialism, lgbtq+, climate change, media bias, cancel culture. We decided to go with the mental health without any hesitation.

 Our main issue was deciding which value of the given ones we would like to follow and based our concept on. After the brainstorming session (Appendix 1) which clarified the whole image of the mental health topic we focused on the “freedom”.

 During the next task we needed to figure out and write down five challenges, questions or situations related to the value of our theme. We elaborated on our brainstorming by adding the blue colour as challenges connected to certain aspects of mental health (Appendix 2).

 In the end, after the overall look at the results of our work we decided that the name of our group will be “bird” because of the feeling of freedom which they create for us.

2. Brainstorming techniques 

• CRAZY EIGHT

Our brainstorming we started with the session “crazy eight”. Rules were simple- divide a piece of paper into eight pieces and for each of them make an illustration in a limited time. We got 30 seconds for each part.

The results were breathtaking. We all had different perspective on the topic. We ended up with one of the following aspects: focusing on the self-reflection, the storytelling, the emotions behind every person and the showcase of concepts (Appendix 3). It showed us how our group is diverse and open-minded.

• WHAT? WHO? HOW?

This brainstorming technique was made by us, was not included in the programme. We had difficulties with recognising what exactly is our problem statement in one sentencewhich created confusion. We decided to create three sticky notes with questions:“What?”, “Who?”, “How?”. Each of us put five related feelings per question. We divided them by the topic and in the end, we decided to focus on INDIVIDUALS who are struggling with acceptance and identity inside of the society (Appendix 4). Thanks to that we got a clarification which we needed to continue solving an issue.

3. Exploring and setting up the team dynamic

• LEGO

Our next task was to build as tall a tower as possible by using Lego pieces. All of us got our individual assignments which we needed to fill out while building. The only rule was that we could not use any words during the whole process. Our team started implementing some sign language by showing disapproval or approval towards certain pieces. In the end, our tower was the smallest one (Appendix 5) but we learnt that all of us are communicating with respect and focusing on the development of the whole team.

• SETTING UP ROLES

Out of the four roles which were being shown on a paper: the artist, the craftsman, the storyteller and the designer our task was to dive deeper into each of the character and choose one which was in our opinion the most suitable for us. Unfortunately, we could not stick to them because we decided to focus on a physical product instead of creating a digital game which made the whole task not effective.

4. Creating a concept

• CREATE TWO IDEAS

We decided to slip tour group in half and create two individual ideas. The first one was a board game which was showing the journey of everyday life of the average person who is unhappy with their life. The main goal was to break the loop of 9-5 and stay at this point till the end of the game.

 The second one was to create card game which was picking emotions and choosing actions of the character. The next step was the reflection on them which eventually leaves us with a pattern of personalities. The end goal was to encourage people to open up and explore their personality.

5. Feed back and final ideation

After getting feedback we had to reevaluated and restructure ideas, to make the game easier to create given the time limit and the physical limitations ( Look at Log 2 for the details)

• DIFFICULTIES WITH PROTOTYPING

After combining final ideas together, we needed to simplify them to create a game. It was a game changer for us, because of lack of knowledge how to actually make a board game.The number of rules which we had to set up to start a mechanism was not easy to dea lwith. As a final result, we were not able to finalise the game itself because of loosing the main core of mental health in a board game. We could not find a middle ground. Either it was joyful experience but without any values or too complicated an idea for the average person.

That is why we decided to take a radical step.

• CREATING A NEW CONCEPT

After a short break which refreshed our minds, we came up with the simplest idea possible which answered all of our issues, gave joy and also gave educational value.

We ended up creating a card game where in the beginning we have an average, neutral person and two teams by using cards are controlling his or her life. One of them is trying to make a good decision which will increase the sanity of the mental health. The other one is focusing only on the negative part and making sure that the person gets the worst possible scenarios which influence their mental health. When someone from the “bad team”is throwing a card if someone wants to play with an educational aspect each of the difficulties is described with some facts about the mental health issues which creates awareness. The game finishes when the person ends up with zero sanity or when the players run out of cards.

Appendix 1:

 Appendix 2:

Appendix 3:

1.     Characters

2.      Self-reflection

3.      Story

4. Concepts

 Appendix 4:

Appendix 5: