Week 15

Tuesday:

Today I'm reviewing my illustration brief, adding and modifying details. I'll probably spend the next few days reviewing the brief and clarifying the details that I want to show, I can't wait to see my vision come to life.

We also playtested our internal game to test its progress as one of our projects is nearing its final stages. and also another game called The Keeyp by Firith Studios, it's a simple game, but with mechanics we are looking to inspire from in our project, right now we are getting a feel and knowledge about Roguelites and labyrinth games that are out there now, seeing what they do well, what issues do they have, that way when we start prototyping and development, when we inevitably run into issues we can inspire ourselves and see what other games did to fix this issue 

Wednesday:

today i did some work and research into FOV, we had some feedback from clients saying that the mechanic was fun and interesting, but it wouldn't sell.

how do we resolve this issue? we see what other successful games are doing that we currently are not. my main focus is the box for the product, a bad game with a nice box will sell better than a great game with a horrible box, especially in mainstream shops such as Leclerc and Uculture, as the people going to those shops don't tend to do much research on a game before buying, they go based on what looks fun and interesting.

I looked at some papers to get into the mindset of what was important by reading these papers:

Then I looked and noted some key features on the top-selling board games from the past year and came up with this short PowerPoint that shows our main issue with the game.

people need to be drawn to the box by curiosity, which will make them pick up and interact with the box, placing it at the front of their minds, in that case, we don't need to change the theme of the game as once they have it in their hand we can spin the mechanic into something interesting and fun, the visual is the hook.

otherwise, we change the theme and make something that gets the player to stop and get curious in a way that makes them say "Why? How?" 

This makes them also pick up the box. If the box of the game tells the player everything they need to know there is no need to pick up the box and consider it. the main issue with the first option is that it won't get big supermarkets (our main clients) to believe our game will be a success, they only read what's on paper, so for them, a game where you build a nest is a lot more boring than a game where you fight to build your nest, they can read the action, hence why I gave some examples at the end of the PowerPoint to push in that direction.

Thursday:

Today Igor and I went over the story and element layout, as well as coming up with a name for the booklet. we changed some names and tied some parts of the story together, we still have to look at changing a thing or two, but nothing major is left to alter.

The mix of using it right after some story text and putting an exclamation point at the end makes it flow and feel natural.

After I got to present my findings on what other board games were doing and what needed to change in FOV, in the end, both Michaël and Igor agreed that a theme change would suit the game best, and we would head in the direction of birds at a card table, all dressed up, this will present the game as more ludic rather than educational and also get potential consumers to stop and wonder:

"Why the hell are birds playing cards!?"  

In the end, my presentation was well received and improvements to the games are being made.

Friday:

Making some hopefully final adjustments to my Escape booklet, I know they won't be, but I'm keeping my hopes up, I'm going to print as many copies of it as I can when I'm confident it's done so that I can get some people to test it over the weekend!

I have to complete the illustrations brief today, as we hope to send them out to the illustrator early next week.