Category: Archive

So, since I’m unable to make a decent finished piece like I want, I’ll have to make it in 3D at least, thanks to my second course I took this year, where we studied 3D coat for concept art.

But before starting I had one thought in mind about the shape of positions. For prototype I made it like a box, which holds birds well, but hard to produce. So I made a quick test with another type: a square with a hole in the middle, which is big enough to fit the bird in, but too small to let it fall down. And tests showed it worked very well even upside-down

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Taking that into account I’ve spent 2 days working on the model, which turned out pretty well. I took into account problems with distance and proportions of the prototype, so model looks much better. I changed colours a bit due to some thoughts on further development of the project, that I’ll write below. Also I used wood shaders to give an idea about material

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And even made a 360 video:

I’m very satisfied with the result taking into account that is the best I can do now.

Some further thoughts:

The reason why I opted for wood and colour alterations is that ideally the concept can be developed in an eco art therapy game. Overal, origami is one of the tools to develop fine motor skills. So the game can potentially be used as a developing game for adults and children. For children, for example, time span can be increased in the app with a special mode.

Materials of the game are natural and ecological. Both plywood and paper can be recycled or in general the game can be produced from already recycled material, and birds can be used for decoration, for example, like I did afterwards.

Additionally wood and paper give natural and pleasant tactile sensations, together with chromotherapy (that’s why I changed colours to ones often used in colour therapy) the game can be a nice helping tool for people in need of such kind of therapy. And in general the game can provide nice challenge if desired, or can be a more relaxing one if needed. So I suppose the game has great potential in that area and can be developed further.

Overal, I consider the project finished for now. The game fullfills its functions, is totally playable, fun and useful. It still may lack visual design, but it wasn’t the focus point of this project in particular. The focus was mechanics and experimentation, which for me was accomplished succesfully. So I’m getting ready for submission and this was the final entry for the Birds game 🙂

Since playtest 2 showed that the rules work, I needed to update the prototype one more time to make it firm and stable, and test everything as a “final” product. The material must be firm for branches to be stable. Ideally that would be plywood, that won’t let the branches bend and birds to fall from positions. But due to I’m not in London and don’t have access to woodwork and laser cutting facilities, the best option I have is thick cardboard.

To solve the problem of birds falling, I decided to make box-like positions, which worked pretty well.

In 3-4 days the final prototype was ready for playtest

As you can see, the prototype is still not ideal as some of the branches are too heavy not to bend downwards. But it’s the best I have on offer. I could have used an even thicker type of cardboard, but I would be nightmare to cut by hand as I don’t have any other options. So this one will be the final physical prototype that I’ll film for gameplay video later.

In general it turned out a bit unproportional with little space between levels, but it’s still playable and birds don’t fall. Thus, I’ll take that into account when making the mock-up, which will be a 3D model.

I have also updated th app a bit. Added some design and a video tutorial on how to fold the bird.

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This is some evidence of the amount of birds made during all three playtests. And I finally solved the question with type of paper. I managed to find a special origami double sided coloured paper that can be bought at any hobby shop. It folds nicely and is not as thick as previous ones. And it will be easy to replace when the original paper stock ends.

Overal, the third playtest went very well with all previous issues resolved. One tiny alteration was made to the role of win position, which should have some bonus for the player. And since the game is about quantity now, player, who takes win position get the right to add finished birds from rejected pile to the total count of their birds. So it doesn’t guarantee victory (depending on what strategy player used during the game), but gives stimuli to get it and increase chances of winning.

Below you can find the finalized rules text:

Birds game

Spring is coming! All nesting places in the neighborhood are taken, only one tree left. Choose one of the flocks and help it claim as many nests as possible before the other one does! A fun speed origami game for the whole family!

Genre: Speed duel game, 3D tabletop game, craft game

For 2 players

Equipment: tree model, origami paper, mobile app

Goal: Claim as many nests as possible

Tree overview: The tree is divided into 4 levels, each of them has 4 branches. Each branch has a number of coloured positions (nests) and a special UP position (except level 4). Level 4 has additional top part, where final stage of the game takes place. 

How to claim nests: This is a speed origami folding game. A nest is claimed when player folds and places an origami bird into one of the positions of active colour for the time given. Time and colour are defined by a mobile app (see below).

Mobile app: The app sets active colour and time frame, when it is active. Colours change randomly as well as timer. There are 5 colours and time frame from 30 to 60 seconds. Timer sets the duration of a turn. During this period players act simultaneously and must fold and place a bird to the nest of active colour. Players are free to make and place several birds within the time frame. But a new bird can be made only after previous one has been placed. If player started making a bird, but doesn’t manage to finish it before time runs up, the bird is put in “rejected” pile and doesn’t participate in the game any more.

Skip button is used in 2 situations:

1. If all nests of this colour on the level have been claimed
2. If the colour is unavailable for one of the players (e.g. if players are on different levels)

THE COLOUR MUST BE AVAILABLE FOR BOTH PLAYERS AT ANY TIME OF THE GAME. Colours can be skipped until the suitable one appears.

Pause timer button: Can be used to pause the game for various reasons

Tutorial button: Contains a tutorial on how to fold the origami bird

How to play:

Players start from level 1. After timer is set off, players make a bird and can place it on any position of active colour. When all positions on one of the branches are claimed, player, who took the last position (no matter who claimed the majority of nests on this branch), is allowed to proceed to UP position. Player can choose whether to use this opportunity to move up to the next level or continue claiming positions on the current level.

UP positions: Up positions work as a sub-level and can be used to get some additional nests. If player decides to proceed, they can’t move back down. Up positions are claimed in the same way as normal ones, but don’t depend on colour. Timer applies for them too though. On Up sublevel player can claim only those positions that belong to them (e.g. if player claimed the last position on a branch, they’re allowed to claim only UP position of that particular branch. If on previous level player finished 2 branches, then 2 corresponding Up positions can be claimed). After an UP position is claimed player can proceed to the next level with the colour active at that moment.

If all nests on a level are claimed, player automatically moves to the next one skipping Up sub-level.

The duel mode: Some of the positions should be claimed in duel mode in case there is only one available position of active colour is available. In that case the player, who makes and places the bird first claims the position. The losing bird goes to rejected pile and next colour timer is set. Same applies to the positions of the final top part of level 4.

Level 4: Level 4 is divided into 2 sections. Lower part goes a normal. In order to proceed to the top part all nests of the lower part must be claimed. Positions of the top part are claimed in duel mode including the final winning one (without color). Player, who claims the winning position stops the game and gets a bonus: all complete birds from their rejected pile are included in the total count.

Results: When the game ends, all birds are counted. Player, who has more birds in total wins the game.

Quick tips:

1. 1 turn = 1 timer. Every new turn starts with a new bird. An unfinished or unplaced bird becomes rejected if timer has ended.
2. During the turn players act simultaneously.
3. Players act according to the scheme: make-place-make-place. It’s forbidden to stack birds first and then place them.
4. Colour in the app must be available for both players despite the situation. Use skip button to get to the correct colour.   
5. It is forbidden to go down. If player claimed Up position, they can either claim more positions on Up sublevel (if allowed) or move to the next level

These have been also tested with people, that never played or even saw the game. And testers said the rules were clear enough even without seeing the game physically.

And finally the video of gameplay process that I made afterwards and that will go to submission

First of all I’ve completely rebuilt the prototype according to the alterations from the first playtest.

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I adjusted the branches, which are now clearly divided by levels. Colours are spread according to the scheme from the previous entry. I also created 2 types of final positions, which I’m going to test.

The second playtest went much better with the main mechanics established and major issues resolved. Playtest went with 2 attempts where various situations were encountered.

Attempt 1 established the following movement mechanics:

• Player can claim any current colour position on the level 

If player claims the final position of a branch (not depending which player claims most of positions on that branch), they are allowed to proceed to UP position.  

• If there is time left player can make one more bird for the UP position 
• If there is no time left and colours switched, player starts with making the bird for UP and then can continue with the current colour on the next level 

Situation 1: What if all the positions of one colour on the level are claimed? 

A skip button to the app was introduced. It helps skipping the colour till a playable one appears. 

Situation 2: What if one player proceeded to the next level, but current colour is all taken on the previous time for the second player? 

Skip colour till it’s available for both players. (Otherwise, the second player can do nothing and will have to wait from 30 to 60 seconds. The first player still has their advantage of being able to claim more positions with new colour) 

Situation 3: What do we do on level 4 (Ladder variant)?  

Level 4 consists of 2 parts: regular and “ladder”. It’s allowed to start claiming position on the ladder if all the positions on the regular part have been claimed.  Unfortunately, playtest showed that ladder variant has no sence due to small distance between players. The game has turned from strategy to quantity, so in most cases that will not make any significant defference to the amount of birds. Kt works only if the distance is major, and the first player has opportunuty to overtake the amount of positions.

What do we do on level 4 (Flower variant)? 

The challenge – be the first one to claim a colour. This is a pure speed and finger agility challenge. When colour starts, both players make a bird. Who makes it first claims the colour. The second player puts their bird (finished or not away). Same applies to all other colours. If for some reason both players fail to make a bird in the time given, colour switches and players must start anew. Previous birds are put away. Colours in the app can be skipped if necessary. Win position is claimed in the remaining time of the current colour. Again, who makes it first. 

Who wins?  

The main goal of the game is to get to the top, but it doesn’t guarantee victory. When the top position is claimed, players count their birds. The one who has more birds, i.e. positions claimed, wins. 

So after the first attempt, it became obvious that the game shifts from strategy to speed and quantity one. I don’t mind this turn as I didn’t have any strict restrictions over game genre or mechanics.

Attempt 2 

Second attempt added some more situations to resolve.

Situation 1: what if there is only 1 position of a particular colour left on the level? 

Same as for level 4. Who makes and placed the bird first, claims the position. Losing bird is put away and will not take part in the game anymore. 

Problem: If we aim for quantity, how to motivate players still do up?  

There are special UP positions that have no colour. They can function as a sub or bonus level. As long as the last colour position on the level is claimed. Players claim these 4 positions one by one. Same as for level 4. The app is still running. Player can choose whether to claim as many UP positions as possible or claim only one and continue with the current colour in the app. Timer still apples. If colour switches before the bird is finished and placed, the bird is put away and player starts anew with the new colour. (This works as a motivation because gives additional birds to the total count of a player) Even if one of the players doesn’t manage to claim any UP position, they still proceed to the next level. 

Summing up: final game goal: 

This is a game to: claim as many positions as possible by making origami birds as fast as possible. The game is suitable for developing fine motor skills (suitable for both children and adults. For children, time range can be increased – difficulty levels in the app) 

Among other issues to resolve are technical ones like I still have to improve the paper type as the ones that we’ve used are still too thick and uncomfortable to use. Might try sheets of simple coloured paper. Another technicality is how to fix the bird on its position, because they keep falling off and interrupting the game. As an idea those might be some kind of nest-like objects with hollows, which will hold the bird in place.

What’s next?

Second and 3rd playtest showed that basic mechanics are now playable and the prototype works. So I can proceed with polishing and compiling the rules as well as making a decent quality mock-up. App needs work too with design and including instruction together with a tutorial how to make an origami bird. Design and backstory also need work, even though it’s not the focus of this project.

By now I’ve developed initial rules that you can see below:

Birds table top game 

Speed duel game 

2 players 

Using: mobile app, origami paper 

Goal: be the first one to get to the top of the tree 

Description: the game requires a mobile app to play. The app switches colour, which indicates the positions players can take during a period of time. Colours shift randomly and random time in the range from 40 to 120 seconds. During this time players act simultaneously.  

Time: For the time period given players must fold a bird and/or place them in the desired position of a highlighted colour. It is allowed to take 2 strategies: 

1. Use the time period only to make as many birds as possible. In that case you can’t claim positions. The next time period will allow you only to take positions with the birds made previously  

2. Make-place-make. Make a bird and place it immediately. If there’s time left the cycle can be repeated. If time runs out before the bird is placed, it doesn’t participate in the game any more and can be put away.  

Starting position: players make a tutorial bird to acquaint themselves with the scheme and place it to any position on branch edges of level 1. This will be your starting position. 

Movement: Players can claim position of appropriate colour only next to their already placed bird (reduce time to make colours shift faster? 60 sec max) If there is same colour nearby and player gas enough time to make another bird, it is allowed to take as many positions of that colour in that way. 

Levels: There are 4 levels in the game, each of them having several stems. Level of a particular branch is defined by the position of its stem. Branch can be higher or lower, but till is counted as the level of its stem.   

The UP branches: There are special branches that can take you to the next layer. There are several of these on each level. One can claim it if: 

A) they managed to claim one of (3?) surrounding positions. Another bird is placed on the UP position and can proceed with positions of next level 

B) If all other position on the level have been claimed  

The WIN position: doesn’t have a particular colour and can be claimed if: 

1. All positions on level 4 have been claimed. The one who manages to make and place the bird first wins 

2. If a player manages to claim a sequence of position, leading to the winning position

As I’ve mentioned in the previous entries, I’m trying a bit another approach in generating rules and ideas from the current game situation (like inventing gameplay options in real time).

I could already see potential problem with the prototype: I didn’t have any plan for colour code and marked positions with colour randomly. So I didn’t know whether that will work at all.I tired to rely on the idea that colour in the app will be switching, and give time to claim appropriate amount of positions, and the game will function.

Unfortunately, almost immediately I saw that time strategies don’t work at all. Colours were too slow to switch for such type of (strategy) movement and some king of colour spread over the level must be introduced.

Very quickly I ran into an issue of defining what is a “nearby/neighbouring position”, because it’s hard to tell judging by their physical position. So since there are clear and separare branches, it’s possible to use them as a defining criterium. So a neighbouring position is any position of any colour situated on a branch. Player can claim any position on a branch per turn*.

*turn is the time period when a colour in the app is active. Players act simultaniously during a turn.

This helped me to develop further ideas to substitute the failed concept of movement and UP positions.

Initially UP position should be available when all positions on a branch have been claimed, i.e. player will be the last one to claim a position on that branch (it doesn’t depend on which of the players claimed more positions on that branch. It’s important just to be the last one). This is already an altered rule for UP positions. As you can see from the rules above, I wasn’t sure at all how that would work. Playtest showed that the new version kind of worked, but global change in colour code changed this concept one more time.

Now any position of a particular colour (shown in the app) on the level can be claimed, and gradualy players will fill up the branches. The component of strategy kind of shifted to just being attentive, when one position on a branch is left and claim it as soon as possible to continue to the next level.

Shifts in colour code:

So, quite quickly playtest showed that total randomness doesn’t contribute to game playability, so I applied a more mathematical approach. First of all, branches must have equal amount of positions what must bring equal opportunities for players to claim branches and go up.

Colours are now repeated in cyles, amount of which depends on the amount of positions on the level. Amount of positions decreases as levels go up.

Level 1: 5 positions + 1 UP equals to 4 colour cycles

Level 2: 4 pos + 1 UP equals to 3 colour cycles + 1 colour

Level 3: 3 pos + 1 UP equals to 2 colour cycles + 2 colours

Level 4: 3 pos equals to 2 colour cycles + 2 colours (alternative to level 3)

These calculations are theoretical for now, but I can predict they are workable. Of course this must be tested, what means I’ll have to rebuild the prototype with these alterations.

Playtest 2 upcoming

I’m a bit struggling with working out the strategy of defining the initial rules, so I felt the need to do some further research. Previously I defined combination theory as a possible area of research, so I took that path. First of all I must mention that is a pretty hard area of maths, especially for me, who has always had problems with it.

Nevertheless, Berlekamp’s et al (2001) extensive work in 2 volumes “Winning ways for your marhematical plays” might help me to get on track. They work out methematical strategies to win in some types of games with the use of combinatorial game theory. Thus they provide a pretty complicated methods of calculating these strategies, but there is some information I can extract to help me with my game.

In chapter 1 they define several conditions (p. 16) that a game should satisfy in order to calculate combination strategies described in the main body of the chapter. Since my game is similar to the games they’ve been analyzing (Ski-jumps, Toads-and-frogs), these might be helpful to clarify the objectives my game should focus on as well.

1. There are just 2 players – I thought about my game to be for 2-4 players, but as I was making the prototype, I realized that current amount of positions might be not enough for more than 2 players. So I will go with the 2 player option.
2. There are several, usually finitely many positions, and often a particular starting position – Positions are the core idea of my game, but I might think about a starting position. The initial idea is that players can take any position (and amount of positions) on the branches of level 1. If I introduce a starting position, random appearance of colour in the app might work as player may get advantage in the situation if there is no current colour nearby. What will second player do in case there’s no available colour near starting potition? There might be an option to use this time to make birds and the next one to take up colour positions.
3. There are clearly defined rules that specify the moves that either player can make from a given position to its options – This is the main question to resolve now – the rules.
4. Left and Right [e.g. players] move alternately in the game as a whole – already considered.
5. In the normal play convention a player unable to move loses – This is the thing highly possible to be implemented as closer to the end of the game there might be a situation, when one of the players overtakes most of positions (as their number reduces over time), the second one will not have opportunity to move any more. To resolve this issue, this ending condition might help.
6. Ending condition. The rules are such that play will always come to an end because some player will be unable to move – see above
7. Both players know what’s going on, i.e. there’s complete information – In my game players act simultaniously and openly choose positions
8. No chance moves – This condition will not be satisfied as there is an element of random from the colour app

So, these conditions gave me several good ideas: starting positon and idea to restrict movement to nearby positions of current colour, ending condition if no positions left for a player. And I worked out 2 movement strategies to test:

• option 1: players can take any position of a highlighted colour within one level
• option2: players can take a position of a highlighted colour only if there are such positions nearby from their already placed birds

Case study: Snakes and Ladders

As a quick case study I want to look at Snakes and Ladders, as my game turns out to be very similar to it. Particularly I’m interested in the “up and down” mechanics. They have a chance to get the “lift” to target goal, but at the same time threat to go down by the same chance.

As the game is very old, I began looking at variants (which there are quite many) in hope that some of them may have gameplay alterations. I even found a 3D version

But this search didn’t bring much outcomes as there were no substantial changes to gameplay.

So I came back to theoretical research where I found an interesting paper by K. M. Badruddin et. al. (2009), who were focusing on altering Snakes and Ladders, and analyzed the effectiveness of 4 types of possible strategies. They offer the following alteration: “If the roll of die leads to square i which has bottom of ladder on it, the agent is allowed either to seize opportunity or to avoid the jump and remain at the square i for some strategic reasons” (p.2) So that they add an element of strategic skill to an originally game of luck. They analyze 4 strategies: Greedy (Always jump), Avoid snakes, Optimist (avoid jump if there is a more beneficial ladder ahead), and No-jump. They have concluded that Optimist “outperforms all the other startegies” (p.4), which fully correlates with one of my initial ideas to make players decide to skip an opportunity to get a bigger benefit later. Since I’m supported by mathematical evidence now, that the strategy works, I’ll take that path of development route and work out a mechanics that will encourage players for this strategy.

But my game differs in the aspect of there are no “snakes”, which means players can’t go down. So the strategy can conscern taking up the time opportunity to take positions. Players can choose to use the whole amount of time to make birds and the next set to place them on positions of next colour. So that they will think ahead on which position otions of that paerticular colour they have. Or make less or even just one bird to quickly claim a desired position, which may block or somehow interrupt the opponent.

This arises the question of randomness of colours in the app. Randomness can bring more risk taking to this strategy, but may discourage players from taking it too often as they won’t be sure about what colour will be next. So I think order is preferable here, but I’ll try both options.

Having taken additional time for research now gives me much more understanding and some particular ideas try try out in play test. So now I’m polishing the rules and strategies to take out to test.

Sources:

Berlekamp, E.R., Elwyn, R., Conway, J. H., Guy, R. K. (1982) Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays, Academic Press.

K. M. Badruddin, T. Yamada and T. Terano (2009) “Comparison of different decision making strategies by simulation on variant of “Snakes and Ladders Board Game”, ICCAS-SICE, pp. 5370-5375.

First of all I continued experiments with paper types. I didn’t manage to find the right type of paper yet, but for now found something to substitute. I was looking for a thin but colourful chinese paper that, I think, could be the best option. I still opt for a 6×6 cm square, because I tried the 8×8 square of a substitute paper one, which still I find too big. I was not satisfied with 80 gpsm density, so this one was 60. But it’s still not something I’m looking for. But still I managed to reduce folding time to 25 seconds. What gave me approximate minimum time for the app for 30 seconds.

I made the app as well, which is for now basically a timer with a coloured background, that will show colour of available positions for some time. For now I’ve set random time in the range from 40 seconds (I decided to increase minimum time) to 2 minutes. So that players will have time not only to fold, but to decide and place a bird. I already know a pause button is needed here just in case something happens or players need a break. I even managed to export it to Android, which is my first time ever to make a mobile app.

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Next what I did is the physical game prototype.

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Positions are white for now, but I’ll colour them later. I’m doing everything randomly and will alter it later after the playtest. I placed the branches quite randomly, but as long as I was finishing, I came to the conclusion, that roots of the branches should be placed in clear layers in order to identify them. But end of branches can be placed on different levels. That will bring some order and help to work out more clear rules.

While I was making it, I thought about a rule, controlling how a player can take upper positions and move up. I thought about special branches that go down from an upper level. There can be one or several from one layer to another. And to take a position on that branch, player must take a position next to it of the same colour as the special branch. As an alternative, these branches can be marked in a special way, but in this case, I’m not sure what the rule can be yet.

Also because I was making it with wire (I case I need to alter or rearrange branches easily), I had an idea that there can be a possibility for players to alter positions themselves. Special branches can be fixed, while others can be rearranged and the game can be replayed with more interest.

As for colours, I think, I’ll distribute them randomly for now and see if that works. I’m thinking the same about app. Now it’s totally random colour pops up, but it might be relevant to make them appear in a particular order in a loop, so that players know, which one will be next and will decide, what strategy to choose.

At this stage I’m almost ready for the first playtest. I’ll try a bit another approach this time and work out the rules as long as the playtest goes. I only have some basic thoughts on rules and controls, additional ones I hope to work out in the process.