Project A Final

Ghaida Zahran / Project A / Process Book

ITGM 705 Interactive Design And Media ApplicationSummer 2010Professor David Meyers

Project Proposal


Tetris is a deceptively simple game where the player must place blocks so that they form a solid line, which will then clear. The objective is to keep playing for as long as possible. The game was made popular through the Nintendo Gameboy platform and has always been confined to the digital realm.

Through this project I will attempt to bring Tetris to the real world through a multiplayer board game. The objective remains the same, but with a competitive multiplayer aspect.

Design Statement

Tetris is an addictive game, but over the years it has begun showing its age. Gaming now has become a social activity and a solitary Tetris game finds itself out of place as a video game today.Tetris is a classic video game, and has the potential to become a classic board game that can be enjoyed socially.

Motivation

Tetris has been largely a solitary game. This version is meant to provide a familiar game with familiar rules and making it a social event.

Audience and Context

Sketches


Typical tetris pieces

In order to randomize the selection ofpieces, players draw a card from a shuffled deckthat bears the shape they must use next.

The board. a grid where players can place their pieces

The players all sit at one side of the board.

Sketches / Game Board


The objective of the game is for a player to form a solid line. Players taketurns to place pieces on the board. When a player places the final piece thatforms the line she takes the all the pieces that formed that line and now has the ability to use these pieces on the board or draw from the deck.

Players

Solid line

Winning ConditionsOnce all the pieces have beenused, whether in the possessionof the players or on the boardthe players tally up the numberof pieces they’ve accumulated, andthe player with the most pieces wins

Game Board


1. Bin for placing unused blocks

2. Main playing area

3. Playing card stack

5. Block

5. Card being currently played

Game board design

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Prototype / Gameplay


The game can be played by 1-4 players.

The player begins by drawing a card from the deck, placing it in the “play area” and constructing the shape on the board using the tiles from the bin.

Each player takes a turn to draw a card and place the corrispond-ing shape on the board.

Once a player has completed a line that line is cleared and the rest of the tiles are moved down.

The player keeps one tile, as their score.

Winning Conditions: After all of the cards in the deck have been played, players will count the number of tiles they had won; the player with the most tiles is the winner.

Gameplay time: 15 minutes.

Prototype


Board during gameplay

The board follows the proportions of the classical Tetris game on the Gameboy.

Current card in play

Deck of cards

Main playing area

Tile bin

User Testing


Problems

1. Picking up the blocks after a line has been completed is tedious and cumberson for players

2. Adjusting all the pieces on the board after a line has been cleared is time consuming.

3. Keeping a game piece is not an interesting way to keep score.

User Testing


Solutions

1. Separator columns are installed into the board to make sliding the blocks down easier

2. Score is kept on a dry-erase area

3. Board is magnetized to prevent pieces from moving around execesively when changes are being made, and the bottom border of the main playing area is removed making it easy to both clear the entire board and to remove the bottom-most pieces.

4. Tool used to slide all the pieces in a row down without having to move each block individually.

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Final Design


Te�is

Te�is Name Score

Documents

Project A Final