Creative Play-ing : Board Game Production Workshop

The Center for Art Convergence at Korea National University of Arts is attempting various projects, centering on “games,” which are formed through the relationship between society, culture, art, and technology, starting with the “Art Game Project” held in Pangyo in 2017 and 2018. Today’s games are new content that is completed with the player’s intervention, and their actions and experiences become another medium. <Creative Play-ing: Board Game Production Workshop> will provide alternative play methods and experiences through creative board game production, also creating a forum for sharing ideas with each other.

• Instructor: Sun Park (indie game developer), Junpyo Park (agile coach)

• Participants: Students of Korea National University of Arts who want to interact with each other while making board games

• Date: 2019. 3. 29. (Wed), 12:00 - 18:00

• Venue: Art Collider Lab in Korea National University of Arts (Changjogwan 213-1)

• Schedule

12:00 - 13:00 Ice-breaking

13:00 - 15:00 Exploring game mechanics by playing board games

15:00 - 17:00 Sequential board game development through playtesting

17:00 - 18:00 Wrap up, final development completed

18:00 - 20:00 Networking party with board game results

1. Ice-breaking

Participants had time to get to know each other through a 6 by 6 game. In addition, indie game developer Sun Park and agile coach Junpyo Park were introduced, along with a brief explanation of the “Game Design Workshop.”

1) 6 by 6 Game

Objective : Speaking with the people sitting at the table and getting to know each other.

Rules : Roll the dice twice. The first throw is for the X-axis, and the second throw is for the Y-axis, and answer the corresponding questions in the table. Simply introduce yourself and start. When “5 PT Exercises Together” is drawn, everyone at the table will do the PT exercises together. If “Swap seats with someone in the next table” is drawn, swap seats with the person rolling the dice or speaking in the table next to you. The other people on that table greet the new person with a welcome applause, and the game starts again with the new person.

2. Exploring Game Mechanics through Playing Board Games

In this section, participants tried to play various board games and thought about the fun they had in the process. In particular, they analyzed “fun” with a specific question of “what made it fun?” rather than the question of “was it fun?” Also, realizing that there was “play” between the eight categories of fun and the rules of the board games, they investigated the MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics) and relationship of game design.

3) Closed Beta

In the closed beta, developers and testers share their positions and watch each other’s play. Here’s what developers and testers should be aware of.

Developer: “Let the testers play right away, and observe quietly. Don’t try to order something or explain it.”

Tester: “After playing the game, give us your opinion. Was the game fun? Did the game have the kind of fun the developers intended? Do you think the changes fit the given constraints?”

4) How to Give Proper Feedback 

Think of the work as a living organism. When you think of a work as non-living, the seed itself becomes the subject of criticism, and the artist or the work may be damaged. However, if you think of it as a baby, you can give feedback on the strengths of this work, saying that when you grow up, you don’t want the baby to forget these strengths.

Provide specific feedback, such as “if you change “this part” to “this way (example),” I think this will improve in this way (emphasizing intention or value).” Here, “this part” helps the feedback become specific, and “this way” will help understanding. Finally, “in this way” makes it clear why you are giving this feedback.

5) Today’s workshop was summarized through discussion of a 3L-focused retrospective. We had time to write down the elements of Liked, Learned, and Lacked on a post-it, pin up, organize the categories of contents, and present them.

-  Liked: “What I liked” and “I wish something like this (that happened during the six hours we spent together) would happen more often in my life.”

-  Learned : “What I learned today” (both explicit and implicit)

-  Lacked : “What I will improve next time” (what would you like to say to yourself if you could go back to 6 hours before now by riding a time machine?)

6) Some excerpts from the 3L-focused retrospectives of the participants

① Liked(What I liked)

  Materializing an idea into a board game from a rough idea. (Yoonjeong Kim)

  While making a board game, it was good to organize the game, analyze the game, and build the mechanics. Feedback and discussion were good. (Yejin Park)

  I liked the process of sharing ideas and thoughts and developing them by collaboration. (Ejin)

  It was very good to carefully listen to each other and respect the opinions of the team members. (Hoonkwang Park)

② Learned (What I learned today)

  I learned how to properly peel a post-it. (Yejin Park)

  I learned that we need the repetition of failure to fix something. (Junghwan Park)

  Game developers design the fun that players will ultimately feel. (Hyejin Jeon)

  I learned that there are various board games, and there are mechanics for producing these games. (Yejin Park)

③ Lacked (What I will improve next time)

  Before starting the work, it would be helpful to make a note (or clearly recognize) on the habits that I know myself but cannot stop. (Hwaeun Kim)

  It would have been better to judge the situation a little more concretely when expressing opinions on the rule. (Taeyang Yoo)

  The point of trying to “persuade” rather than “question” what users say (Jaewoo Kim)

  That there is a difference in people’s understanding. (Yoonji Kwon)

Sun Park (Indie game developer, @luvtext): Sun is an indie game developer based in Seoul, Korea. Since Sun established an independent game studio Turtle Cream in 2009, he has made games such as “Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory” and “6180 the moon.” Since December 2016, he has formed “Project.99,” a game development group that makes experimental games every month. In addition, he organizes the experimental game festival “Out of Index,” the monthly developer group “Out of Index,” and the monthly developer group “Seoul Indies” with other organizers, and he is the Korean regional manager of “Global Game Jam.”

Junpyo Park (Agile coach, @pyopark): After completing his master’s degree in journalism at Korea University, he designed web services as a researcher at the Institute for Youth and Culture of Yonsei University. After working as a Scrum Master at Vanilla Breeze, he is currently working as an Agile Coach at Odd-e.com, a professional agile coaching group. In particular, he is experimenting with a social venture called PINY with the keywords of youth, diversity, and new media. His goal is to create a fun world where diversity is respected. Since he was a teenager, he has been planning, directing, and experimenting in various fields such as civic culture, camp, forum, tactical media, and web service. He has been working as an emcee of the youth radio program and installation artist. He has lectured on art programming at Kaywon University of Art and Design, Konkuk University, and Seoul National University Museum of Art (MoA), and he has been training in facilitating and coaching. He translated the book called “Hello! Computer programming!”