Miner Madness: Spring 2017
Summary of Game
Miner Madness is a collaborative, group player board game aimed at teaching critical and logical thinking. A team of miners has to navigate obstacles and avoid danger to uncover hidden treasure deep in the earth.
The team must work together to decide which direction to take, collecting gems, and finding other hidden treasures to make it easier to get to the finish and defeat the cave troll.
Keys to successful Gameplay include communication with other team members to combine moves and create functions in order to progress faster!
Overview
Observers: Karl Brandt, James Driessche, and Andrew Zesiger
KCAD Digital Media Faculty Susan Bonner and Bill Fischer hosted an event at Kendall College of Art and Design to play Miner Madness. In room 703, a well lit table was set up for a small group of 4th/5th graders. Three caucasian boys arrived with an adult, an aunt to one of the kids. One of the boys admitted to having played the game before, and was familiar with many of the mechanics.
The boys were welcomed to the table and seated while the adult looked on from the surrounding seating. During a brief introduction, the children were able to meet the 15 artists/animators currently working on the Miner Madness Project. KCAD Digital Media Faculty Mike Dollar and the animation Sound Design team were able to make a cameo too.
Intro Animation
The boys were silent, but engaged in the intro story animation. They made no facial or emotional reactions as they absorbed the characters and scenery. However, the boys understood the sense of urgency and danger when the troll showed aggression to the Miner Madness storyline characters.
At the end of the animation, the kids were interested in “what happened after the troll screamed for gems.” Learning the results would be determined by playing the game, the Students were excited to begin.
To further break the ice, one boy was encouraged to do voice impressions on the podiums microphone.
After the introductions, the student users were presented three short animations that introduced story, code theory and instructions on how to play Miner Madness.
The students were silent and engrossed throughout the animations. During some of the comedic moments in the animation, two boys reacted with sickened facial expressions.
However, when asked about their current thoughts, the boys were excited. They replied that some of the nasty gimmicks were “Gross and Cool”, and that they had a pretty good understanding of the game.
Teacher/Assistant Activity
As acting Assistant, Susan Bonner walked the boys through their first round and encouraged them to search the rulebook to overcome any questions they had. However, as the game progressed, the boys primarily asked the Assistant questions, only turning to the rulebook when further prompted.
Summary of Game
Miner Madness is a collaborative game where multiple players form sequenced actions to help their character piece escape a magical cave. However, a threatening troll demands compensation of the local magic gems before he allows the players to leave. Players have only 20 turns to collect the necessary gems and bring them to the troll before their exit is blocked. A variety of cards and game tokens may complicate player progress, but if teammates collaborate they can effectively plan their escape.
After Miner Madness, Student Austin Whitbeck introduced a post-game lesson plan called Fun Funky Functions, where students were able to make their own game based off the framework of Miner Madness and code theory.
Room Conditions/Technology
Room 703 provided a spacious space for the students and their theatrical and interactive user testing. Lights were staged to illuminate the students and their gameboard, while observers were able to take notes in the dimmer background.
Lights were momentarily reduced to present the three animations on an overhead projector. Artists/Faculty introducing content used a single dynamic mic to present.
While students had a clear understanding of the Time Troll, and assembling Move cards to execute movement, they required further help on the following:
Clarification on when to draw/discard cards.
How many cards they were required to be played per turn.
That all players collaborated to move the same piece
When to draw If/Then cards.
However, when the Assistant had clarified the issues, the boys were able to proceed through gameplay painlessly. They communicated through every turn and successfully collected the gems required to pay the troll.
The boys especially enjoyed the Event card that allowed them to reposition the gems on the game board, relocating all the crystals directly in front of their game piece. Having saved a reusable function that allowed them to move forward and collect a gem, the kids easily secured all the required objectives.
Another unique experience arose when another event card required them to sing when they communicate with each other. Hesitant, the boys actively tried to sing before they regressed to speaking as normal.
Conclusion of Playtesting:
Due to their convenient fortune with the event cards, the boys found the game easy to play.
They agreed the experience would benefit from:
A fourth player or larger group
A digital version
Adjusted difficulty
Fun Funky Functions
After the game, Assistant Susan Bonner and Student Austin Whitbeck introduced an activity
After the game, Assistant Susan Bonner and Student Austin Whitbeck introduced an activity where students were able to create their own version of Miner Madness. The boys were very engaged in this activity, and seemed to enjoy creating their own story they could play out. One student was thoroughly engaged in creating the story and setting while the other two created the gameboard, dice, tokens.
Overall, the students enjoyed their user testing experience. They were entertained by the animations, pleased to beat Miner Madness with relative ease, and engaged in making their own board game.
Before leaving, the group of boys were granted a special treat of recording their voices in the KCAD Sound Booth.