Ghaida Zahran
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Project A
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Process Book
ITGM 705 Interactive Design And Media Application Summer 2010 Professor David Meyers
Project Proposal
Design Statement 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.
Audience and Context 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.
Ghaida Zahran
/ Project A / Process Book
Motivation 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.
Sketches
Typical tetris pieces
In order to randomize the selection of pieces, players draw a card from a shuffled deck that 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.
Ghaida Zahran
/ Project A / Process Book
Sketches / Game Board
Players
Solid line
The objective of the game is for a player to form a solid line. Players take turns to place pieces on the board. When a player places the final piece that forms 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.
Ghaida Zahran
/ Project A / Process Book
Winning Conditions Once all the pieces have been used, whether in the possession of the players or on the board the players tally up the number of pieces they’ve accumulated, and the player with the most pieces wins
Game Board
Game board design 1
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1. Bin for placing unused blocks 2. Main playing area 3. Playing card stack 3
5. Card being currently played 5. Block
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Ghaida Zahran
/ Project A / Process Book
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 corrisponding 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.
Ghaida Zahran
/ Project A / Process Book
Prototype
Tile bin
Current card in play
Main playing area
Board during gameplay
Deck of cards
The board follows the proportions of the classical Tetris game on the Gameboy.
Ghaida Zahran
/ Project A / Process Book
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.
Ghaida Zahran
/ Project A / Process Book
User Testing 2
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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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Ghaida Zahran
/ Project A / Process Book
Final Design
Tetris
Name
Score
Tetris
Ghaida Zahran
/ Project A / Process Book