Project Save Us | Thinh Toan Ly

PROJECT

SAVE US

Project Save Us.

This is a board game with the goal to positively change the world. The story of Save Us takes place in the year 2121, where Global Warming had melt most of the ice on Earth, and there is only one ice berg left. The sea has dominated Earth. This board game was created during my freshman year. Read the full story in the guide.

What I Did

Built a compelling story and theme for the board game that would effectively raise awareness for future generations about Global Warming.
Creatively and strategically crafted the board game mechanics by experimenting the gameplay with teammates countless times, which resulted in a coherent gameplay.
Designed the digital models of the game’s cards, board and guidebooks with a material design theme by mostly using Adobe Illustrator.
Researched the psychological effects behind the game, and thus, perfected the pitching points that successfully promoted the game to the class and professor.
Completed the project within specified time frame, while producing well received content.

Why Did My Team Created This?

Parents always want the best for their child. More than anything, they want their child to be successful. My team believed that in order to be successful, children should be exposed to strategic thinking and decision making, early on in their lives. Moreover, according to the Wall Street Journal in 2015: “Card games can teach math and memory skills, as well as strategic thinking.” But being successful cannot help one’s child to avoid the disastrous events caused by #GlobalWarming. Therefore, if parents truly want the best things for their children, they should buy a product where they can help their children to be successful, and at the same time, help their children learn to be environmentally protective.

Thus, Project Save Us was designed to help children to improve their skills in resource management and strategic planning, while influencing children mindsets into being environmentally protective. We designed our rules and gameplay in a certain way that children cannot win by chance. Hence, children have to use their minds to calculate strategic moves and effectively manage their resources, this is context is cards, to win. According to Hohlbaum's 2013 Psychology Today article: “Stress is fear-based. We worry that things won't turn out, that what is unfolding is somehow not right. So we take action.” Logically, we came up with a hypothesis where if our team could design our game to be scary and stressful enough, then in the near future children would take actions to prevent global disasters that will be caused by Global Warming.

Why Did We Specially Choose Children?

Because our generation and previous generations have been mindlessly damaging the environment and doing little to stop this behavior. This negligent behavior has become a fixed mindset. It would be a difficult task to alter fixed mindsets, and it would be too late by the time we succeed. However, children are impressionable, and their mindsets are easy to change since they are still growing into adults. A quote from Frederick Douglass summed our arguments up: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

Sources:

Shellenbarger, Sue. "How Family Card Games Teach Math, Memory and Self-Confidence." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
"35 Facts About Global Warming - Conserve Energy Future." Conserve Energy Future. N.p., 20 June 2015. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
"11 Facts About Global Warming." DoSomething.org | Volunteer for Social Change. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
TechTimes_News. "21 Amazing Facts About Global Warming And Climate Change." Tech Times. N.p., 27 May 2015. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
"Frederick Douglass Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
Hohlbaum, Christine."The Benefits of Fear." Psychology Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.

Guide Book

Playing Board.

With a simple design, players would have an easy time navigate to the game's final destination.

Active Cards

There are 6 different kinds of active cards that the players can use to reach their goals. I believe the design of the cards is extremely intuitive, because the icons and their descriptions are easy to recognize. Furthermore, the players can learn about the story when they are holding the cards on the hands while they are waiting for their turns.

Each of the cards has its own unique stories on what happened with Earth in 2121. Every stories are actual facts taken from our research that is cited.

Please click on the image to discovers how we tell the story through the cards.

Passive Cards

There are 7 specific counter active cards called "Passive Cards." In our game, not only can the player can attack, but they can also protect themselves from others.

Each of the cards has its own unique stories on what happened with Earth in 2121. Every stories are actual facts taken from our research that is cited.

Please click on the image to discovers how we tell the story through the cards.

Bad Luck Cards.

We know that attacking and defending is not fun enough. Thus, we added a random variable that would make each turn of drawing cards from the deck more interesting.

We didn't included any facts on the Bad Luck Cards since we think the players would get very frustrated they get this card on their turn and they wouldn't even bother to read anything on it.

Now, you just learned that each of the cards, except the "Bad Luck" cards, has its own unique stories on what happened with Earth in 2121. Every stories are actual facts taken from our research that is cited.