Example Cards
All 52 Cards, Summary Card, Sign Card, Rulebook and Trait List
The visual design of the cards the creation of the prompts themselves was a hugely iterative process. For this I turned to my Miro board to collate everything in one place.
Part of designing a game was to increase the accessibility and longevity of the outcome, this was thought through to the card level as it is limited to a standard deck of 52 cards, where each can be assigned a value. This was then split into the 4 suits where I eventually ended up settling on Act One: Genesis having 13 Build Cards to create the world, and Act Two: Simulation having 39 Event Cards to interact with the world.
Act One: Genesis
When creating the prompts for Act One, I was aiming to create a balance between what I referred to as aspects and changes when it comes to worldbuilding. This was to take into account how the world has changed in response to the sudden emergence of those with The Trait, as well as allow the freedom to detail and create elements of the world. Together these cards are specifically designed to draw out a holistic view of the world, prying at the natural complexity and entanglements.
In coming up with different prompts, categorisation of the ideas captured in each prompt allowed me to create a broad range of prompts that whilst undeniably overlap in some cases, allow players to create a broad yet detailed view of their future city.
Lastly, despite the 13 cards, a total of 26 prompts were created so that players could choose one of two, thereby allowing for variability between games.
Act Two: Simulation
In contrast, Act Two: Simulation had a different set of intentions when designing the prompts. Shifting the players into an interact and respond mindset, these cards aimed force players to make decisions and discover the consequences of their decisions within the world.
This Act was the key part in getting players to apply the framework and to engage with thinking that recognises and embraces the complexity of the world that they have built. This involved designing the cards in a way that balanced players exposing entanglements through the consequences of their decisions against the game itself (me the designer) forcing players to look for specific entanglements.
This also involved relying on categorisation to create a broad range of events that are both positive and negative. However in this instance, I started implemented the framework to guide players thinking across different systems. This was implemented through the use of icons, the octagonal shape and linework as shown below.
Furthermore, some of the Event Cards from Act Two: Simulation also prompt players to Start an Intervention. This mechanic was introduced to get players to make decisions about their future city as a means towards their goal of 'improving and nurturing the health and wellbeing of everyone in the city'. These were born out of the ideas of small projects, initiatives, safe-to-fail experiments or PILOT tests (with the chosen term used most commonly in Complex Adaptive Systems).
These allow players to make decisions about ways they might achieve their goal and is an opportunity to tell the unique stories that happen within their world. Similar to real life, some interventions fail, others succeed, and some end in catastrophe. This is where the element of chance comes in, and the die represents this outcome - forcing players to consider the risks and potential outcomes, both expected and unexpected for their world as a result of their intervention. This leads to very interesting stories and often has persisting effects on the world that come into play later.
Summary Card (Front and Back)
Sign Card (Front and Back)
Supporting Collateral
Summary Cards were also designed to guide players during the game as a reminder of the gameplay and the framework, but as with other interactive experiences, these will eventually not be used players understand the flow.
The Sign Card was an a little intervention of my own. During playtesting, I found that often players struggled to be assertive with their language or kept talking for too long resulting in the rounds taking far too long. A Sign Card is given to each player to hold up to others like a red and yellow card in sports, which I found to be an effective and playful way of spurring gameplay on.