Team project (Jingyuan Li / Yinuo Du)
Puzzel Design / Graphic & Game Props Design
Adobe Illustrator / Photoshop / Premiere
PVC Card / Paperboard
4 weeks
“Wonder Over The Letter” is an card puzzle game that players can go to real scenery, find details in the sights on Beijing Central Axis, and solve the puzzles.
At the end of the game, the player will reveal a long-sealed secret related to Chongzhen Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
Team
Role
Tools
Material
Duration
About
Wonder Over The Letter
01
Game Demo
02
Overview
Design Challenge
How might I design:
An intriguing interactive mode to attract people to discover the details of famous sceneries and explore the history ?
Solution
Game type
Target
player
Player
numbers
Playtime
Real scence decryption game
Local people & Visitor which have great interest toward Beijing culture
1-3
3-5 hours
Storyboard
Player's experience
& Tool
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03
Game Design
The process
Location Research & History Exploration
In order to deeply understand the scenic spots and historical background of Beijing central axis and create deep experience. We conducted a field trip and explored the details of the scenic spot.At the same time, I carry on the historical fact research to each scenic spot.
My insights are:
1. Most of the scenic spots on the central axis became prosperous after the Ming Dynasty.
2. The most dramatic scenic spot is Jingshan, where emperor Chongzhen committed suicide.
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Game Mechanic & Experience Carve
We set different levels of difficulty for each level based on the actual location of the survey, the sequence of levels and the direction of the story.
At the same time, the cards will be presented to the player in a chaotic order. Players need to decode the date behind the card based on the date of the letter to find the card corresponding to the next level. This design further adds to the difficulty of the game.
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Game Plot
A. Character relationship
B. Storyline
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04
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Final work
Brand Design
Logo
Font
Color
Visual Language Design
Application
The functions of application include:
Input puzzle answers, provide story line information, provide game prompts and save game progress.
Story clue Page
Hamburger Menus
Main Page
We choose the way of freeze frame animation to present the story clues, to enhance the immersion of the game.
Fabrication
In the production process, we used PVC plastic plate (card), ordinary paper (map), transparent sticker (puzzle), sulfuric acid paper (round props), compass and other materials.
05
Evaluation
In the end, I invited five friends to experience the whole game. After the experience, I set up questions related to story clues for puzzle solving, and got their feedback on the difficulty of puzzle solving and story understanding. Finally, according to their answers, I put forward several aspects of game optimization.
I invited some of my friends to come to the real signts to test game, observed their behavior, and conducted interviews. Also described my play mechanics to some friends and showed them deck sets, listened to their suggestions and opinions on the game, and got the following insights to apply to future iterations of the game.
1. Puzzle Design
There are two parts of the puzzle design that need to be improved: the patterned guidance of the puzzle solving method, and the strengthening of the restrictions on the real-world environment
Patterned guidance refers to categorizing puzzle solution patterns and reducing or changing the number of puzzles that cannot be included in several patterns. Patterns can be divided into two categories: puzzles relate to medium category and puzzles relate to logic.
The medium category includes: using props in combination with card information / using realistic scenes in combination with card information / card information itself. The puzzle logic includes: graphical abstraction / arithmetic conversion / overlapping fill-in-the-blank / inferential connection. In the first few levels, individual puzzles should be kept to one medium class + one logic class to allow players to become familiar with the game pattern. The difficulty of the level can also be considered in terms of the number of patterns of individual puzzles.
A big problem in the test was that the information in the live-action was so large that it made it difficult for players to focus their attention on effective information points. Although we have narrowed down the location information to a building or a store, players still tend to drift to the landscape around the building or store. Refining the map and labeling it with activity ranges and hints could be one solution. Another possibility is that the card faces of the puzzles are too abstract (e.g. level 2) and misleading to the player.
2. Social Attributes
From the overall gameplay, the social attributes are weak, but the social attributes are very crucial for the game to position the players. A possible iterative direction is to eliminate the linear narrative approach of the game, so that players get different information in the same location. So players who meet in the same location can spontaneously exchange information and promote communication between players.
3. Usability
In observing the player's live experience, the cards were not as convenient as we thought they would be. Players prepared their own paper and pens to solve the puzzles, and also needed to hold the box and individual cards all the time.
First of all, due to the small size of the box, it is difficult for players to use it as a pad to write; in addition, the cards are all independent and easily scattered; the material of the cards is PVC, so it is difficult for players to write on them with a pen. Therefore, the material, size and presentation of the game's props need to be reconsidered.