Bridge Key

This is a picture of the key that will be on the back of the Key Cards. There are 20 Key Cards that serve to keep the game fun and interesting. We have 5 Would you rather cards, 10 Fact Cards, and 5 Dare or action type cards. I have the Key Cards in a google document. The site is Here!

Featured Cards

Rule Cards: Click on the lily pad below to see our current Rule cards which must be followed by all players when it is in play...


Trivia Cards: Click on the boat below to see our current trivia cards complete with math word problems and various spelling challenges...


Key Cards coming soon...

The Farm Toob

We decided to dip the A.C. Moore animals we got in green and blue paint to differentiate the two different possible teams of animals. Each player may now choose their six animal team from a total of twelve.


Kids can choose from: rooster, dog, goose, duck, chicken, cow, bull, goat, sheep, horse, or a pig. Perhaps we could name the animals? Math style: Division the Duck, Parentheses the Pig? Just a thought...

Spray Paint

I'm thinking that spray painting the animals might be a good idea. That would be relatively simple to do, and we could use the spray paint to make different features on the board (such as an outline for the cards to fall on). Good job to Krisoula for getting the pieces at A.C. Moore.



Let me know your thoughts on this idea. I don't know what or how many colors we would need. I know blue is a necessity for the water. I know we discussed the concept of starting on an island and ending on mainland, so we will need green and perhaps a tan color.

Animal Pieces

So today I went to AC Moore and got some animal pieces. They only had two packs of the set we wanted, so I picked them up. So then I started thinking, maybe we can color code the pieces so there are clearly two different players set, which will match the colored foot prints we wanted for each player. The pieces look pretty cool though!

Progress

Today was very productive. We really focused in on what we want our gameboard to look like and figured out that we will use lillypads (sp? hahaha) and boats to go along with our water and island theme. We also decided that any 3D elements are not going to be permanently attached to the board, this way the game is easy to replicate and easy to fold away. Me and Yolanda created a lot of Lillypad Rules, which will keep the game interesting and fun. We also started coming up with Trivia type questions. Meanwhile, Dan and Heather worked on revising the directions and making them clear.

So the two players will hop along stepping stones until they get to an island, which will have the Battle and Trivia area. Water will be majority of the board. Lillypad rules will be in the shape of lillypads and can be changed up as the game progresses. The boat will hold Trivia cards to test the players math and spelling skills.

I am going to go to AC Moore over the break and pick up several packs of animal figures for our playing pieces.

Gameboard Prototype

Krisoula and I have worked on a prototype of the gameboard. We have had to rethink the entire 3D concept and are looking at making better 2D images to represent the things we had wanted to put in 3D.

The color-coded squares represent the different special things like a trivia square.

(Click the image to see a bigger version)

Kids Crossing Rules

Today we worked on the rules for Kids Crossing. Yolanda and Krisoula play-tested while Dan and I made a few last minute changes that involved taking out confusing features and adding simpler ones that really matched the feel of the game and added opportunity for laughter and interaction.

Click the above picture to visit the rules for Kids Crossing.

Adding Features

Yolanda's idea for a child’s game that teaches basic counting and strategy was simple, but very promising. We went over a lot of different features to add onto the basic game mechanism (by rolling die be the first to bring all of your sheep across the bridge) and came to a halt in disagreement.

Some Features

Flash Cards - We decided to incorporate flashcards into the game to add a little bit more skill required to win rather than all guts and luck. This seemed to unanimously please the group, for we liked the trivia card aspect in Sibling Pains. Also because the children's game we were aiming for was supposed to be a 'learning journey,' it would make sense to add more math questions, or even trivia questions on flash cards. Debate came around on how to incorporate these flash cards... Some wanted to only have it required at the end of the bridge to get off. Others wanted it to be involved at the middle of the bridge for a face-off with the opposing sheep. Some thought that maybe it should be incorporated into the entire movement of the game, and just to drop the dice. While all of these things may have been a good idea, we had to come to agreement on only one. We compromised. Flash cards would be required to get off the bridge, and to get off of the platform at the middle of the bridge. No face-off would be required however; it would just be an individual effort with no competition to get the answer right.

Having four players - Because the game is centered on a board with diagonals going across and a platform in the middle, if we added two more lanes, there would be an uneven amount of steps that every player would have to take to get to the other side. To avoid confusion, we kept it simple with the two player diagonal aspect.

After going through the features and finally coming to agreement after playtesting and seeing what worked, we were ready to begin discussing the game design itself:
What animals would we use?
"Sheep seem too girly," say some.
"What about baby goats, for kids?"
..And so on...
It is going to be a challenge in the least to make a board with water inside of it...

Imagining!

Our "imagining" today was very productive. We discussed the many aspects that could improve our game and possibly over complicate the directions for our young target group. We also talked a lot about how we expect our game to look. Some of our ideas for the look could really make our game more interesting to a larger audience and would be fun to make, but it is also going to require a lot of time and effort. Since we have figured out that we want the game board to symbolize some aspect of water and land we have been talking about actual water and textured land. I am going to start looking into fun animal pieces. We were thinking ducks, goats, pigs, etc. We didn't always agree on a lot of things today, but we did a good job as a group listening to one another.

Online Flashcard Makers

General Flashcards

• Educational Press - You can choose from a variety of subjects.

Math

• Edu4Kids


• Teachervision


• FlashCardMath - Can put pictures on them!

Miscellaneous Fun Things

• Memory Lifter - A language learning flashcard program.


• Orgo flashcards from Ohio State