Initial Ideas

This idea physically represents the relationship between environmental and social aspects of the Galapagos using a balance. This idea introduced me to a main question of my game process: balancing collaborative vs competitive gaming. However, I felt that this idea did not address my learning goals for the players. If I portrayed the Galapagos as a scale in balance, it would completely ignore social-ecological system thinking, neglecting all of the different relationships and connections between stakeholders in the Galapagos.

Card Collection

In this idea, players travel across the Galapagos map to collect sets of conservation cards. Each set increases the overall resiliency of the system, building up a defense against random “El Niño” cards.

Rapid Prototypes

Resource Excavation

This prototype was focused on resource management in the Galapagos and the build up of waste. Players had to decide between helping themselves or putting everyone at risk of losing.

Post test: How collaborative vs. competitive should I make my game?

Conservation Solutions Card Game

In this prototype, everyone has a specific role and needs to gather a list of different resource cards. Some of the resources, like “waste management” and “inspect imported goods,” would need to be bought for everyone, while other resources could only be bought individually.

Invasive Species Outbreak!

This game is completely collaborative, so either everyone wins or everyone loses. In order to win, all of the players had to work together to remove invasive species by gathering resources and “research innovation” action cards. Players also had individual roles, which could each bring a new skill to the table.

Hidden Objectives

This game uses elements of the prisoner’s dilemma and the tragedy of the commons. On their turn, players privately decide to play the “help myself” or “help group” card. At the end of the round, everyone’s choices are revealed, and rewards and consequences are distributed. Whoever chose “help myself” gets personal rewards, but they move the island’s resiliency meter down. If the meter hits zero, everyone loses! In order to combat previous completely selfish behavior, I created a personal resiliency meter for each player. If they choose “help myself” too many times, they lose.

Building & Conserving

In this game, modeled after Settlers of Catan, players build tourism developments, buy boats, and solve conservation cards in order to earn victory points. Players must also work together to solve crisis cards that are drawn each round. You can read full rules here.

Testing with a very collaborative family

I heard quotes like “what does the community say” and “I gotta do my part,” as people chose to earn resiliency cards instead of building hotels. They were very excited by the idea of building an island community focused on conservation.

This testing session taught me that I need to seek out many different people to test my game, so that I can learn from and adapt to different playing styles.

Testing with an “average” family

I used Monopoly credit cards as the currency, and I priced the different boats and buildings, and research centers. In order to add randomness, I created two dice. One described the quality of the environment (low, medium, or high) and the other determined the amount of tourism (limited or mass). The dice combination would determine payout, showing how the quality of the environment directly impacts tourism and economy. Read full rules here.

Testing over Zoom — Introducing Graphics

In this test, I wondered how introducing graphics on the cards would impact gameplay. Would players be more likely to do a conservation action when they see a picture of that animal? I also tested the rules, and I had the players attempt to read and understand the game without me answering any questions.

Testing over Zoom — Ferry Routes

In this prototype, players build ferry routes between different islands so that they can move from island to island. bring in the aspect of blocking off people from different islands, and it could be replayed with a different starter island for some variability.

Print and Play, First Try

For this testing session, the players recreated the game at their house, using their own game pieces. They played as if they just opened it out of the box.

 Print and Play… Again!

Once I printed out and gathered all of my materials for my game, I was able to drop off the full set at play tester’s houses. This way, they could play it without my involvement, and I could test if my game rules work.

Back to Collaborative

After further testing, feedback, and reflection, I decided to make my game completely collaborative. In a competitive game, people will not come together to solve crises if it doesn’t suit their personal interests. In order to stay true to my educational goals, I modified my game to make it purely collaborative.

Initial Card Design Ideas

At first, I was leaning towards doing everything through illustration on my iPad. However, I had difficulty finding a middle ground between simplicity and detail. I really liked earthy colors, and I played around a lot with different designs:

After reflecting on my educational goals for this game, I decided that using photos would be more effective to teach players about different plants and animals of the Galapagos. I still wanted to incorporate elements of whimsy, so I tried collaging and I incorporating bright colors.

For my conservation card design, I decided to use photos I took in the Galapagos and collage them with earthy fabrics, bright colors, and interesting textures.

Crisis Cards

My goal was to create a card that matched with the conservation cards but also expressed the severity and urgency of a crisis. I decided on a common dark grey background which could be used to identify all crisis cards.

Crisis Card Theme

Card Backs

After designing the front of the cards, I designed the common card backs for the conservation and crisis cards.

GalapaBucks Design