APD wk8 Play & Body

By Gin Lin

Context:
For the theme, Play and Body, I wanted to build on my experience of quarantine during covid. It was stressful being trapped at home. I wish I could have got to know those stretching exercises, which can help with the stress and relax, sooner. I also find doing those stretching alone was dull. I wanted to come up with a game that can have a few people doing the exercises to relax while having fun together.
The project is inspired by the game Jumanji, the classic board game, and Switch Ring Fit Adventure. The aim of the project is to have players to  participate in a board game with adventure narrative while doing indoor exercises.

Method:

1. Research stress relief exercise videos on youtube
2. Design 50x50cm game board
3. Design 10x10cm quest/ exercises cards (front and back)
4. Design game rules
5. Quest scripts
6. create QRcodes for the exercise videos
7. Put together the quest card content

The project is an adventure board game. Up to four players get to participate in the game.
Each player picks an object as the pawn and places it on one of the four start corners. Players take turn to roll a dice (or digital number generator (range 1- 6)) and move the pawns towards to the center circle, according to the number of spaces shown on the dice. Follow each roll, the player has to draw from the quest card pile and do the exercise on the card. There are penalties and rewards on some of the cards, such as moving forward or backward or pause turn etc. Some of the quest cards are for single player and some of them are group quests.
The player who reaches the center first wins.
During the play, the players read the quest cards and going on the adventure together.

Project outcome: https://youtu.be/_D3GXKyeeOI

Reflection:  
For the theme this week, I built my project idea on my childhood memory, Jumanji, and the isolation experience during covid. When I was brainstorming, I wanted to add fun into those stress relief exercises. I thought of doing exercises in group. During quarantine. I was at home with my family or housemates. I wanted to have a game that  quarantine partners can enjoy together to relieve the stress both body and mind in the house.
For environment set up, I used vector assets to create four different seasons of path illustration for the game board. For the quest cards, I have short scripts of events (mostly outdoor) to create the sense of adventure. It’s a non-linear narrative. The players explore the narrative together while playing and drawing the cards.
After this week, I have got a board design and some of the quest cards done. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to complete all the quest cards.
As such, a big part of the game is the story and quest/ exercises on the cards. I decided to have a narrative with adventure theme to make the exercises more interesting than just doing repetitive gestures. The same concept is used in Switch Ring Fit Adventure. In the research, Effect of the Nintendo Ring Fit Adventure Exergame on Running Completion Time and Psychological Factors Among University Students Engaging in Distance Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Randomized Controlled Trial, the visual feedback and dynamic tasks encourage the players to exercise. The competition to reach the goal center is the motivation for the game. According to research, a narrative can connect events in setting and engage the players better enjoying the exercises (Schwarz, A., Cardon, G., Chastin, S., Stragier, J., De Marez, L., & DeSmet, A. 2021). The quests/ exercises on the quest cards are short, usually take 1 - 1.5 minutes to complete. The aim is to have the players do a variety of exercises; and each exercise does not last too long to interrupt the game flow. In the research, Does Dynamic Tailoring of a Narrative-Driven Exergame Result in Higher User Engagement Among Adolescents? Results from A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial, short period of time and a large variety of actives can also help engaging the players and motivate to keep playing.
The QRcode on the quest cards are links to the exercise videos on youtube to better explain how the exercises work.
The project may need further development for a more complex narrative and dynamic fun. The original plan was to have at least 6 different quest cards for each season, 24 in total, to have an interesting collection and a good number of mix exercises. Due to the time constraint, I was not able to create enough number of scripts for each exercise. However, I was able to set up the basic game play with the board and the quest cards I’ve got. There could be more different types of rules for the quest cards for add to the dynamic of the game play. I think the game board design could use some refine tweak as well.

Reference:
Schwarz, A., Cardon, G., Chastin, S., Stragier, J., De Marez, L., & DeSmet, A. (2021). Does dynamic tailoring of a narrative-driven exergame result in Higher User Engagement among adolescents? results from a cluster-randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(14), 7444. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147444

Wu, Y.-S., Wang, W.-Y., Chan, T.-C., Chiu, Y.-L., Lin, H.-C., Chang, Y.-T., Wu, H.-Y., Liu, T.-C., Chuang, Y.-C., Wu, J., Chang, W.-Y., Sun, C.-A., Lin, M.-C., Tseng, V. S., Hu, J.-M., Li, Y.-K., Hsiao, P.-J., Chen, C.-W., Kao, H.-Y., … Chu, C.-M. (2022). Effect of the nintendo ring fit adventure exergame on running completion time and psychological factors among university students engaging in distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Randomized Controlled Trial (preprint). JMIR Serious Games, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.2196/preprints.35040

Greszes, S. (2020, May 25). Nintendo's ring fit adventure removed the toxicity from my workouts. Polygon. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://www.polygon.com/2020/5/25/21266228/ring-fit-adventure-quarantine-fitness-toxicity-nintendo-switch

Jumanji Game Rules. UltraBoardGames. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://www.ultraboardgames.com/jumanji/game-rules.php