JS: Tell me what you’ve represented here.
DM: At this point, I had all my research done and I went home for Thanksgiving break. Here I’m looking at a bunch of different game boards, games. Those are vision lines. I just, I really had no clue how to, you know, put all the research I had done into a game board so I just started on one right away [based on Monopoly] and it just really, really didn’t go well (laughs) so I had to, I had to just start completely over.
JS: And you were looking at these games for—?
DM: Like, to model my game. Like, I wanted a model. I figured I could kind of just get the general idea of a game and then just kind of turn it into one of my own.
JS: And these were literally the ones you were looking at: Monopoly, Clue and Mousetrap?
DM: Yeah. Well, there’s some other ones, I just don’t know the names. I remember the one that I eventually broke in half started with Monopoly [as a model] but it just, it got too confusing and I had to just start all over. So I finally decided, I went back and looked at the Clue game board and that’s what I modeled my game on.
JS: Okay. Let’s talk about the process of making of the first board, um, or the game. How long would you say it took?
DM: Okay. The first game I did [modeled after Monopoly], I spent probably two days on that. Not straight days. Maybe like five hours a day on it. But it was a complete disaster so I ended up snapping it in two. And then I just kind of looked at Clue. I didn’t want to go through that again where I’d have to break another board. So I thought about it first. I actually took a piece of paper and, like, drew, drew everything. And then, of course, I messed up a few times on it. But I saved myself a lot of time by drawing it on the piece of paper. Once I had everything perfect, I put the paper here and I just copied it on the board.
JS: Okay. How about with these things [i.e., other parts of the game besides the hand-made playing board]. Where are these from?
DM: The dice and the players, I stole from another game. I’m not sure what game it was but I stole these pieces from another game as little players. And then the die I actually made with construction paper. I glued that on so I could have my little colored die.
JS: All right. And so you do the board first? None of the other stuff is done yet?
DM: No, none of this is done. I just had the board.
JS: Where did you get the idea to color-code your research-based question and answer cards [according to levels of difficulty]?
DM: While I made the board I had all these ideas, like, how I was going to play the game in my head. But when I actually played the game, I realized that I needed something, cause it just seemed too easy to just roll the dice and, you know, pick any question. I thought I would add another aspect to it, like, cause these are the degree of difficulty of the questions. Like, the orange is the easiest and black is the hardest. So I just wanted—it just seemed like I needed to add something else to make it more interesting, you know? Keep you on your seat a little bit.
JS: And did you do the drawings [on the game board]?
DM: Yeah. Unfortunately. I should have maybe had someone a little more skilled do the drawings on that. I thought it looked a little childish so that’s when I decided to print images off the internet, laminate them, and put them on the board to it look a little more professional.
JS: And how long would you say that this all took—not where you broke the board but starting with the new design. How much time did you spend making it, playing it, writing directions, making the pieces?
DM: That all took quite a while. I think I did the [new] board in one day. It actually took a while to type up the questions—there are a lot of questions here. And then to cut everything out and paste it. That actually took, ah, just as much time as making the board. So probably like 7 or 8 hours a day for, like, two days I think it took. The day I did the board I just remember thinking, “Man this is taking forever—I’m just going to quit and start tomorrow.”
JS: Okay. All right. Have you ever—in the past, in high school or whatever, did you ever make a game for anything?
DM: No. Never have. First time.
JS: Okay. What advice would you give, like, if somebody said, “You know what? I’m going to do a game for this class.” What would be your advice to that person?
DM: Okay, um. I’d say if you’re making a game, really plan out. Like, actually sit there and what I did, like, draw—take a piece of paper and draw the game first because you’re going to find flaws, you’re going to find a lot of flaws in it. And then even when you have the game you might want, like, on a piece of paper just want to try to like go through it in your mind. Like, “Okay, if I move here, and you are”. . .you’re probably going to find some flaws in the game. And just try to make it interesting. Try not to make it boring where the player’s like, “Oh, man, this is just getting repetitious!” you know? “I just want to end it,” you know?
DM: At this point, I had all my research done and I went home for Thanksgiving break. Here I’m looking at a bunch of different game boards, games. Those are vision lines. I just, I really had no clue how to, you know, put all the research I had done into a game board so I just started on one right away [based on Monopoly] and it just really, really didn’t go well (laughs) so I had to, I had to just start completely over.
JS: And you were looking at these games for—?
DM: Like, to model my game. Like, I wanted a model. I figured I could kind of just get the general idea of a game and then just kind of turn it into one of my own.
JS: And these were literally the ones you were looking at: Monopoly, Clue and Mousetrap?
DM: Yeah. Well, there’s some other ones, I just don’t know the names. I remember the one that I eventually broke in half started with Monopoly [as a model] but it just, it got too confusing and I had to just start all over. So I finally decided, I went back and looked at the Clue game board and that’s what I modeled my game on.
JS: Okay. Let’s talk about the process of making of the first board, um, or the game. How long would you say it took?
DM: Okay. The first game I did [modeled after Monopoly], I spent probably two days on that. Not straight days. Maybe like five hours a day on it. But it was a complete disaster so I ended up snapping it in two. And then I just kind of looked at Clue. I didn’t want to go through that again where I’d have to break another board. So I thought about it first. I actually took a piece of paper and, like, drew, drew everything. And then, of course, I messed up a few times on it. But I saved myself a lot of time by drawing it on the piece of paper. Once I had everything perfect, I put the paper here and I just copied it on the board.
JS: Okay. How about with these things [i.e., other parts of the game besides the hand-made playing board]. Where are these from?
DM: The dice and the players, I stole from another game. I’m not sure what game it was but I stole these pieces from another game as little players. And then the die I actually made with construction paper. I glued that on so I could have my little colored die.
JS: All right. And so you do the board first? None of the other stuff is done yet?
DM: No, none of this is done. I just had the board.
JS: Where did you get the idea to color-code your research-based question and answer cards [according to levels of difficulty]?
DM: While I made the board I had all these ideas, like, how I was going to play the game in my head. But when I actually played the game, I realized that I needed something, cause it just seemed too easy to just roll the dice and, you know, pick any question. I thought I would add another aspect to it, like, cause these are the degree of difficulty of the questions. Like, the orange is the easiest and black is the hardest. So I just wanted—it just seemed like I needed to add something else to make it more interesting, you know? Keep you on your seat a little bit.
JS: And did you do the drawings [on the game board]?
DM: Yeah. Unfortunately. I should have maybe had someone a little more skilled do the drawings on that. I thought it looked a little childish so that’s when I decided to print images off the internet, laminate them, and put them on the board to it look a little more professional.
JS: And how long would you say that this all took—not where you broke the board but starting with the new design. How much time did you spend making it, playing it, writing directions, making the pieces?
DM: That all took quite a while. I think I did the [new] board in one day. It actually took a while to type up the questions—there are a lot of questions here. And then to cut everything out and paste it. That actually took, ah, just as much time as making the board. So probably like 7 or 8 hours a day for, like, two days I think it took. The day I did the board I just remember thinking, “Man this is taking forever—I’m just going to quit and start tomorrow.”
JS: Okay. All right. Have you ever—in the past, in high school or whatever, did you ever make a game for anything?
DM: No. Never have. First time.
JS: Okay. What advice would you give, like, if somebody said, “You know what? I’m going to do a game for this class.” What would be your advice to that person?
DM: Okay, um. I’d say if you’re making a game, really plan out. Like, actually sit there and what I did, like, draw—take a piece of paper and draw the game first because you’re going to find flaws, you’re going to find a lot of flaws in it. And then even when you have the game you might want, like, on a piece of paper just want to try to like go through it in your mind. Like, “Okay, if I move here, and you are”. . .you’re probably going to find some flaws in the game. And just try to make it interesting. Try not to make it boring where the player’s like, “Oh, man, this is just getting repetitious!” you know? “I just want to end it,” you know?
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