By Divyanka Sadaphule, Yueming Gao, Wentian Zhu

Verbs : Force & Light

Video Link: https://youtu.be/X02TjprhwHg

 

Part 1. Related Works Research

A. Invisible Animal

Link to the artwork: 1https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1RK411D744/?spm_id_from=333.880.my_history.page.click&vd_source=6d6ded478f39805eb4b10740994b54b2 

1.Creators

Li Yude, Ni Simiao, Peng Zihan, Zhang Rui Rui, Liao Kaixin – Invisible Animal  (2022) 

2. Background

This art installation was created by a group of students – Li Yude, Ni simiao, Peng Zihan, Zhang Rui Rui, Liao Kaixin. They are from the School of Visual Arts Design of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art. The Invisible Animal was a project of a course Arduino.

3. Description of the Work

Humans uses their five senses to identify animals by the differences in animals’ physical characteristics. If there is an invisible animal, what kind of behavior and physical phenomena of the animals will be present?

This artwork is an Arduino project. They use Arduino to control the Standard Servo in order to simulate the impact of animals on the environment. Animals do not exist in the project, they forged the footprint of the animal and some sound, which can create some evidence to show an invisible animal. 

4. The Inspiration

 We were inspired by this artwork when we came up with our original concept. Before building our project, our team brainstormed theme-related ideas, including environmental considerations. Using standard servo was our main agenda to keep our project flowing.  After watching the invisible project, we were inspired to think of using “force” as one of the verbs in Richard Serra’s verb list and incorporated it into our work. We wanted to create a game where audiences can follow some clues to find an answer or treasure. 

 

B. Freedom – The Underground Railroad  

BoardGame Instruction: https://www.academygames.com/pages/freedom

1. Designer: Brain Mayer

    Artist: Jarek Nocon, Steve Paschal

2. Background

Jarek Nocon – Born in Poland, he obtained a degree in Graphic Arts as well as a Master of Arts from the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he grew up. Jarek gained experience in cartographic publishing, designing maps in the old style. He runs his own business, creating illustrations for board games and computer games.He cooperates with the publishing house Rebel and Academy Games.

 Stephen C. Paschal –  (born 1945) is an artist who has been painting most of his life. After living in Paris and Germany, he settled in Hawaii in the 1960s. “Conflict of Heroes” series & “Grand Tactical Series” (GTS) game cover illustrator.

3. Description of the Work

Freedom is a card-driven, cooperative game for one to four players in which the group is working for the abolitionist movement to help bring an end to slavery in the United States. The players use a combination of cards, which feature figures and events spanning from Early Independence until the Civil War, along with action tokens and the benefits of their role to impact the game.

Players need to strike the right balance between freeing slaves from plantations in the south and raising funds which are desperately needed to allow the group to continue their abolitionist activities as well as strengthen the cause.

4. The Inspration

As we continued our research, we became convinced that a board game would be a good idea to create a game with Arduino. We noticed that the map of Freedom – The Underground Railroad is interesting. We were inspired by the game design and the structure of the maze. We found the game very engaging as each point was connected which had a follow and allowed players to explore different places on the map. 

 

C. Concept Inspiration of our project

The Martian:  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/

We tried to create a storyline to make our game become more attractive. And we refer to some science fiction. We think about this film with the simple storyline – the astronaut should live on Mars relying on himself. We realized that we can also make a simple background like this: An mission is that humans should survive on a planet so they need to find some food or energy to help them live longer, otherwise they will die.

Director: Ridley Scott – The Martian

“An astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assumes him dead, and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and can survive until a potential rescue.”

 

 

Part 2. Conceptualization

 

1. Research question 

What can we do to make an Arduino-based board game more engaging and fun with light sensors, LEDs, buttons, and servos, as well as how it will work with nonhuman materials such as steel and paper?

 

2. Development Process

Taking inspiration from the invisible animal project, we started off with a few rough sketches for building the Environmental scene and decided to make a theme base board game.

Considering our research question, we wanted to explore the interaction between LEDs, sensors, and buttons and create a space where players can explore each part of the game. In order to make the game more engaging, we decided to have a map-like structure where a player can choose paths to move in the right direction. 

After some research, we hold up upon an idea that was inspired by the movie martin, In which we decided to create a theme of “Survival on another planet” the basic idea was you landed on a planet and you need food and water to survive here. The game was initially envisioned as a treasure hunt type of game where players had to find treasures that would provide them with food in order to survive. This is how the “Mission 3-EVA Expedition” was born.

 

3. The Manual Brochure 

 

4. User Flow

Link to User Flow PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mYcaQulrvPcq14x5twU0Or_LDXvk5ZPx/view?usp=share_link

 

5. Prototype

 

6. Future Prospect

 

 

Package Design

 

Version of Two Players

The game has been designed more cohesively with more depth and components to make it more engaging for  future prospects. The whole game can be customized by the people, in terms of maps(Puzzle blocks) and barriers.

 

Design Process

Change from the flat surface to hexagon cardboards to increase the randomness of the paths.

 

Game Instruction (Min 2 Players – Max 4 Players)

To begin the game, the first player rolls the dice and moves forward according to the number. As the player moves forward, the LED lights lighten ups with a help of a button that indicates the path.

• Players cannot move backward as they move forward.
• A player must roll an accurate number in order to reach a supply box with the help of the light sensor. 
• During the game, if a player rolls a dice and hits a barrier, the player must choose a different path to continue the game instead of following the existing path. The barrier is like an obstruction
• Getting to the wrong supply box means you didn’t survive on the planet (you lost).
• The player who finds the right supply box wins the game.

 

The Storyline

This game is about 4 astronauts from 4 different countries  (India, Europe, USA, China) who were sent on a mission 3-EUA expedition on planet A-286 in the year 2089. However, a severe dust storm threatens to topple their spaceship and loses their connection with NASA. Ten days have passed and the consumption of all the food and water is over, your mission is to survive on the planet and find the hidden supplies in the next two days, otherwise, you will die.

 

Dimensions

The game comes in block puzzle pieces so the dimensions of the game vary on the number of players. Maxim 4 players are allowed to play this game with a dimension of 60 cm and a minimum of 2 players with a dimension of 30 cm.

 

Pieces of equipment

Blocks – A set of hexagon-shaped cardboard blocks comes with a picture of the path to design one’s own maze for the game.

Barriers – A set of 6 barriers that represent Rain, Snowflake, Aliens, Mountain, Radio, and Tornado, which obstruct player pawns when they land on them. On the maze path, this barrier must be randomly placed.

Pawn – 4 metal astronauts pawn.

Supply boxes – 6 supply boxes

Dice – 2x ( 1 Dice only has number 1 and number 2 for 2 players, 1 Dice has number 1 to number 3 for 3 players)

 

Technical equipment  

LEDs, light sensors, and buttons – the LEDs, light sensors, and buttons are going to be attached to the surface of blocks like plug pins. The player simply places the block piece on the socket-filled box in order to connect it.

Box – the box material is made up of wood which consists of Arduino, and breadboards, and the surface of the box has sockets on the top to plug LEDs, Sensors, and supply boxes.

Power – The main power comes from the plug which is attached to the bottom side of the wooden box. A player has to simply attach the plug to a switch board.

NOTE ：There is a fixed position for each of the six supply boxes on the wooden box’s surface. Players have to just place the supply box and connect the plug with a socket.

Blocks – LEDs, light sensors and button has fixed position on the hexagon blocks.

Supply boxes – Supply boxes consist of a magnets base for stillness and a plug to attach the Arduino wooden box.

 

Part3. Technical description and design considerations

In order to explore Arduino as a whole, we divided the work into three sections: motors, timings using light sensors, and LEDs which were later incorporated into our game.

 

Explorations with Ardunio

Experiment Gif Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HC1UtFjmxXTGhHDCuR1zFITKmGePmIyL?usp=share_link

When the player moved through the maze, a series of led lights and buttons indicated where they were on the pathway of the game. As they roll a dice, each step light up the led with a button on the side to keep the game going. 

As a player approaches one of the treasure boxes, light sensors will activate that box, and with the help of the standard servo, the box will open up to show what’s inside, as long as the player is close enough to the treasure box. 

We have used a nonhuman material “steel” as a pawn for the game. In order to open the box, the player first comes into contact with the steel pawn, which activates the sensor.

 

Materials used

3 breadboards, 3 Arduino nano 33 IOT,  Plug jumper wires, socket jumpers, resistors, potentiometer, light sensors, LEDs, push buttons, standard servo. 

Paper box, 2 Mini figures, 180 gsm paper for rocket model

 

Diagram

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14-997mxmRhX-npoIVrnY7zQSvzJ7JNXN?usp=share_link

 

Link to the code

https://divyankasadaphule-cautious-space-spoon-44jxwpr6x56hqw7q.github.dev/ 

https://divyankasadaphule-redesigned-xylophone-g94g7vppq6q2957w.github.dev/ 

https://divyankasadaphule-redesigned-xylophone-g94g7vppq6q2957w.github.dev/

 

 

References

“Freedom: The Underground Railroad.” BoardGameGeek, https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/119506/freedom-underground-railroad. 

Li, Yude, et al. Invisible Animal. Bilibili, 25 Oct. 2022, https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1RK411D744/?spm_id_from=333.880.my_history.page.click&vd_source=6d6ded478f39805eb4b10740994b54b2. Accessed 4 Nov. 2022. 

The Rules Girl, director. How to Play Carcassonne in 3 Minutes. YouTube, YouTube, 9 Feb. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-74FYj21JVg. Accessed 10 Nov. 2022. 

Scott, Ridley, director. The Martian. IMDb, IMDb.com, 2 Oct. 2015, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2022. 

Tan, Rachel. “18 Levels of Hell (Board Game).” Behance, 20 Apr. 2021, https://www.behance.net/gallery/117926641/18-Levels-of-Hell-%28Board-Game%29.