Palaeontologist - The Ancient Fossil Hunters (Physical Board Game)
About
Scientists want to try and collect DNA and attempt to bring back Dinosaurs to help create a theme park. But they need your help, 4 Palaeontologists have been sent to the last know reported location and have been asked to search for the bones.
The Scientists are getting impatient and have said whoever collects all the bones of their assigned Dinosaur will be granted free entry to the park.
Can you be the first to Collect all the Pieces?
The Scientists are getting impatient and have said whoever collects all the bones of their assigned Dinosaur will be granted free entry to the park.
Can you be the first to Collect all the Pieces?
Design Process
For this project was to create a science-themed board game, the main inspiration for my board game was after the pitches I found that many people were doing a space styled game. I wanted to make mine stand out from the rest so I decided to focus on the science known as Palaeontology. which allowed me to design and create a collection game where players would race around the board attempting to be the first to collect four bone pieces.
The board game went through three iterations.
The first iteration that took place was how the players identified which one would go first. I changed from a standard whose roles the highest goes first. I created four new cards where the players would pick a card and that would decide which player would go first depending on which dinosaur they chose. the other changes I made were to the Rule book these were just clearing up some of the rules and tweaking the wording so they were easier for players to understand. After I had made these changes I went back to testing with multiple groups and got feedback on how they felt the game played now from the first test session.
The second iteration that took place during development was splitting the bone cards into their specific groups, for example, all the T-Rex cards will be together. This change was made due to an issue with the order the players would take, as the bone cards originally would be mixed up, during testing some players found that they couldn't even collect 1 card. So to fix this issue and align it with the order of the player cards. When going back to testing this did indeed fix the progression issue some players had been experiencing and lead to more fun and players having a conversation with each other.
The third and final iteration I wanted to add a final mechanic that would add more competition between the players. To do this I took away the ability to instantly collect their bone pieces and made them go around the board to collect their backpacks and tools. This decision was made after taking a look through the trap cards and noticed that one card didn't make much sense without having another mechanic to work alongside it. The cards where "you forgot your tools, go back 2 spaces and collect them" or "you left your backpack behind, go back and collect it" adding two new cards gave the player more items to collect before they began their journey collecting dinosaur bones. This went through testing and the sessions went extremely well and all the players found it added more competition and suspense when getting close to the endgame.
The board game went through three iterations.
The first iteration that took place was how the players identified which one would go first. I changed from a standard whose roles the highest goes first. I created four new cards where the players would pick a card and that would decide which player would go first depending on which dinosaur they chose. the other changes I made were to the Rule book these were just clearing up some of the rules and tweaking the wording so they were easier for players to understand. After I had made these changes I went back to testing with multiple groups and got feedback on how they felt the game played now from the first test session.
The second iteration that took place during development was splitting the bone cards into their specific groups, for example, all the T-Rex cards will be together. This change was made due to an issue with the order the players would take, as the bone cards originally would be mixed up, during testing some players found that they couldn't even collect 1 card. So to fix this issue and align it with the order of the player cards. When going back to testing this did indeed fix the progression issue some players had been experiencing and lead to more fun and players having a conversation with each other.
The third and final iteration I wanted to add a final mechanic that would add more competition between the players. To do this I took away the ability to instantly collect their bone pieces and made them go around the board to collect their backpacks and tools. This decision was made after taking a look through the trap cards and noticed that one card didn't make much sense without having another mechanic to work alongside it. The cards where "you forgot your tools, go back 2 spaces and collect them" or "you left your backpack behind, go back and collect it" adding two new cards gave the player more items to collect before they began their journey collecting dinosaur bones. This went through testing and the sessions went extremely well and all the players found it added more competition and suspense when getting close to the endgame.