Project Introduction
In Chemistry, our second and final project of the semester was named the 'Drugged and Disordered" project. We studied drugs, both prescription and illegal, their effects on the body, and the chemistry behind all of it. We also learned about chemistry within the body - such as how the nose is able to smell, or how the brain reacts to certain situations. We learned about various drugs, from Marijuana, to Opioids, and Birth Control, and others. We then created projects to exhibit at the E3 Civic High School, another project based learning environment, in San Diego.
Our Project
I was assigned to the Opioids group. Our task was to create an informative piece - (a game, video, it could be anything,) and to be knowledgeable enough in our field to pass this onto the people we exhibited to. We decided to make a board game using the principles of the famous game Life™, and we set to work. Our board-game was named Opium Adventure, and we decided to have fact and situation cards - the player would begin the game with the choice to either take opium or not, and this would affect their chances of prison, point earnage, etc;
My task in our group was the research of facts. I compiled a list of about 70 interesting one-liners about opium, opioids, and other things related to it, and transferred them over to create fact cards. I also put together the questions and answers for the lightning round at the end of the game. When both of these tasks were done, all of our group members including myself worked on game mechanics - we came up with how the spaces would work, what is the prison for, etc; and got our piece finished and finalized a full day before the due date.
My task in our group was the research of facts. I compiled a list of about 70 interesting one-liners about opium, opioids, and other things related to it, and transferred them over to create fact cards. I also put together the questions and answers for the lightning round at the end of the game. When both of these tasks were done, all of our group members including myself worked on game mechanics - we came up with how the spaces would work, what is the prison for, etc; and got our piece finished and finalized a full day before the due date.
The Game's Organization
At the beginning, when the player made that choice, if they chose to start on Opium, they would initially be told that the path is quicker, and they will make more points per turn than the players not on Opium. This led to many of our players choosing to begin on Opium. The catch however, of which they were informed of after the game began, was that as each turn progressed, they would lose more and more points - where they initially only lost ten and gained 50, by turn 5 they lost 50 and gained 50, and by turn 10 lost 100 and gained 50, which was a device we planted in the game to stimulate addiction and needing more Opium in order to get the same effect as the first couple of doses.
For the layout of the board, there where white spaces, which did nothing, grey spaces, which when landed on would send the player to jail (where they would then sit for two turns paying a fine each turn), red spaces which brought up situation cards (examples being the good "Make 500 Points" to the terrible "Go to jail and pay 500 points".) and blue spaces which brought up fact cards.
The end goal of the game was to have the most points at the end of the game - a lightning round would ensue for those who had fact cards, and whoever got a question correct would get an additional 50 points per question.
For the layout of the board, there where white spaces, which did nothing, grey spaces, which when landed on would send the player to jail (where they would then sit for two turns paying a fine each turn), red spaces which brought up situation cards (examples being the good "Make 500 Points" to the terrible "Go to jail and pay 500 points".) and blue spaces which brought up fact cards.
The end goal of the game was to have the most points at the end of the game - a lightning round would ensue for those who had fact cards, and whoever got a question correct would get an additional 50 points per question.
Exhibition and Reflection
The exhibition went really well. We presented to about 30 different students who all played our game in groups. Each one of them was surprised about the knowledge they learned, and told us they'd be interested in seeing more from an east coast perspective, where an opioid epidemic is going on.
In general, I really am proud of the work in this project, just as I am with the last one. Everyone who played our game (including our instructor) agreed the mechanics were solid and that the game was fun. I myself enjoyed playing the game along with my two partners during the test runs, as the competitiveness increased throughout the end. There is only one thing I would really change about our project, and its a small thing. We didn't have time to laser-cut out game pieces, as the laser-cutter was backed up with other people's projects, so we instead brought in Lego figurines as the game pieces. It would have been more professional to have game pieces out of the wood that our board was made of, but in the end it worked fine and no one commented on it. I am really proud of the work done on this project. Below are some pictures from our exhibition.
In general, I really am proud of the work in this project, just as I am with the last one. Everyone who played our game (including our instructor) agreed the mechanics were solid and that the game was fun. I myself enjoyed playing the game along with my two partners during the test runs, as the competitiveness increased throughout the end. There is only one thing I would really change about our project, and its a small thing. We didn't have time to laser-cut out game pieces, as the laser-cutter was backed up with other people's projects, so we instead brought in Lego figurines as the game pieces. It would have been more professional to have game pieces out of the wood that our board was made of, but in the end it worked fine and no one commented on it. I am really proud of the work done on this project. Below are some pictures from our exhibition.