Game Design - Experimenting

So after play testing several of the print and plays in class I've learned that many past student games focus on very serious or dark themes. Rarely was I even able to see more lighthearted print and play games when presenting our research as well.

One of the few ideas I wanted to explore for either my  print and play or board game was the aesthetic style choice of making a game to look like a quilt or fabric. With this idea in mind I want to go very stylized with simple but cute designs for map graphics.

I considered possibly doing this completely digitally with fabric textures and layers in Photoshop but I found that certain details such as stitching were hard to replicate and still give the objects a small sense of  being 3D.

Determined to somehow put this idea into play I made my way down to the nearest craft store and bought several different colors of felt and embroidery thread. I started off simple by sketching out the layout for a bush and after finishing proceeded to see how it would look scanned.

Concept Sketches

Bush Scanned at 800dpi

After determining that scanning worked and that the design was 100% adorable I proceeded to make more pieces in an effort to explore the medium more. I took the picture of the tree with my phone and my desk lamp for lighting and found that the texture seemed clearer but it was more difficult to light it evenly.

Felt Tree

My conclusion from my findings are as follows:

• Scanning hi-res works but can be time consuming for larger pieces
• Phone camera works well but requires good lighting and taking it directly from above
• Although many colors can be bought its also possible to edit colors on Photoshop

I will be continuing my research in this concept by trying out patterned quilting fabrics and different objects and overall themes for the game I'd like to create