Games
Early on in my project, I knew that I wanted to include games as a participatory activity. Initially, I only had one game planned: Snakes and Ladders, but I realised that I could easily switch games on my exhibition.
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I chose the three games of Snakes and Ladders, 3InARow and Checkers. I thought about the difficulty of games; if a family came in to see, I would want all ages to participate in the room. The games I've chosen are playable for all ages. I chose Battleship as one of my games before but realised it was too complex to be made on time, so I changed it to Checkers.
I made notes of what I needed for each game to play. All the games that I've chosen are board games. So I needed to make a game board. The easiest way to install it is to use tape on the floor.
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The largest gride to make was for Snakes and Ladders. I planned to install the grid on the opening set-up of my exhibition, so to get a sense of how much space it would take up on the floor, I mapped it out with yarn. I concluded that the correct size would be 200cm by 200cm to make a 100 square grid.
Snakes and Ladders
I made the snakes, ladders and dice out of cardboard. I used the same blue tape that will be used on the floor to tape the side of the dice. I kept the colour scheme consistent with blue, pink, yellow and purple, which are the same colours as the coloured block. I chose 4 blocks from my sculpture, Stolen Treasure, which will act as the player pieces.
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I also wrote a set of instructions. I am informing the players on how to play the game if they don't remember how to play. I include the numbers 1, 10-100, which will be placed in the grid. I laminated them as they're most likely going to be stepped on. By doing this, it's easy to clean them if needed.
Snakes and Ladders game instructions:
The object of the game is to be the first player to get your piece to the finish 100 space. This game can be played by 4 players.
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Setup:
Before the game can start each player will roll one die, the player who throws the highest number will be the one to have the first turn. Each player picks a piece.
Gameplay:
The players will move their pieces from left to right, starting at 1, following the numbers on the board, then the next row from right to left and repeat to 100.
Each player takes a turn to roll the dice, the number that lands on the dice is the number of spaces the player can move the piece. For example, If a player rolls a 4, then the player would move their piece four places.
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Snakes:
If a player lands on a top of a snake, their playing piece will slide down to the bottom of the snake.
Ladders:
If a player lands at the base of a ladder, it immediately climbs to the top of the ladder.
To win the player will need to roll the exact number to get to the last space. The player's piece will bounce off the last space and move back if the roll is too high. For example, if a player had four spaces to get to 100 and rolled a 6, the piece will move four spaces to 100, then “bounce back" two spaces to 98.
Good luck and have fun :)
Exhibition set up: Snakes and Ladders
I placed the four coloured blcoks, which will act as a player piece, on a plinth. I stuck the instructions on the side of the plinth. Then place the dice next to the grid.
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I laid the snakes and ladders that I planted randomly on the floor. Then placed the numbers on the grid. I stuck everything to the floor using blue tack.
The game flowed very well and could be played without me being in the room to instruct. Every player that played enjoyed their time, commenting that it was fun, and they felt as if they were children again, which was the enjoyment that I was trying to convey.
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Snakes and ladders were played on Monday 25th April from 1 pm to 4:30 pm and Tuesday 26th April from 10:30 am to 4:30 pm.
After the first group of people played Snakes and Ladders, I observed them see if I missed or improved anything. I noticed that even though I added the numbers on the grid, they still had difficulty figuring out which direction you move. To make it more clear, I wrote arrows to navigate throughout the grid and "winner" on the 100th square with a Posca blue pen.
3InARow
I wrote, printed and laminated instructions for the game. Each player gets 9 blocks to play with, and I took 9 blocks of each colour to signify a player.
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I place the instructions in the middle of the grids. I had 4 pillows with pillow covers in the same colours as the coloured blocks, and I made sure to correspond the coloured pillows with the colour block playing pieces.
I decided to do 3 in a row during the middle of the week, which makes it available on display for one day.
On Wednesday morning, I changed the grid. I worked with the snakes and ladders grid and modified it to two grids of 3 by 3 for 3 in a row. I did this by cutting the tape with a craft knife and taking the rest of the grid that wasn't cut off.
Three in a row game instructions:
The object of the game is to be the first player to get 3 in a row in a 9 by 9 square grid. This game is played with 2 players.
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Setup:
There are two sets of 9 coloured blocks facing each other opposite on the grid. The players must choose which colour they will play and who will go first.
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Gameplay:
The players will take turns placing their coloured blocks in the 9 by 9 square grid. The first player who places 3 of their coloured blocks in a row, either across, down or diagonally, wins the game.
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Good luck and have fun :)
Out of all the activity games, 3 in a row is the most straightforward game. I did this on purpose to add at least one easy game incase if someone brings a young child. The child and then quickly join in with help from a parent.
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3InARow waa played on Wednesday 27th April from 10:30 am to 4:30 am.
Checkers
On Thursday morning, I changed the grid to a checkerboard. I extended the 60cm by 60cm grid into 80cm by 80cm. Each square of the board was transformed into 10cm by 10cm.
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I fully turned the grid into a checkerboard; I needed to block some squares entirely blue. I used a photo of a checkerboard as a guide.
I wrote instructions on playing checkers and printed and laminated them for the audience to read. Each player gets 12 pieces to play with, so I got 12 coloured blocks for each colour.
Checkers game instructions:
The object of the game is to capture all your opponent’s checkers or trap your opponent so no move can be made. This game is played with 2 players.
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Setup:
The players must choose which colour they will play and who will do first. The coloured blocks for each player are setup on the dark coloured squares faced without the design. Players should have 12 coloured blocks in their first three rows (four in each row).
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Game Play:
A single block can move forward diagonally on a coloured square, one space per turn.
To capture an opponent’s checker, a player may jump over a diagonally adjacent opponent's block.
The space on the other side of the opponent’s block must be open. Multiple blocks can be captured if jumped consecutively with the same block.
If a block makes it to the other side of the board, it is kinged. To king a block turn the block to reveal the design. A kinged block can move forward or backward on the board.
The first player to capture all the opponent’s blocks wins. If a player is unable to make a move, he/she loses the game.
Good luck and have fun :)
I added the pillows like before, corresponding with the coloured playing block pieces. I set the coloured block pieces as you would see in a starting game of Checkers.
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Checkers was played on Thursday 28th April from 10:30 am to 4:30 pm, and Friday 29th April from 10:30 am to 1 pm.
Checkers was the last game activity in the space.
