Game Design
"It is games that give us something to do when there is nothing to do. We thus call games "pastimes" and regard them as trifling fillers of the interstices of our lives. But they are much more important than that. They are clues to the future. And their serious cultivation now is perhaps our only salvation."
- Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia, 159
Cultivated is a 4+ player collaborative card game. It can be played in person in the paper version or remotely in the digital version. It is designed to be played at diversity workshops in a college/university setting. The game has 2 major components: culture elements and communication rules. The players work as a team to understand the elements and how they relate to their daily life. Elements related questions help the players to share their culture background related to each element. The second component is the communication rule. These rules guide how players communicate with each other using verbal, written and body languages. They also simulates the challenges international students face with culture shock.
Cultivated is more than just a digital card game. It opens the door for crossing-culture communication; it is a tool to build empathy for people who are from different backgrounds; it bridges the gap of misunderstanding. My inspiration of Cultivated comes from my personal experience as a Chinese international student. At the age of 16, I packed 2 suitcases and came to the US alone to study abroad. I was not aware of how much culture shock has impacted me even after 8 years of studying in the US. To this day, it can still be difficult to embrace culture differences. The game is made to raise culture awareness and increase understanding between cultures.
Paper Prototype
The image below shows one of the many iterations of this game. In this version, I learned how to remove distractions in the game and help the players to focus on the major components. I also learned how to increase playability by decreasing complexity of the game.
Play Test
Multiple in person play tests were conducted to help understand the playability and effectiveness of the game. In this process, I found that the element related questions have significant influence on the player's responses. For example, the question "What language does your family speak" is less effective to the players who come from the same background. A more interesting question is "What is a slang that is often misunderstood from your culture?" Even for students coming from the same background, they will also have opportunity to reflect on slangs or phrases that are unique to their culture.
Digital Game Mockup
Figma MockupThe digital version is a little different from the paper version because of the barrier created by the technologies. In 2020, I had many experiences with remote learning and video chats. This experience helps me become more aware of the affordances of these technologies. For example, video chats allows the players to type their conversation and it introduces new ways of gameplay. On the other hand, in person games allows the player to draw their conversation. Therefore, I modified the communication rules for this version to fit video chat's functionality but still reflect culture shock. For example, one of the rule is "You may only speak during this round and please turn off your camera." This rule reflects how lack of facial expression or body languages as visual cues effects a success intercultural communication. I also learned that technology should not be the leading factor of how a game is designed.
Culture Elements
It is important for the players to understand the elements with minimum cognitive capacity. In the game, each element is represented with a picture that shows a scenario of culture differences.
Language - differences in words, slangs, communication style.
Norm - differences in expected behavior.
Ritual - differences in celebrations of significant events.
Symbol - differences in signs and representations.
Value - differences in preferred behavior/standards.
I designed the scenarios of the elements. The graphics of the elements are designed by Robin Yeh.
Communication Rules
The communication rules represents challenges in communication. These rules are color coded by the type of communication. The green card shows verbal rules. It requires the players to applaud when someone finishes speaking. The card represents the challenge of social norms that are unfamiliar to international students.
The orange card shows the typing rules (using the chat function on video chat). This rule requires the players to type in pig latin and shows the barriers of language and slangs.
Unity Prototype
The digital game is created in Unity. It is a local card game that the players have to share the screen. It creates new challenges of remembering what cards each player has. On each turn, the player can draw an element card, give a card to an adjacent player or collect an element. The communication rule is updated at the beginning of each round.
Play the gameGithub Depository
Next Step? Expansion!
I'm currently working on an expansion called Travel Solo. It increases the intensity of the game by adding a "traveler card". The travelers will move between game tables and have fuller experience of culture shock as an international student.
