The development for this game has come a long way from it's simple origins. Conceived in 4 days, it's been a long and arduous journey to get the game to this point. Now in the final stages of play testing and design, Word-a-bout will be ready to showcase in near Post-Production quality at this year's FanExpo in Toronto, Ontario Canada in August.
As you can see from the image, things were pretty much visioned out of the gate. I had a very distinct ideas as to what I wanted to present.
STAGE 1
- Paper cards printed and cut with metal ruler and hobby knife.
- Tokens were printed and punched out with my button punch. Glued them back to back so graphic was on both sides.
- Then added the inverted lettering for those reading the cards upside down. Realized with more people, and this being a visual game, seeing the letters upright help trigger visual keys in the fragments
STAGE 2
- Second set of Paper cards; sized to scale and cut with metal ruler and hobby knife. Font was created to match my final design. Included inverted text in print.
- Tokens changed from paper 1.25" to 120mm plastic chits I found at a dollar store that was part of a knock off travel version of Connect4. They had stars so it instantly fit. I knew I wanted to stick with the star icon theme.
STAGE 3
- After several designs and a running poll for the preferred look, the 3-segment colour version was the preferred look. Finalized the designs and 90-card fragment spreadsheet and sent the design to a print house to get a pre-production version made with poker card quality.
- Plans changed for the tokens. Transferred the design to a card format so that the whole game can be carried in a Deck Box with no added bit and bobs. Makes it more manageable as well. Artwork not finalized.
I'm very proud to say that the game had progressed a lot more than I could have imagined and I wouldn't have been able to do it without suggestions and critiquing along the way. Ultimately this game is for the public, so my personal opinion on goes so far. I've received great feedback from wordies and non-wordies alike and it has shaped my opinion on how vocabulary (and all word games) could be played and enjoyed.
