Unit 3 Playtest 1 - Board game with less restriction

For this unit, I was placed in group number 9, with the goal of this section being to create a second board game. However, this time was less restrictive than the first and we were allowed to use any genre and concept we wanted to. My group decided upon the idea of a bounty hunter taking jobs, exploring, getting money, and upgrading themself and their ship, all in space. We titled it "Space Marauders," and below is the most recent iteration of our Rule Sheet.

As of right now, we have a DnD-esque system featuring a character sheet and ship sheet as the game's main components. Players name their characters, can draw their appearance, and assign skill points to the various skill categories to customize their characters. They are also given a ship sheet, where they can draw their ship, as well as upgrade certain aspects of it like guns, shields, and the hull. To add to this basic core system, we also included Planet cards to be used as an abstract map. Each planet is useful for different tasks, such as exploring, completing jobs, trading, and more.

Below is a picture of a very early prototype of the game materials, including the character sheet, ship sheet, and four planet cards:

So far, this is as far as we have gotten with the gameplay. As for teamwork distribution, both I and my partner have contributed a good amount of work to the prototype. Although, I will say I do feel that I have done more work than my partner. Some unavoidable circumstances did prevent my partner to work some of the time, but even when we were actively working together I still felt as though I carried most of the weight on my back.

Our first playtest went quite well, despite the lack of development on the progressive gameplay of our prototype. The group we were paired with was great sports and had a lot of imagination, so they were able to use their own made-up story to fill in the gaps that were missing in the gameplay. They did not have many questions and had a good time filling out the character sheet, and ended up making a pretty funny character.

Below is a copy of my group's observation notes from the playtest:

The biggest thing we need to continue to work on and polish is the encounters that the player can interact with. We have the basic three encounter types planned out, those being jobs, exploration, and trading. However, beyond the planet cards, we have no specific procedures or rules for these encounters. I think it could be an interesting idea to include cards for different encounters and sub-cards to use in certain places within the encounters to provide some type of variation and randomization that would lengthen the replayability of the game. I think this would be one of the best ways to execute this idea, as we are restricted to physical prototypes, so we can not simply just code in as many variations as we want.

Something that has been integral in my personal process of developing a concept and visual idea of that concept has been using AI art generation. I was able to find a high-quality, free-generation website with no strict terms of service, which greatly helps with creativity in my experience. Using this website I like to input prompts related to my idea and add words like "concept art" or "character art." This generates very interesting concept art that helps me to visualize the ideas I am working on and I am able to use the art as inspiration for whatever it is I am working on.

Overall, if I could change anything about the design iteration process in the future, I would try to find more resources that I can use to help me generate ideas. Also, I would have my partner do more work than they currently are so that I do not have to feel as though I am pulling most of the weight by myself. Other than that, I think it has been a pretty positive experience so far.