EGO — A Board Game for Self-Awareness

EGO是我在One-Up Design Club的第一份设计，而“Ego”本身这个单词的含义就是“自我”的意思。

EGO is the first draft of design I’ve made in One-Up design Club, and EGO itself means the identity of yourself.

我在一开始想到做一个这样的桌游之前，我其实还有一些其他的想法。作为设计社团的一个项目，以及自我认知作为我们所有人的主题，我最希望我的设计可以解决的问题就是每个人经常会遇到的，对于自我的认知的问题。

Before I come up with the idea to design a board game, I actually have some different inspirations. The first topic in the club: “Self-Awareness”. I expect my design to solve the problem that everyone might need to face to, about to understand and perceive yourself.

为什么说自我认知很多时候都会用到呢？除了平时要上的心理学自我认知课程之外，我觉得你会被强迫“自我认知”的场合，就是做自我介绍的时候了。很多时候你对一个人或者一群人做自我介绍的时候是不是总是不知道说什么好？或者是不知道那些该说那些不该说？那么我设计的这款桌游一定很适合你。

The most frequently occasion that people need to apply their self-awareness, probably when you are forced to “Introduce” yourself. Oftentimes you need to present yourself to a crowd of people, and it will be awkward if you’re not really extrovert person. A board game perhaps can solve the problem pleasantly.

其实这样一款桌游不只是只起到简单的介绍自己的用途，如果你们彼此更加的相信对方的话，简单的纸牌和人产生的链接将会是突破你对自己的认知的。这也是我希望在玩家或者说我设计的用户在游玩这样的简单的桌游之后会产生的感触。

Actually, the game not merely just solve the problem with introduce yourself, but if player could played with each other more trustful and familiar, the game shall bring more connection between people and may break through the self-knowledge. This is the outcome I wish to see or people played after my game could receive.

我从哪里开始的

Where I started with

在设计社团完成了铺垫的一些设计入门知识之后，我们就开始着手做我们的第一个设计了。我们第一个设计的主题为“自我认知”，大多数人在用设计表达自己的时候都想的是如何做一个小册子或者海报来介绍自己。但是我认为我的设计应该是有用的，是能够解决生活中的问题的。所以我不愿意走“创作一份自我塑像”的路，我像我可以带来一个有用的设计。

After the club finished the intro to design, we were ready for the first practical design. Our first topic is “Self-Awareness”. Most of people in the club were thinking about how to present themselves with a poster or a manual book, but I decide to make a design with more utilitarian purpose, which can solve real life problem. I don’t want to make a personal statue.

一开始我的想法是像名片一样的小东西，我可以通过设计在上面创作出很多自定义的图案，来代表个人的特色。或者是一串项链，每颗珠子都是一个元素。但是重点是我想带来的形式，我想用这个设计来解决所有关于自我认知的难题，也就是说，这个设计是通用的 (Universal)

In the beginning, I started with a idea of something present yourself. A business card, that I can edit few icons and patterns on it, for presenting yourself. Another idea is a string of necklace, each bead painted with certain element. But in most essentially, the format I want to use, a design that can solve every kind problem with self awareness. Which means, the design must be universal.

在第一次灵感的presentation时我又联想到了我在第一学期做出的桌游，第二个想法诞生了，我要做一个关于自我认知的桌游。那么我就改变了想法，说我要做这个更有意思但是更难的。

New inspiration hit me when I was presenting my manuscripts. I linked with the board game I’ve made in the first semester. I quickly changed my idea, claimed that I want to design a board game.

Research:

我其实知道会有这样的桌游在市面上有发行，Ellen和我谈到了她在团建的时候用到的一套牌，也是自我认知为主题的。纸牌大多是一些很抽象的画作，没有任何的文字描述。游玩的方式也很简单，就是在牌堆中抽一张牌，然后解释牌和自己的关系。这样的牌更像是团建的时候Check-in用的，我其实觉得可能不会很有意思。可能玩一会就没什么意思了，而且桌游的性质不是很强，也没有最基本的桌游该有的规则，从这里我得到了我的桌游一定要能够玩起来的这样一个想法。

I have a sense that the board game with the self-awareness topic can be already design by somebody else online, so I did few research and gained nothing. Maybe I’m the first person who want to design a self awareness board game.

Ellen has been mentioned she played a board game before really like mine one. Same topic for self-knowledge. The function of the board game is about, you pick card from a pile, and every card have a painting on it, and you chose the one that fit you. I think the game is sort of: “Check-in” type of game. Not really fun if you play it several times. And you don’t really have rules from it, you can play whatever you want. I suppose my game need rules, and have to be fun to play.

我尝试在网上搜索一些“桌游”和“自我认知”两个关键词有关联的结果。但是并没能得到满意的结果。我希望之前从来都没有人想过这个主题吧，这样我就是第一个做自我认知桌游的人了。

在灵感枯竭的时候我想过很多桌游的形式，以及一些的规则什么的。我一开始想的是这个桌游也许可以做成一个测试的样子，我比较明确说游戏结束的时候每个玩家都会留下一套手牌，然后这些牌就是能代表他这个人的一些属性。这个想法来自学期中旬我们做的一套心理测试题目。我觉得通过一些题目，最终得出一个准确的结果，或许可以契合我的桌游的目标：那就是给游玩者一个答复，你到底是什么样的一个人

When I was running out of ideas, I thought a lot about the format of board games and the rules. My first thought was that the board game might be a test, and I made it quite clear that at the end of the game each player would leave a set of hand cards, and those cards would represent some of the attributes of the person. The idea came from a set of psychological tests we did in the middle of the semester. In my opinion, an accurate result can be obtained through some questions, which may fit the goal of my board game: that is, to give a reply to the player: What kind of person are you on earth

我觉得也许那些心理测试的过程会很像我的桌游，然后我就去网上找到了一个心理测试的网站，然后选择了personality test。我一共花了大概半小时把这样一个测试做完了。测试一共分为120道题，每道题就是对人的一个简单描述。然后你需要选择0-5分之间的一分。代表着这样的一个描述对你的合适程度。举几个例子：“我很好的保守一个秘密”或者“我很容易被激怒”。一共120个这样的问题，很明显的问题但是它会反复旁敲侧击各种角度的去问你。最终出来这样的一个报告。我觉得还是测试的很像我的，我好像也的确是这么一个人。

I thought maybe the psychological tests would be similar to my board game, so I went to google and found a psychological test website, chose the personality test. It took me about half an hour to finish such a test. The test is divided into 120 questions, each of which is a simple description of a person. Then you need to choose a score between 0 and 5. Represents how appropriate such a description is for you. “I’m good at keeping a secret” or “I’m easily provoked.”There are 120 of these questions, obvious questions but it’s going to ask you over and over again from different perspective. at last it came out a report. I think the test is very similar to mine, and I seem to be fitted with the test result

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但是结果就是我对这样子的一种测试方式完全不能接受了。我觉得如果我的桌游要是设计成这样子或者借鉴了这样的一个机制不是我想要的。这也是我完全否决了会产出一个很严谨的报告的可能性。也是我在思考我的设计迭代中的一个过程。

But it turns out that this is a way of testing that I don’t accept at all. I don’t think I’d want a board game designed like this or borrowed from a test mechanism. That’s why I totally reject the possibility of a serious report being produced. It is also a process in which I am thinking about my design iteration.

之后我就找到Chuck希望能给到一些心理学的学术建议，比如会不会有一系列的词可以形容一个人。我不认为我自己可以想的很全面很周到。所以我想应该寻求一些学术的帮助。然而Chuck则希望我可以自己去做一些尝试，他觉得他如果给我一些标准的话会很限制我。所以我就直接的跳到了创作的环节了。

And then I went to Chuck and asked him for some academic advice on psychology, like is there a list of words you can use to describe a person. I don’t think I can be very thorough considered. So I think I should seek some academic help. Chuck, on the other hand, wanted me to do something on my own. He thought he would limit me if he gave me some standards. So I jumped right into the creative process.

Progress:

我最开始想的是如果说我的桌游和其他的桌游最不一样的地方，就是每张牌都会需要和持有牌的那个人产生简单或者复杂的链接。

initial ideas, each card need to have strong or weak connections with yourself

这是我最开始的一些草稿，关于桌游最开始规则的设想。其实在一开始我也不知道应该做成什么样子，然后就从最简单的一些元素出发。

其实我从一开始就确定了我的每张牌都需要代表一个元素，一个可以套用或者描述自己的元素

这些都是一些我对牌可能是一些什么的尝试，有各种领域以及形容词。

然后我就开始尝试去写一些规则，自己先去随便设定一些参数，比如集齐几张牌能够获得游戏胜利。然后我就发现我越写越有感觉，这些规则在起初被创建的时候就已经和最终的规则差不多一样了。后来也只是更改了部分的内容。

简单来说，第一版规则的核型内容只有“链接”（玩家和牌的链接），以及“交换”（玩家和玩家交换手牌）两个规则。

第一版规则

然后我开始将牌做出来：

在做出了牌的第一版样本之后就在coaching时间上和其他同学测试了第一版的游戏。整个游戏流程还是比较符合我的预期，而在个别方面还是会有一点点偏差。

在这里还是要非常感谢Ellen的Coaching小组的。我和我的coache们一块玩了我的α版本桌游。我在完成第一轮测试之后写下的反思：

Since I finished my first draft of my board game, I test the game out on our coaching time. The process of game is quite good for my expectation, some of the parts need improvements

I really appreciate to my coaching mates and Ellen. We’ve played my α version of game, and after the test, I came out with hereinafter reflection:

GOOD:

整个游戏流程都很令人愉快，游玩起来也很有一个桌游的感觉。虽然说没有繁琐的规则，但是每当任何一个人完成了一次两分的配对抽牌时，或者完成了一次心满意足的交换，都会十分开心。这是我想从桌游层面带给游玩者的快乐。

其次深层次的言论也有不少。当游戏目标放在那里的时候，你也会有意愿去和你手上的牌去产生链接，去思考。这才是我最想看到的。当你玩完一局游戏，不只是收获到了游戏中的快乐，还有对自己更深层次的思考。这样的影响绝对不是一般桌游可以办到的。

DELTAS：

游戏的机制都在游戏的过程中得到了体现，也展示了部分的漏洞。有些机制甚至都没有人用过，显得设计的并不合理。首先是交换牌的环节的时候由“要”与“不要”两个选择中“要”再分为选择自己的一张牌与对方交换。略显复杂而且也不是很平衡。如果你真的想要对方的牌的话，是要付出一定的代价的。所以后来我就改成了：如果你想要对方的弃牌，那么必须将自己的一张手牌亮出在得分牌前。

然后就是游戏目标的价值观问题。我在游戏中设置的获胜条件为得到9分（或指定分数）的人率先获得游戏的胜利。但是游戏的另一个核心机制是玩家和牌的配对。当你将手牌置出的时候需要其他玩家来评判你的发言质量。一个比较特殊的情况如下：当一个玩家的分数即将达到获胜分数的时候（7~8分），其他玩家完全可以通过否决他的发言来阻止他获得胜利。这一点在第一次测试中有些许的体现。有游玩者就向我提建议说是否可以将玩家的得分隐藏，只有得分玩家自己知道自己是否接近胜利。

但是我想强调的一点是我设计这款桌游的时候，更加注重的还是纸牌和人，以及人和人的链接，桌游只是实现其目的的工具，并且在显得无聊的谈心环节增加一抹亮色。所以在游戏里急切获胜永远不是我想看到的。我希望每个玩家都可以真诚相待我的一厢情愿（算是吧）。这一点我写进我的游戏规则说明书里的。

直到今天为止（24,Oct）我已经完成了两次基础测试了。第一次是和一共4个人一起玩，而第二次则是人数翻了一倍：8个人。四个人的时候整个游戏就体现的十分轻快，每个人都要经常说话，但是相比8人局，自己思考的时间就会少很多。所以来到8个人的一局游戏，整个游戏节奏就会很慢。其实主要是很大程度上是我选择的这些游玩者的性格问题。大家都有很多深度的思考，互相也十分的信任，但是相对与第一次测试时的愉快节奏就不在一个层面上了。我想的是这样的一款桌游可以介绍给两种群体游玩：第一种就是互相不太了解的，一般这种情况下大家也不太能够信任对方，所以和牌的链接也会相对来说比较浅。所以这正是一次互相了解的场景，也是增加互相之间信任的机会。

而第二种情况就是大家都比较熟悉，也互相之间比较信任。这时候就是能够诉说一些较为真诚的连接的时候了。我还是希望可以通过桌游多多少少给大家带来一些更美好的氛围和思考的。

The game is fully functional right now, and I move on to the visual design section

The work of visual design is basically turn the freehand sketching into more formal, and electronic form that easy to print. The rework on the cards is the progress of simplify and using color to express more stout feelings.

For example the set of the geometric, I’ve simplified redundant lines and used a strong black figure to express the geometric figures, makes it more figurative and could give the feeling of the attribute that the figure contained.(e.g. the circle is saponaceous, or the triangle is spiky..)

Once I’ve been query by Chunyang (the instructor of our club), he advice me that I may cancel out the color in the figures, because I have the color cards in my game. That means if I’m using the color in other cards, the sense of feeling you can get from color cards will be recede, makes no contrast. I take the advice at first, but I notice that if their is no color in the other card, the sense of feeling would be recede in the other hand. For example, I could have use red for the card fire, but there is no color for it, then the sense of warm and burning won’t exist anymore

I’ve been thinking a lot during the design progress, Almost all the design works that you can see right now are decided by myself alone. Actually I didn’t do a lot researches and asking for help in time, so I spent most of the time to think about what kind like design piece I prefer to show to people, what kind like feeling and gain after they finished game. How could the form(board game) help my design to make people feel the information that I want to people to feel.

I would like to praise myself as I’ve done a good job on design a board game such like this. I combined the topic:” self awareness” suitable in to a design work. The come up reflections are telling me that my board game actually work at the time, it really help people to recognize and have a deeper view of them self, those achievements are what I want to see.

But even though I designed a really functioned board game, there still have a lot space that allowed me to do more improvements for a better version of design. As the contents of cards are all based on nothing but all I’ve figured out, it turned out all the design works are not fully reliable, I could do more research to design a more scientific work that might based on psychology knowledges, Philosophy concepts or those more systematically points.