The New Game of Life
The New Game of Life creates the grounds for a bidirectional conversation. It is a board game where all players win or lose based on actions taken on their community, in this case within the country of Colombia. The objective is for all players to go a minimum of twenty rounds and complete their tasks with their communities intact. If any player's community falls below five members, all players lose. With this game, the players learn about a new country in regards to environment and social-political issues. Because the players are likely not to be Colombian, they are truly engaged in adaptation as means of survival. This game is also an exercise in awareness. Colors differentiate players, cards, and topographical representations.
The Making
This project took one week to make — the amount of time given to us by our teachers — and was part two of three in a semester long project. In part one, everyone was asked to bring up an issue regarding the environment. Given my incline to talk about Latin America, I chose my country of origin as a place to highlight. Because "Mother nature is in love with Colombia", I could not resist using it as a vehicle of raising awareness within the context of my class. And with that came a set of 32 index card-like images of its abundant natural richness (animals, plants, etc), and the toll its socio-political snafu has on it. Out of 14 issues raised by my classmates, three were selected for further research and each student got to select which one they felt more connected to. At the end, one person chose to work with me on this subject. Her name is Hannah Volfson. In about one week, and after several sleepless nights, this project took another turn: to engage an audience (the requirement of part two).
Hannah and I met in "Tealux" to discuss ideas, and soon we began to work as a team. Here I told her about my opinion on games as being the most engaging forms of role-play, and in a way design. We both grew excited, and after a warm cup of tea, we concluded that a trip to Michael's had to be made.
