Project 2 - Proposal - Iliana Shabatova

What do young adults at OCAD find fun?

LEGO….NO!

Barbies…..no!

A fluffy toy…depends on the occasion, but not really.

Books…may be…

Recipes…may be.

Drawing… yes.

Cocktales…YES!

Partying with friends….OH YEAH!

Therefore, the solution must be a game to entertain a group of people and make their time more enjoyable by following simple cocktail recipes! Getting drunk will not be as fun, if there was nothing to spice the game up, such as the fun caricature skin drawing, questions regarding the opposite sex and other “inappropriate”, but educative questions.

Players must be over 19 years old and comfortable with answering any personal questions. The instructions are as follows:

1. Every player must have a shoot of their choice before starting the game.
2. Each player is assigned a token.
3. The start of the game is at either question card pile.
4. To enter the game everyone must answer a question correctly, read by a different player to them.
5. From then on rolling the dice each player moves accordingly.
6. Falling on a “STALKER” card means that it must be picked up and the instructions must be followed. After completing the instructions, the player gets to choose any spot from the inner square to go to.
7. Falling on a “?” card means that it must be picked up by another player, read out loud and answered the player which landed on it. If answered wrongly, one must loose a turn.
8. When landed on any of the black arrows, you transfer to the level towards it points to, roll one your turn and land on whichever cocktail. The player then must return back to the inner square, once he/she had made the drink for themselves.
9. If a mission is failed, then the player cannot return to the outer square involving alcohol for 5 consecutive turns.
10. If a total of 3 missions are failed by a player, they loose.
11. Vomiting is a clear loss.
12. The winner is the one who lasted the game.

The Slamin’ Shake is a board game with 24 recipes of drinks in four categories: martinis, premium drinks, shooters and regular mix, labeled on the outer square. A professional bartender has been consulted regarding mixes and minimum requirements for the base and sweet liquors, juices and garnish to play the game. Once in the outer square, players throw the dice one time, and then they return back to the inner square, where they are surprised with questions, dares and tests. Instructions (on the inner square) checking the players’ degree of drunkenness include the reading of a joke written in very small text with both eyes open; walking in a straight line from one wall of the room to the other; hopping on one leg from one wall to the other; building a pyramid structure out of shot glasses in 30 seconds; spinning 10 times and walking 10 steps without falling; singing a song that contains certain words in it; etc. The spiciest parts of the inner square is when blindfolded while your personal caricature is drawn on your skin, answering a “?” card or a “SALKER” card. The Slamin’ Shake improves the player’s cocktail knowledge, sex education, alcohol resistance as well as helps all players to get to know juicy facts about one another.

After the testing done for this game, there were a few concerns regarding the low signal-to-noise ratio. The separation between the inner and outer squares with only a single silver line has not been enough; the uniform contentedness can be improved by leaving a greater space between the two square paths. In terms of font legibility and going by the Law of Pragnanz, I think the game is successful, as the Times New Roman font was been used throughout and the only changes in font are for each drink’s title, so as to make the game more interesting and intrigue the players. Further helping legibility, each drink recipe goes by the legend described on the instruction sheet using highlighting techniques to bring attention and differentiate between the lines:
line 1 (in a unique font - cocktail name)
line 2 (in brackets – glass type)
line 3 (method of preparation)
line 4,5,6 ( underlined – ingredients)
line 6 (italic – garnish)

Regarding the starting points confusion commented on, perhaps a “start” sign and an arrow pointing towards a clockwise direction over each question pile would help the players, who are in a rush to start and have no time to read the instrunctions.

This game also involves orientation sensitivity effect, since all elements on each square path are equally aligned and spaced. The oblique effect is there due to the use of line orientation for each square path. The pop-out effect is emphasized by the solid black arrows at each corner, where line switches between outer and inner square paths take place.

Having the title in the middle diagonally, relating to all sides and the alignment between the two square paths, incorporates a good sense of the common fate principle of design.

The last concern is that the questions and dares of this game are “awkward” and “embarrassing”, considered inappropriate by one player and “fun” by another. The problem with the testing is that such questions would be taken differently after having a drink or two. Since the testing was done by sober players in class, when tested a second time with alcohol, such negative feedback was not received.