The Shape Shifter is a group game that can be played anytime and provides hours of fun for young adults. This game is easy to learn and play. It is never boring because it allows you to be creative and imaginative. This game can be played for a long time or adjusted to fit a short period of time.
The Shape Shifter is a game where you try to make your team guess the word (on the card) by constructing a picture of the word using the shape tiles. You must draw from a stack of cards to get the secret word that you are trying to make your teammates guess. For example if you get the word “elephant” on the card, you must try to construct a picture of an elephant in order for you teammates to guess. The player who is constructing the picture at the time is called the “Shape Shifter”. They are not allowed to talk or give any verbal clues of the word that they are trying to make you guess. The picture that is being constructed is the only thing that can be used to try and make your teammates guess. In this game there is a time limit for each round: you’ve got 1 minute to try and make your team guess as many words as possible.
This game is fun because it allows all the players (both the guesser and 
the shape shifter) to be creative and imaginative together as a group. It challenges you in creativity and imagination because there are various possibilities of combinations and pictures that can be made and seen with the shape tiles. This game employs ockham’s razor both in the concept and the instructions in the game so it is easily understood and played. This game is also easily understood because it is similar to other guessing games. This game has a functional mimicry to games like pictionary, taboo, charades, and cranium through its guessing concept; but its difference is that its main focus of the game is guessing from using the pictures made from the shape tiles. This game is also fun for the targeted audience because it fits with the hierarchy of needs and satisfies functionality – through the simplicity of the concept of making pictures with shape tiles, reliability – through its various combinations of designs that are possible with the shape tiles, usability – through its forgivingness on the designs of the pictures that are constructed because they can easily be changed, proficiency – through the players learning and becoming more comfortable with combining and creating design and pictures, and creativity – because it allows the players to be creative through the whole game.
In a way this game uses storytelling by creating imagery and understanding through the interaction of creating the picture with the shape tiles between the shape shifter (the storyteller) and the teammates (audience). In this game iconic representation and the law of pragnanz is very much part of this games strategy. Iconic representation helps the players easily identify, recall and recognize the object of the word that they are trying to guess. While the law of pragnanz helps players interpret the complex and ambiguous designs with the shape tiles as simple and complete, so they can easily identify the object of the word.
The design process for this game started in the research and in class activity on what made a toy fun and what was considered fun for our targeted age group. Then the next step was creating 6 different concepts of a toy or a game. My concepts were influenced on the research and also some of the toys and games that I have played or the experiences from them. I recognized that group situations, creativity or creativity through customization influenced and were part of what was considered fun for our age group/ targeted audience (ocad students). The next part of the design process was to make a prototype of the game for user testing. From the user testing, the results for the game were good because the game was challenging and allowed creativity, but I noticed some improvements I could make to my game to have a more positive user experience in the instructions. For the instructions for the prototype of the game the instructions were clear but a little too long and boring. To improve the instructions I will improve the aesthetics of the instructions so it will be more attractive to read (to improve the aesthetic-usability effect). I will also add some iconic representation on the instructions and maybe highlight some of the chucking that I did with the information and instructions, so it will be easier to understand and more attractive to read.
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