Experimental Game Design

bernardes.j

Artwork #4: Express/Experience – Final Presntation

by | Dec 9, 2025 | ,

The idea of my pitch would be that 6 or more players will draw two cards in clockwise order containing two unique/unrelated statements. Players must try to combine those statements into 1 sentence and communicate that to their teammate who sits directly across from them. Once everyone is ready, all the players will yell their statement all together and each group must try to figure out what their partner said. If they can interpret part of the sentence that was told to them they get 1 point, if they figure out the entire message they get 2 points. However, if they mention something that another player said as part of their guess, then that group gains a point (or two if they interpreted their message). Each player may get 15 seconds to decipher what was said and then must write down their guess on paper. Then players will go around sharing their answers to see who was able to decipher correctly. The piece was inspired by my previous project of only speaking Portuguese for a set amount of time and not being able to use any translation tools (which was inspired by the Uncle Roy All Around You experiment) thus being a Appropriated version of my previous project where I changed the idea of being players have to communicate to their partner with heavy distractions and ensuring that your partner picks up on your messaging and not another teams message.
The intervention was conducted in the following scenario:

  •  Dinner Party (Thanksgiving)
  • Group of 6 people
  • Entire classroom
  • 4 people (with loud music playing from everyone’s phone)

After conducting playtests, I found that players really liked the idea of trying to convey a message towards their teammates with a while other teams are doing the same thing. Plus the chaos of having to also state your message and interpret at the same time adds to the chaos of being able to ensure you convey the message properly. I ended up finding that it works for at least 6 players but is better when done in big groups or at parties. Overall, I would say this is my most successful game yet!

Below are some images of the cards that were made and a playtest conducted with the entire class (including the grandmaster):

Experimental Game Design Sentences for Game

Artwork #3: Intervention – Final Presentation

by | Nov 6, 2025 | ,

The idea of my pitch would be that a player would have to go about their day as normal but must do so speaking another language outside of their traditional language for 6 hours. If the player does not know other languages they can make up a language of their own to try and convey a message to other people. This player cannot try to write in that language either, they must also right in the language that they chose to speak in for the allotted time. Again if it is gibberish, then they can draw out what they are trying to say, but without using words from their traditional language. This idea was inspired by one of the intervention games demonstrated in class “Uncle Roy All Around You” in which one person is guiding another somewhere in the real world to find Uncle Roy, of course with the twist of instead of having to find someone you would have to speak a different language thus disrupting daily life for the player and those who interact with the player. It is also based on other popular games such as Charades where players use body language and gestures to describe something as well as codenames as the player is speaking in a different language trying to communicate with people they typically interact with.
The intervention was conducted within the following scenarios:

  • Playing games with friends (online)
  • At a party with friends
  • During class (this class)
  • Club meeting with peers
  • When hanging out with friends (in-person)
  • On the train with conductor
  • With parents (non-Portuguese situation)

At the end of the intervention, some people were a bit annoyed not being able to communicate with someone that they knew spoke the language and felt it to be a nuisance to communicate with me. However, others liked the challenge and used it as an opportunity to better know another language and understand how to say different words in that language and practice themselves. For other people that may not know me as well, those who didn’t understand just awkwardly agreed to what I was saying while those who did know the language were shocked and glad.

Below is a video of me conducting my intervention with players with different reactions:
Language Intervention 1
Language Intervention 2
Language Intervention 3

 

Artwork #2: Appropriation – Rock, Paper, Scissors – Final Presentation

by | Oct 22, 2025 | , ,

The idea of my game would be that players would go about playing rock paper scissors, however there are many alterations to the original game itself. For the game, each person would bring 5-7 different items that they will hide against their opponent and have to argue is better than their opponents item that they selected. Afterwards an audience/judge will vote to determine who had the better argument. Another rule for the game is that the players are not able to bring any items/objects to represent rock, paper, or scissors, but you must start the round similar to rock paper scissors by saying the phrase to start the game. This game was inspired by the idea of Ping Pong Table rackets idea of altering the game experience such that the original concept is not their, but the function/mechanics of the game remain. Below are images conducted during playtesting to highlight the game and the components of it, as well as pdf of my presentation for my final project.

Playtest images:

Artwork #2 – Appropriation_ Final- Joel Bernardes

Artwork #1: Score – Final Presentation

by | Sep 23, 2025 | ,

For my presentation, I present the idea called “Chaotic Catch” which is a simple game of toss with an interesting catch between 3 players. First their are two players that toss the ball between each other with one player on the side that spectates the round. Once the two players tossing the ball reach a rally of 10 passes, the third player may choose to interrupt the rally or wait until 50 passes before having to switch with the two players throwing the ball between each other. They can also switch if the two players make at least 10 passes and end up dropping the ball afterwards. When the bench player decides to switch the two passing players play rock papers scissors to see which player will be in debt to the other, with the loser owing the winner the money and having to swap out. If two players have an existing bet, they add the total of the current rally with that of the bet and the loser of the duel ends up owing the other player the total pot (ex: if Player A owes Player B $2 and they do another toss for about $1 and Player A beats Player B, then Player B owes $3 to Player A). This continues until all players decide that they are done playing and decide to pay out the winners according to the bets that were made. My score was inspired by Yoko-Ono’s demonstration of the public altering her outfit/appearance and then shifted to reflect popular online trends from YouTube channels such as Mr.Beast’s challenges to compete for money as well as AreYouKiddingTV’s social experiment of getting a crowd together to play in their game.