Astronomyths Team Members: Sarah Parker, Keir Roopnarine and

Title: Astronomyths
Team Members: Sarah Parker, Keir Roopnarine and Rebecca Somach
1. Version Number:
Version 1.3
2. Vision Statement:
2.1 Logline
Astronomyths is an educational game that focuses on teaching students in grades
five through eight Greek mythology through an intrinsic learning model.
2.2 Gameplay Synopsis
Astronomyths is a board game that is designed to introduce Greek mythology
through storytelling and exploration. The game tries to connect the legends of the Greeks
with an everyday element that most people are familiar with. In this iteration, we have
used the constellations related to Greek mythology.
The game has several unique features that separate it from other games in its
category. Unlike other board games that are related to Greek Mythology, this game is
heavily content driven. Many other Mythology board games borrow the names of the
characters or items but do not necessarily relate them to the stories they came from.
Astronomyths focuses on educating the player on the myths themselves.
Many other games also focus on fighting styles or conquest. Our game instead
focuses on discovery as the main method of engagement while the player takes on the
role of a hero, similar to the myths that they learn about through gameplay. The main
game mechanic is exploration, which we employ to generate the excitement of discovery.
The game centers around collecting “artifacts,” which are elements of a myth, and linking
them to form a full narrative. Since the game focuses so heavily on an accurate
representation of the world of Ancient Greece, Astronomyths’ game design attempted to
create a world that is as similar as possible to the world of the myths.
The map of the board is geographically accurate. To reflect the importance of
ports, travel and the ocean in ancient Greece, Astronomyths incorporates ocean travel. A
mechanic was created to simulate the risks that any explorer might encounter when they
explore the ocean.
In addition to the world of the myths of ancient Greece, Astronomyths ties the
players back to the modern day with the inclusion of the sky scoring system. This system
is also a way for players to recognize how the people and stories of the past are still
influencing how we view the world today. Astronomyths uses these different aspects of
mythology and astronomy as intrinsic educational elements to bring the world of Greek
myths to a younger generation.
3. Needs Assessment:
3.1 Context
Astronomyths was designed to complement an English Literature class or to be
used in conjunction with an after school literacy program.
3.2 Target Audience
Astronomyths’ audience is ten to thirteen years old (Grades 5 to 8).
In determining our target audience, we connected Astronomyths with the desired
learning outcomes for the Common Core State Standards, starting at grade five. For
example, one of the standards under “Crafting and Structure” details that a grade six
student can be expected to know how to “analyze how a particular sentence, chapter,
scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development
of the theme, setting, or plot.” (English Language Arts Standards, 2015). In the
development of Astronomyths’ narrative-building gameplay, we aimed to meet this
standard.
Another such example is the Common Core Standard for writing at grade six.
This standard states that grade six students should “write narratives to develop real or
imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details,
and well-structured event sequences.” We believe that building the narrative of our Greek
heroes helps students at this age begin to think of and develop their own narratives, which
will carry into their narrative writing for academic purposes.
This relationship between the learning goals of the target learner audience and the
Common Core State Standards, and thus the relationship between the learning goals and
our game, will be explained in more detail in section 3.3.
3.3 Learning Goals
Astronomyths is designed as a cooperative game, as opposed to competitive or
collaborative. That is, players may form alliances or act in ways that neither hinder nor
help other members of the group (Peppler et al., 2013). While we appreciate the benefits
of a fully collaborative game, we determined that the rules as written could be easily
adapted to “house rules” that allowed for teams and other types of collaboration. This
provides flexibility for the use of the game in informal and formal settings, based on the
needs of the educator and the students.
The learning goals for Astronomyths are based on the Common Core State
Standards of reading, writing and literacy for grades five through eight. We focus on
creativity and narration, rather than argumentative skills and organization.
In addition to the previously stated standards of grade five literacies in section
3.2, grade six goals for students include being able to “engage and orient the reader by
establishing a context and introducing a narrator and/or characters”, as well as “organize
an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically,” (English Language Arts
Standards, 2015).
Grades seven through nine continue to build on these standards, a majority
requiring students to “draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support
analysis, reflection, and research” (English Language Arts Standards, 2015).
In many ways, Astronomyths aims to achieve this through an instructionist
approach (Kafai, 2006). Some of the elements of the game that can be identified as
utilizing instructionist techniques are the dependence on content and graphical
representation. Specifically, we are teaching the actual stories of classic Greek
Mythology (content) and we employ symbols such as temples to guide gameplay
(graphical representations).
However, Astronomyths is meant to be a component of a constructivist teaching
style. In constructivism, students are able to create their own material and construct their
own relationships (Kafai, 2006). While creating new material and relationships is not a
mechanic within the board game itself, these are important components of constructing
one’s own written narrative. We believe that building the narrative of each Greek myth
provides a scaffold for the creation of a student’s own story. In this perspective, each
artifact in Astronomyths is an item that “fits into the overall structure of a text and
contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot,” (English Language
Standards, 2015).
To accomplish the goal of “returning the stars to the sky,” players must first
collect artifacts. They must then examine these artifacts and others to determine which
belong to the same story, and how they fit together to form a complete narrative. Once
the complete story is collected, a student must then identify the appropriate temple to
receive the constellation associated with the narrative (see section 5.0), receiving either
ten or fifteen points, depending on the story they have completed.
The game design employs Owston et al’s factors of engagement and motivation
(2009). Players experience a narrative context through mythical stories, the game
incorporates fantasy elements such as the Olympian Gods and mythical “artifacts” and
players must make choices such as direction of travel, whether to keep, discard or trade
artifacts and so on. A key factor that is potentially missing is the personalization of game
activities. However, when coupled with informal learning or classroom activities, writing
a personal narrative as part of the learning activity provides this last element.
In summary, the learning is intrinsic as the content is an integral part of the game,
and because the building of a narrative occurs through developing context and situating
each artifact within the plot. Piecing together narratives serves as scaffolding for
developing original narratives, evolving the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky,
1967).
3.4. Problem Statement
The main problem that Astronomyths seeks to address is the lack of student
engagement in reading and writing. According to Owston et al. (2009), using games in
the classroom has been associated with literacy development by providing relevant and
interesting material. It has also been noted that activities such as board game play
develops positive attitudes toward literacy and creates “avid readers,” (Owston et al.,
2009, p. 979). Astronomyths employs this evidence by providing an engaging and
literature-rich game that can be used in the classroom.
Though other games exist that can be used both formally and informally, most are
1) not created with specific learning goals in mind, but are meant as general
entertainment, such as Stargo (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24391/stargo) or
Top Trumps - Greek Mythology (http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00GTM5U12) 2)
designed for a younger audience and 3) focus on vocabulary, not narrative development
or storytelling (see section 3.5). Astronomyths was designed specifically to be
incorporated into current curriculum and to assist educators and students in meeting
Common Core State Standards. For more on the shortcomings of current literacy games,
please see section 3.5.
Though a large, immersive environment may be more conducive to meeting these
goals, a board game provides a self contained environment, for more easily controlled
interactions (Peppler et al., 2013). This allows educators more control over small group
interactions and an affordance of the board game is that rules can be changed to suit the
needs of the class or activity (Peppler et al, 2013).
Because Astronomyths is a game that employs multiple narratives, it can be used
in conjunction with theatrical role playing and similar exercises to create immersive
environments. This is meant to incorporate the concepts of pretend play and fantasy play,
though not reality role play (Lillard et al, 2013; Zuckerman, 2006). For example, if an
educator would like to extend the game environment, Astronomyths can also paired with
creative pursuits such as creating and performing short dramatic skits that illustrate the
Greek myths.
3.5 Other Literacy Games
In a Google Search for “literacy games” and “literacy board games,” the results
are overwhelming, as is the search for games that use Greek mythology or constellations.
Some top selling games in the literacy category are Bananagrams, Scrabble,
Scattergories and Story Cubes.
Bananagrams (http://www.bananagrams.com/games/bananagrams) is a game that
focuses on spelling or vocabulary. The game is meant for ages seven years and over and
is played by using individual letter tiles to create your own crossword, with as many
words
as
possible.
In
this
way
it
is
similar
to
Scrabble,
(http://www.hasbro.com/scrabble/en_US/shop/details.cfm?R=FA04DD51-5056-9047F5CD-53F87A967AC6:en_US), the difference being that Scrabble users take turns to
add words to the crossword, which is used by all players. Scrabble is also meant for
players aged eight and over.
Both of these games are excellent exercises for development of vocabulary and
spelling skills and can be incorporated into educational programs. However, they do not
reach any of the narrative or storytelling goals that have been set by the Common Core
State Standards.
Scattergories (http://amzn.com/B00000IWEP) is a word game which also
requires a practiced vocabulary. In this game, you are required to come up with a list of
words, each in a different category. The catch is that all words should begin with the
same letter. This exercise does not seek to teach vocabulary directly, but having an
advanced vocabulary is beneficial to winning.
The last game on our list is Story Cubes (https://www.storycubes.com/), which is
the most similar to Astronomyths. This game uses dice with different images. After
rolling nine of these dice, you must build a story based on the images produced. Unlike
Astronomyths, Story Cubes is a collaborative game, not a cooperative one. However, the
game does not include the exploration or discovery elements of Astronomyths.
The above games are already marketed nationally in the United States or globally,
and so their scalability is not in question. However, we have determined that
Astronomyths is equally scalable and can also meet a competitive price point if produced
on a large scale. Astronomyths also related more directly to Common Core State
Standards than any of the above, having been specifically with these standards in mind.
4. Platform & System:
4.1 Platform
Astronomyths is a board game, which employs a dynamic board; that is, some
parts of the board change over the course of the game. We chose this method as we
thought it would be a more affordable and accessible option for schools and informal
programs that lacked the infrastructure to properly utilize computers or digital games.
Game design for Version 1.3 was also limited by the skill level of the designers. It is the
hope of the designers that future versions can be more complex or detailed and may even
include a digital component for expansion packs.
5. Gameplay:
5.1 Overview
Astronomyths’ core gameplay revolves around exploration, collection, choice and
negotiation. The player has agency in deciding the direction of exploration as well as the
items they collect or discard. The Greek mythology and astronomy content are used to
create a narrative and a scoring system that make the game engaging and facilitate the
achievement of Common Core State Standards.
Astronomyths is focused on the narratives of Greek myths. These myths unfold in
several ways. One is the use of ‘artifacts.’ Each artifact is an item that played a main or
important role in the myth. These artifacts have descriptions that together to create a full
story. Collecting artifacts that belong to the same myth is a key goal of the game. Each
artifact is also connected to a Greek god, completing another link to the Astronomyths’
storyline as well forming associations between mythical adventures and the gods
involved.
Artifacts are also connected to the constellations, which are the point counters
used during play. A player has three ways to interact with each myth: through the
artifacts themselves, through the temples and gods associated with them and through the
constellations connected to them.
The board is designed as a map of Ancient Greece, so that players must travel to
simulate the adventure and exploration that comes with the themes of many Greek myths.
A board was chosen to encourage exploration as opposed to a card game or indistinct
playing field, to give the player a sense of direction and goals.
The map also serves to educate the players on Greek geography, to have them
become more familiar with the landscape and locations that the myths take place in. It
also features seas, which provides both an accurate representation of traveling Greece and
creates an element of risk and reward for travel.
Astronomyths was also designed to have players cooperatively interact with one
another, through a trading mechanic that allows for discussion of artifacts and associated
mythological narratives. This not only adds an element of player interaction but it
changes how players want to think about the way that they are moving around the board
and interact with the game environment.
5.2 Gameplay Description
Astronomyths begins with players selecting their own heroes and starting at
Mount Olympus. The player then rolls their dice to move. Movement was designed to
have players continually moving forward, so the players have a choice of path but they
cannot double back on the same turn.
If a player lands on a space with an artifact, they can choose to pick it up; in this
case, the artifact is replaced by another, randomly chosen artifact. When a player picks up
an artifact, they must read the description of the artifact to the other players. This
emphasizes the importance of the artifact in the grand scheme of the myths that they are
trying to collect. It also encourages interaction and ensures that players are piecing
together each artifact’s description to form a story.
If a player is in the ocean when they start their turn, they must make one of two
choices: discard an artifact or roll more than a 2. After discarding an artifact, the player
can roll the dice and move forward. If they choose to roll instead and receive greater than
a 2, they can roll a second time and move forward. However, if they roll a 2 or less, they
may not move on that turn. This is meant to simulate the time and danger inherent in
traveling the seas.
To provide motivation for making discard and collection decision, the player has
a carry limit of five artifacts.
If a player has all the artifacts necessary for a constellation, they must go to the
correct temple on their turn and trade in the artifacts for points on the star map. The
player then places the star markers on the sky, indicating that they have completed that
constellation. The play continues until players have over 30 star points. They must then
race back to Mount Olympus to win the game.
5.3 Scoring/ Winning Conditions
The goal of the game is to have players put missing constellations back into the
sky. To simulate this in the board game, there is a map of these constellations. This map
is used solely to count score. Each constellation on the map is filled in my individual
markers that represent stars, once the artifacts have been given to the correct god.
All constellations are worth the same amount of points except for two which
require more artifacts to trade in. The sky is an accurate representation of the
constellations and serves to reinforce the mythology present in the modern day.
The winning condition of Astronomyths is to have players trade in several myths
and reach a minimum point threshold. Once they have done so, they must return to
Mount Olympus to win the game.
The player can accomplish this minimum point threshold in several ways. Since
some of the artifacts have larger point values, the player must take into account this as a
strategy while playing. The player can choose to gather many smaller myths at once or
wait to gather larger ones. This gives the player more agency as they interact with the
board through exploration and with other players through trading.
5.4 Alternate Rules
Astronomyths is designed so that an educator can alter the rules of play to suit the
class. This includes the educator acting as a Greek god him/herself or making artifact
trading a secretive instead of an open process. As players gain more experience, rules can
be changed to make it harder to score, such as requiring all artifacts of a myth for the
constellation reward, instead of a majority or having a higher score requirement.
6. Story:
6.1 Synopsis
Displeased at your hubris and your lack of knowledge, the Olympian Gods have
darkened the night skies! The stars, symbols of the stories of old, have disappeared
leaving a blank canvas… and despair! Be the new heroes of Greece and follow in the
footsteps of those who came before you. To restore the stars you must present the Gods
with evidence you have learned their stories and their ways.
6.2 Backstory, narrative devices and subplots
Astronomyths is a game about stories. The “story” of Astronomyths itself (see
6.1) is little more than a premise to engage students in the hunt for “artifacts” which are
then used to create narratives as the game unfolds. In this way, it is a game of sub-plots.
Each story is revealed through the discovery of an artifact and the collecting and trading
of these artifacts.
Many of the Greek Myths are considered obscure or irrelevant to present day
living. In an attempt to connect the content of the game (the myths) with a relevant and
common aspect of modern life, we chose to use constellations as our starting point; thus
“the Gods have darkened the skies.” This gives us the opportunity to tell the story behind
several well known constellations.
The specific myths that are used in Astronomyths have been given the following
titles (associated constellations are underlined):
1. The Romance of Perseus and Andromeda
2. Cassiopeia’s Hubris
3. Birth of Pegasus (Death of Medusa)
4. Lernean Hydra
5. Nemean Lion (Leo)
6. The Golden Apples of Hesperides (Draco)
7. The Golden Fleece (Carina and Columba)
8. Apollo’s Cup (Crater)
9. Orion, the Hunter
10. Escape by Sea (Pisces)
11. Charioteer (Auriga)
12. The Wedding and the Crown (Corona Borealis)
As each artifact is discovered, a new part of one the above stories is told, and players
must connect this story element with others as they are revealed during exploration of the
board.
7. Gameworld:
Astronomyths has not created its own world, rather, it has borrowed an old one.
We use a map of Ancient Greece and include several major cities from the mythologies
and from historical Greek tales such as Athens, Sparta, Troy, Thebes, Argos. We have
also included the major seas that lie between the islands and mainland of Greece: Aegan
Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Sea of Crete.
The Temples of the Gods are placed in historically accurate places, that is, places
that we are aware of temples to them existing. The exception to this is the temple of
Aphrodite, which was moved to do board design considerations.
Travel across the map is also fairly accurate as most of it occurs across the seas,
which is a common mode of transport for Greece at this time.
The game does not employ seasons or day/night, only turns. We do acknowledge
the difficulty of travel by sea with a handicap for those who begin a turn at sea. Please
refer to documentation and section 5 for more details.
References
English Language Arts Standards
http://www.corestandards.org/
(n.d.).
Retrieved
May
5,
2015,
from
Kafai, Y. B. (2006). Playing and making games for learning: Instructionist and
constructionist perspectives for game studies. Games and Culture, 1(2), 36-40.
Lillard, A. S., Lerner, M. D., Hopkins, E. J., Dore, R. A., Smith, E. D., & Palmquist, C.
M. (2013). The impact of pretend play on children's development: A review of the
evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 1–34.
Owston, R., Wideman, H., Ronda, N. S., & Brown, C. (2009). Computer game
development as a literacy activity. Computers & Education, 53(3), 977-989.
Peppler, K., Danish, J. A., & Phelps, D. (2013). Collaborative Gaming Teaching Children
About Complex Systems and Collective Behavior. Simulation & Gaming, 44(5),
683-705.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1967). Play and its role in the mental development of the child. Journal
of Russian and East European Psychology, 5(3), 6-18.
Zuckerman, O. (2006). Historical overview and classification of traditional and digital
learning objects. Unpublished paper. Cambridge, MA: MIT Media Laboratory.
Documentation
Rubber Chicken Games
Rubber Chicken (RC) Games is the official team name. There are rumors that the
title came from the delirious thoughts of the team members coupled with bouts of sugar
consumption. The world may never know.
Brainstorming and Ideation
RC Games initially created the concept behind Astronomyths through a
discussion about our respective passions in both gaming and education. Members of the
group had extensive knowledge of Greek mythology as well as knowledge of game
mechanics from experience in playing and creating board games. Through initial
research, RC Games found the need for a game that taught both the concept of Greek
myths and constellations in a fun and engaging way.
Board Game vs. Videogame
RC Games chose to construct a board game for several reasons. First, the team
members had extensive experience playing a variety of board games. Second, handmaking a game utilized the team’s strengths of design, creativity, branding, and
storytelling.
Aside from the team having little programming experience, the traditional board
game format also lent itself well to the themes of Greek mythology and constellations.
The old-school feel of the format felt more true-to-form to literature-based conversations
and historic experiences.
The Board
The board went through many iterations. Since the myths within the game are
based in ancient Greek locations, the team chose to use a map of ancient Greece for the
playing space. At first, there were issues with the size of the board and the playability of
the landmasses and ocean spaces.
Initial versions of the map were developed keeping the chit spacings in mind. The
above picture shows a prototype board, upon which temple locations, spaces, and oceans
were being mapped out. The team originally chose a six-space distance between all
temples and landmarks before realizing that this distance between points of interest
would increase the time of gameplay.
A closer look at the geographic locations of the myths used in-game highlighted
that only major locations of the map were used. The team was able to disregard myths
that did not have associated constellations, and so the map was able to shrink
significantly. Focusing the play area was helpful in terms of guiding space placement and
minimizing confusing gameplay.
After spacing was considered, a new 1:1 ratio draft of the map was created to
figure out the dimensions needed for the physical board.
A draft of the map was created in Adobe Illustrator that featured just the temples.
Above each temple, the symbol of each god was placed. After creating this map, the team
soon realized that color-coding each of the temples would facilitate game play and make
it easier to read the board state “at a glance.” The team then playtested with this map to
determine the appropriate and realistic spacing between each of the temples.
Above is the rough version of the map used to playtest. Each of the dots is
considered a space. Edits to the map, including the relocation of temples and
incorporation of ocean spaces on the map, were made mid-playtest. The incorporation of
Mt. Olympus as the starting area was decided after using Athens failed due to physical
token spacing issues.
Playtesting was useful to determine situations that required changes to the map,
such as players getting stuck. Some players found themselves on land masses with little
reward, while others became stuck on ocean spaces for extended periods of time. Other
times, players would loop around and around pog spaces, breaking the game by gathering
way more awards than other players. Initially, to solve this problem, RC Games discussed
creating directional spaces. However, this created more confusion when determining
what to do with forks in certain paths that could be multi-directional. The agreed upon
solution was to create several dead ends and strategically join paths in ways that would
encourage varied traversal paths and eliminate the game-breaking loops.
Above is the finalized version of the map. Here, color-coding and finalized board
spacing are demonstrated. Muted colors and map-like elements including color burns,
shadows, and symbols were used to create the appearance of an ancient map. A logo was
placed in the corner for branding and identification.
The team used a blank 18’’x18’’ 4-fold board and applied the paper map to the
top. The assembly of the physical board used Scotch Super 77 glue to attach the board
image, printed in halves on 11x16 paper, to the folding board.
Scoring Mat
Adding one more element of intrinsic learning to our educational game, the
scoring system is based in the constellations that the player is “restoring to the sky.” We
chose to use a magnet sheet and small magnets so that players could build the
constellations that they restored to keep score. The team discussed later versions of this
scoring system potentially including some sort of color-coding.
Constellation Magnets
Tiny magnets were used to mark the position of stars on the scoring chart in a
easy-to-understand manner.
Game Bits
Dice
Minimalist aluminum dice were used to match the aesthetic of the silver
constellation scoring mat.
Player Tokens
Pre-existing 3D models for the Greek busts were found online at
http://www.thingiverse.com Outside 3D printed resources were utilized for printing
player pieces. Statues were printed using a MakerBot Replicator 2 and MakerBot
Replicator 2X using PLA and ABS at a 0.1mm resolution. The models were scaled to be
50 mm tall for uniformity.
Artifacts
Wooden pogs, commonly referred to as chits, were chosen to represent the
artifacts for their physical appeal and collectability. Initially, the board was to feature
chits embedded within the physical board, but after playtesting and discussion, the
difficulty of picking up and replacing pogs in this manner was noted, and the team
decided to simply place pogs on the designated pog-spaces of the board.
In earlier iterations of the board, pogs were placed face-down, with the blank side
facing up, so that the location of artifacts was unknown. This was done to encourage
players to explore, as well as to mimic real-life wandering and chance events, as if the
characters randomly stumbled across artifacts on their travels. After playtesting, however,
the team agreed that placing pogs face-up actually created more engaging game play and
added to player’s engagement by giving agency, direction, and strategy to each turn.
When placed face-down, players were indeed exploring, but it was mainly of the
“stumbling in the dark” variety. This change in turn introduced a new element to
gameplay, namely the trading aspect of the game.
The edges of the pogs are color-coded to correspond to the various temples found
on the board. Since some elements of Greek myths have dual purposes and can be found
in multiple storylines, these multi-faceted artifacts are represented with dual-color bands.
For example, in the image above, Andromeda displays two colors on its border,
indicating that it can be redeemed as part of Apollo or Poseidon’s quests.
The pogs were made by affixing pre-cut 1.5’’ Avery printable circle labels to
1.5’’ wooden circles with beveled edges.
In order to fit more information on the board, keep the design visually clear, and
retain the geography and places of interests of the map of ancient Greece, pog spaces
were designated using circular text, for both land and sea areas.
Game Play
Initially, we wanted to explore the idea of making a card-driven game. However,
we chose to avoid this design space in order to reduce the game’s complexity in terms of
both its creation and its rules. We also wished to create an easier-entry game that was
accessible to a wider range of potential students and players. In terms of board design, we
decided to start all of the players at a single space for balance. By giving every player a
common starting point, we overcame having to determine if certain starting positions
were more or less advantageous. Additionally, this gave the players greater choice of how
to path through the game, since they had the option to choose from easier or harder
quests. Finally, we originally considered having a certain number of “action points” per
turn that players could spend on various actions; however, for the sake of keeping the
game understandable for a wider range of students and players, we ultimately removed
this system. Overall, by reducing the complexity of the game and simplifying the
components, we hoped to create a relatively easy-to-learn game where players could
focus more on learning the myths than learning how to play.