Tête-à-Tête
Context: UX Design Course Project
Duration: Spring 2021
Role: UX and UI Designer
Tools: Figma
Tête-à-Tête is an art history based board game that allows people to engage with the people, stories, and themes behind the Rococo art period.
Objective:
There are two point systems: sin and reputation chips. Reputation chips serve as your life force and ultimately decide a winner. Sin chips on the other hand give you greater movement and freedom during gameplay, but penalize you and the end of the game. Winners are calculated by taking away a reputation chip for every sin chip you have at the end of the game.
The player with the most reputation chips at the end of the game wins (and gets to keep their head).
Gameplay:
Travel through the 7 sinful, possibly deadly, rooms in the palace of Versailles. As you go along, participate in activities like gambling or duels and pick up additional abilities. To spice up life at the palace, you'll also be drawing event cards every turn. You may get swept away in all the Rococo drama, but sometimes life is about accepting the cards you've been dealt.
The game ends when a player reaches all 7 sin rooms.
sin
reputation
Characters:
There are 12 character cards:
6 Artists
6 Aristocrats.
Each character has their own unique ability that aids them during gameplay.
Events:
There are 42 unique event cards each based on different art pieces of the Rococo era.
The Boards:
Each room is inspired by a room in the palace of Versailles and paired up with a sin that suits the room best.
The Game:
It’s France, during the Rococo period, and the taller the wigs get, the grander life seems, and the more money is spent. Living amongst the aristocracy, it’s all about gaining power within the social and political sphere, and, of course, having a little bit of fun here and there. Party till your heart’s content, kiss a pair of lips you may not legally be bound to, or defend your honor in the early hours of the morning. Life is all glitter and pastels, and you hope it never ends. Then again, all good things do.
Will it be “off with your head”? Or will you be able to have your cake and eat it too?
Game Values:
Game values guide the game design process and often define that player’s experience. Rococo has its own distinct set of values, and to truly reflect the spirit of this art period, I used these characteristics as my game values.
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It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.
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More on Playtesting:
This was the most essential piece of the puzzle. There is no way to truly know if my ideas were working without people playing the game.
I’d observe (sometimes play depending on number of players) and take notes. Following these sessions, I’d conduct one-on-one interviews with participants to pick their brains about their decisions in-game.
Design Process:
I essentially was going through this process about once a week. I tried to test my game with users as often as possible so about 1-2 times a week and then made revisions based on feedback and observations.
Ideation:
What are some mechanics that could be fun?
Prototyping:
Implement ideas in a way that is testable.
(usually with lots and lots of paper)
Playtesting:
Have people play it!
Are their experiences reflecting my game values?
Evaluate & Revise:
What's working? what isn't?
Make necessary changes.
Revise & Repeat.
Final Design:
The design elements that were implemented were kept relatively simple so they wouldn't clash or overpower with the art used in the character and event cards as the art is intended to be the most visually interesting part of the game.
The color palette was created using a color selector and a few different art pieces to create something that would reflect Rococo and would match the art.I used clean and modern typefaces to match the simplified, abstract art of the boards.
Thank you for Reading!
Print and Play
Weekly Project Blog
Behind the Game:
Problem: There are limited opportunities to engage with art history outside of gallery/museum experiences and academic settings.
Solution:A board game!