Final Write-Up: Transition
A zip file of the final game files can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13TN3TsVjPWMXsifRe-CncZKbqxa5dvi8/view?usp=sharing
The video tutorial can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aucEGPXB7xWplVijAIY59rg1FArf_3pu/view?usp=sharing
Transition is a game about being transgender. We set out to create a game with which, by playing, cisgender people could better come to understand the physical and particularly emotional experience of being transgender. We created Transition as our P1 assignment and chose to extend it for our P4 assignment. This process was significantly fraught with delays and complications resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our original intention had been to create a nice and well-polished physical copy of the game, including a bound rulebook and custom pieces. We began this process with creating visual designs for the cards and elements of the game.
It was at this point that disaster struck. For the last handful of weeks, the ongoing pandemic has had a profound effect on progress. Initially, this manifested in a decreased mental capacity from anxiety and preoccupation. Next, as the disease manifested closer and closer to campus, classes transitioned to online-only and eventually students were required to leave campus. This process was emotionally tense and difficult, and plans were consistently in flux and unstable. The members of the group project became physically scattered and in difficult physical and mental circumstances, and work lagged significantly.
Because of our physical isolation, we decided to move away from creating a physical copy of the game, as we had no way to put it together. We decided to focus, with our reduced capacity, on the visual elements of the game and concentrate our effort there.
Our final result is a printable version of the game, with redesigned double-sided cards to be printed on 8.5x11 sheets of paper or card stock along with PDFs of the rules and additional glossary. We have also included some of our mock-ups for our “box edition” ideas, as shown in our video tutorial.
Our redesign process included revamped visual aesthetic, with new shape encoding for social points, physical points, and mental health, and using different layouts to denote different types of cards as opposed to the previous color encoding. This was primarily because color encoding beyond gendered association of transmasc, transfemme, and nonbinary would be too confusing with the overarching color palette. To further build upon our flavor text, we also added icons to each of the Challenge, Trait, and Transition cards to give more visual variety.
