Devlog 1 - Concept

Use the following questions as a reference for your documentation. Feel free to adjust the format.

How would you describe your game?

It is a fun board game designed for young people to encourage them to help lonely elderly individuals. Our goal is to raise awareness about the many elderly people in the Netherlands who experience loneliness. In the game, players earn points by assisting elderly individuals. The number of points awarded is based on how well the help aligns with the specific type of connection each elderly person needs, as every individual has different needs.

What decisions have been made so far regarding:

Engagement of the game with the selected theme

The game highlights the issue of loneliness among the elderly and encourages players to reflect on this topic both during and after playing. This is achieved through character profiles of elderly individuals, giving a personal face to those affected by this problem, rather than simply referring to them as "the lonely elderly."

Engagement of the game with EU values

"Human dignity is the recognition that human beings possess a special value intrinsic to their humanity and as such are worthy of respect simply because they are human beings."

Our theme aligns with EU values by focusing on the lives of vulnerable individuals in society and spreading awareness about their circumstances. Every person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.

Inspiration from the museum and kick-off

(Include relevant details or reflections here.)

How did you come to these decisions?

The brainstorm techniques we did made us come up with a bunch of good ideas for this project. Very quickly we all agreed on "loneliness with elderly people" as our theme,  as it was not too vague and a very graspable theme.  We used ChatGPT to help inspire us by asking it for some ideas to transform our theme into a playable game. We used a couple elements of its ideas to make our concept. This is what we came up with:

You play as a young person in a village where many elderly people feel lonely. Your goal is to make them feel less alone—this can be done by doing something for them, bringing them together, and more. By helping them, you earn "emotional" points. The player with the most points at the end wins.

By rolling the dice, you determine how many steps you can take in the village. Your first goal is to meet the elderly, which helps create empathy among the players. You get to know them and understand their struggles. With this knowledge, you can do something for them. Each elderly person has different needs. Some may want to be brought together with others, while others might just want to have a pastry with you.

Here’s how it works:

• You move step by step towards an elderly person.
• You learn about their persona, struggles, and needs. There are multiple ways to help them, each earning different amounts of emotional points. By getting to know them, you can determine which approach will yield the most points.
• You then prepare the chosen approach (e.g., bringing another elderly person to the cinema, buying a pastry from the supermarket, picking up a bouquet of roses with a heartfelt letter, or arranging a visit from their children).
• To do this, you select a card from a relevant location (supermarket, children’s home, cinema, etc.), which provides the necessary item for your approach.
• You return to the elderly person and receive points.
• If the approach involves connecting them with another elderly person, you must bring that person over as well.

If you want to play faster, you can guess which approach would be most effective for a given elderly person. This allows you to skip the initial meeting step, but you will likely earn fewer points. (!!! If you do meet them first, you earn a bonus point for getting to know them.)

Share any pictures from your game design process.

What are your action points for the upcoming day?

We're going to continue working on the paper prototype and prepare us for the first playtest.