Tête-à-Tête
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.
Project Details:
Duration: Spring 2021 (10 weeks)
Team: Me (Game Designer) + Playtesters + Mentors
Playtesters: Fernanda Villalobos, Megan Eaman, Gavin Salazar, Carson Salazar, Zayna Sheikh, Colin Soguero, Dylan Turner, Harrison Bolin, and Noelle Ireland.
Mentors: Danny Rankin (CU Professor and Game Designer on Ravine), Matt Bethancourt (Capstone Leader), & Matt Sisson (Game Designer and Owner of Stellar Factory)
Quick Note: Artworks are part of the public domain in the U.S.
Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, AfterEffects, and Procreate
The Game:
The Story:
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?
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).
sin chips (left), reputation chips (right)
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.
Events
There are 42 unique event cards each based on different art pieces of the Rococo era.
Characters
There are 12 character cards.
6 Artists. 6 Aristocrats.
Each character has their own unique
ability that aids them during gameplay.
Fates
There are 20 different fates.
Each falls under three categories: Guillotine, Exile, and Illness.
Players can draw at the end of the game to figure out what happened to their character.
Process:
Problem: Limited opportunities to engage with art history outside of gallery/museum experiences and academic settings.
Solution: A board game.
“How can we use games to engage people with art?”
Game Values:
My game values are what I used to guide my game design process.
These are meant to define what my player experience would be like.
Rococo Values:
Frivolity
Excess
Foreboding
Self-Interest
Game Values:
Frivolity
Excess
Foreboding
Self-Interest
Process Summary:
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 a
nd would reflect my game values?
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 and Revise:
What's working? what isn't?
Make necessary changes.
Revise.
A Note 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.
Observation and Playtesting Sessions:
During Playtesting Sessions I would watch people’s reactions and pay attention to what actions they were taking, if my wording on the cards was confusing, what parts were unnecessary or were not being utilized, are some abilities too powerful, etc.
User Interviews:
Following sessions, I would conduct interviews. This allowed me to get direct comments from people playing my game. In these interviews, players could share what they enjoyed, describe their experience and feelings during gameplay, if there was anything they would change, if there were parts they found confusing, general thoughts, and questions about decisions made during gameplay.
The goal with both of these was to see if player experiences were aligned with my game values.
Design:
The design elements that were implemented were kept relatively simple so they wouldn't clash with the art used in the character and event cards.
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.
The typography was clean and modern to match the simplified, abstract art of the boards.
