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Life Scripts
A narrative-driven resource management 2D analogue board game where players act as different characters that have various qualities which will impact their gameplay. Players must balance their resources while navigating through aboard that include spaces with situations that can negatively or positively impact them.
Created for a 3 week game jam themed around exploring the experiences, pressures and choices of being childfree across different genders and cultural backgrounds.
Role: Card Layout Designer and Lead 2D Artist.
Card Designs
Process & Design Development
I created a basic paper prototype to test different layouts for the text and art. Through this prototype, I tested how readable the text would be, what the appropriate size would be for a card, and which orientation would be most comfortable to hold. I found that it was more convenient to hold multiple cards in a vertical orientation rather than a horizontal one. To decide on an appropriate size for the cards, I measured other cards from games I had in my possession and found that they tended to be a similar size, so I cut out the prototype to be of an identical proportion.
While working digitally during the next stage, I aligned this paper prototype with the digital design throughout the process to iterate on the text size and ensure that it was still readable from an appropriate distance.
I assembled multiple digital wireframes and iterated upon them numerous times. Two different variations of card layouts were made – one for the resource (mental health, freedom, social, aspirationsand financial) cards and another for the support, event and stigma cards. This was due to how the resource cards differed in their use and included less information than the other card category, sothere was more room for art. They also feature different background patterns and inversed colours to further differentiate the two categories of cards from each other.
The card type text between both layouts, alongside the effects and flavour text for the support, event and stigma cards, were maintained in the same consistent position throughout all layouts. This was done to maintain a consistent design language to help people build familiarity and memorise aspects of the design that they can use depending on what they need. Specifically, I hoped that it would help players quickly identify the information they needed to find between the different cards. Essential information for playing, such as the card type and effects, were boldened and outlined to further accentuate them from other text elements and the background. Iconography was added to support the text and visually represent the card type.
I did some concept art for the resource cards. I wanted the mental health art to centre around caring for the mind but thought that most of my concepts were too open and vague. Therefore, I settled for a metaphorical approach, showing the character nurturing their mind by comparing the brain to a plant that they must water to keep it healthy. I also struggled with the freedom artwork, as breaking out of chains or giving the character wings could be misinterpreted in ways that were not intended. As a result, I simply showed the character’s freedom through their pose, as they wave their arms out to exhibit the free space they have, fully unrestricted.
I decided to make the characters silhouetted so the players could project any character onto them. The silhouettes are monochromatic, with regular characters matching the colour of the card, while characters representing the people spreading this stigma are black and white. This is intended to create a contrast that amplifies the negativity stemming from the characters who shame the player characters for their decisions.
For the final card designs, I created a single example card each for the event, support and stigma cards, and completed the designs for the mental health and freedom resource cards.
Both the resource cards' art pop out from the boxed boundaries set in the layout. Specifically for the freedom resource card, I thought this conveyed a sense of achieving freedom as they leave the box that the other cards are captive in, and overall, made the characters feel more alive.
The mental health icon is a brain with a heart, symbolising the love and care that the character provides to their mind, while the freedom icon is a wing representing freedom. Support cards are pictured by a hand symbol, which is intended to represent someone waving their hand in greeting, but in hindsight, I think it could have been further iterated upon as it could be interpreted as a stop signal. The event cards have an exclamation mark, while the stigma cards are depicted with an eye, symbolising the judgment the characters feel when being judged by those who support the stigma around being childfree.
Resource card colours were selected based on what the colours portrayed. Red can indicate passion and liveliness, while blue may provide a sense of balance and recovery, which I thought matched the theming of the freedom and mental health resources respectively. The colours of the support, event and stigma cards are loosely based on traffic lights, which is intended to help players establish that there is a connection between them, and were also selected based on the possible perceptions of each colour. Red can indicate something being threatening, green may imply safety and peace, while yellow could be interpreted as optimistic or overwhelming.
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