From players to pioneers- Refining the game

The Imagine Phase

Feedback from the playtests: In the morning, we questioned our game mechanics; at this time the game revolved around the player picking up cards during the board gameplay. The play testers and instructors emphasized that these cards were quite weak on the gameplay part; the interaction with the theme mental health was limited. We decided to make Nijntje have a voice in the game, and the player has to interact with her. We quickly decided to turn our project around, and make scenario cards that present Nijntje in different situations, forcing the player to think about different mental health themes. This feedback from the playtest was extremely useful and significantly improved the quality of our board game.

Cultural heritage in our game: Besides Nijntje being Dutch cultural heritage herself, we have thought through what themes to use in the story of our game. We have used the following human rights to formulate the situations Nijntje finds herself in: Right to Education (Article 14), Right to Health (Article 35), Right to Human Dignity (Article 1), Right to Security (Article 6), Right to Freedom of Expression and Information (Article 11), Right to Family Life (Article 7). In this way, values and cultural heritage is incorporated in our game, and players will be thinking about and interacting with it.

(Cover page image credited to Netherlands Sound and Vision Museum)