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INVADE!

Put yourselves in the shoes of an invasive species whose habitat is being taken over. In order to survive, you must race each other to INVADE new territory and find your home!

INVADE! is a dynamic board game that illustrates the experiences of invasive species and educates players about why and how they are invasive in a fantasy setting. Players can select one of six invasive characters to control in order to infect the board, sabotage others, and conquer the land.



Role

Packaging, Cards & Game Board Designer


Timeline

2 months


Team

Marty Dericks, Waverly Huang, Rumei Zha


Tools

Adobe Suite, Figma



Illustration by Waverly


The Problem


How do we create a game that is as educational as it is immersive?



Moodboards


Throughout the development of INVADE, we looked at several physical and online games as inspiration for both gameplay and illustrative style. We focused mainly on games that had 3D elements and a simple but stylized art style.

Game board moodboard
Illustration moodboard

User Persona





Process


Concept Sketches:
Rumei
Waverly
Marty

Game Mechanics Brainstorm:
Model by Marty


Sketches:
Game Box Cover Concept (Rumei)
Game Cards Concept (Rumei)
Game Board V1 (Rumei)
Rumei
Waverly
Marty



First Prototype + Play Testing




Feedback



“The characters are too big for the spaces and don’t stack well.”
“The color of the board spaces are sometimes confusing.”

  

Key changes:


Change of orientation for illustrations/text for more accessible viewing
Merged spaces that were too small (character figures also shrunk by Marty)
Changed “oasis” to “river” in order to spread out the “good” spaces
Overall more illustrative and reflective of changes in environment for storytelling elements

First Prototype
Final Prototype


“Instructions and wordings on cards weren’t very clear.”


Key changes:


Clarification of actions players can take
Changing vocabulary to match that on the game board (e.g. Jail to Caged)

Before:
After:
Before:
After:



Final Prototype



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