Collaboration Design - Task 3 / Project Ideation Prototype

26.10.2025 - 5.12.2025 (Week 5 - Week 11)
Chong Hui Yi / 0363195
Collaboration Design / BDCM
Task 3 / Project Ideation Prototype

TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Instructions

2. Task 3

3. Feedback

4. Reflection

INSTRUCTIONS

Task 3: Project Ideation Prototype

Instruction

In this task, we were required to further develop our previous low-fidelity designs into high-fidelity outcomes. This included producing printed physical components such as cards, packaging, and tokens.

Mascot Design

Earlier in the project, I created the first version of the mascot as a rough sketch. Based on this concept, Melvin later developed a more detailed second version of the mascot (Fig. 1.0).

Fig. 1.0 Mascot Design Exploration

After receiving feedback from Mr. Shamsul, we realised that all the characters in the game needed to feel more consistent, as if they belonged to the same family. He explained that even when a brand has multiple characters, like McDonald’s, they should still look related and recognisable as part of the same system.

In our game, we already have glucose characters on the power cards and fruit characters on the stock market cards. Both follow a flat and simple visual style (Fig. 1.1). Compared to the second version, the first mascot design matched this style better, so we decided to move forward with the first version instead.

Fig. 1.1 Flat & Minimal Character Design System (Glucose & Fruit)

After that, Winnie helped me digitise the initial mascot design. I then refined it further, removing the outline around the character to make it look flatter and more cohesive with the overall art style.

Fig. 1.2 Refined Mascot Design

Fig. 1.3 Final Mascot Design

Card Design

Winnie, Yanny, and I were responsible for designing the power cards and stock market cards. We began by exploring different layout options. To avoid the layouts feeling too empty, we added light, irregular shapes behind the illustrations to create more visual interest. We also experimented with repeated coin patterns on white backgrounds, as well as versions with and without borders.

Fig. 2.0 Layout Explorations

After comparing the options, we decided to use a bordered layout. The border helps keep the content clean and structured, while the colour makes it easy to immediately tell whether the stock market is going up (red) or down (green). We kept a white background with irregular shapes behind the illustrations to draw attention to the main visuals and maintain a clear visual hierarchy without overwhelming the layout.

Stock Market Card Design (front)

Winnie designed the first version of our stock market card (Fig. 2.1). I then refined it by making several adjustments.

Fig. 2.1 Stock Market Card - Version 1 (by Winnie)

I reduced the border radius and thickness, as overly rounded corners looked a bit childish and more suitable for a younger audience. I also changed the title and body text to brighter colours to make the card feel more vibrant, since the previous dark title drew too much attention. Additionally, I standardised the expressions and limbs of all the fruit characters to match the style we used for the glucose characters.

The illustrations for the “up” stock cards were more complex than those for the “down” cards, especially because a rocket took up a large part of the card. In the first version, some rockets overlapped with the green upward arrows, so I adjusted their angle and size to make the composition clearer and more visually balanced.

Fig. 2.2 Stock Market Card - Version 2 (Lighter)

Later, Yanny suggested creating a darker version to increase contrast and improve readability.

Fig. 2.3 Stock Market Card – Version 3 (Darker)

After test-printing the cards on A4 paper, we all agreed that the lighter version worked better. Although it is bright, the text remains clear, the design doesn’t feel too heavy, and it blends better with the other elements.

However, we also noticed that the irregular background shapes on the stock market cards were too light, and the card size was smaller than expected, which made the body text appear too small and harder to read.

Fig. 2.4 Stock Market Card - Test Print

We then continued refining the cards by darkening the background shapes and test-printed them again to check visibility. The result, shown in Fig. 2.5, made the shapes clearly visible. At the same time, we increased the size of the description text and centre-aligned it to improve readability and ensure consistency with the layout of the power cards.

Fig. 2.5 Stock Market Card - Final Version

Power Card Design (front)

The design process for the power cards was quite similar to that of the stock market cards since we worked on them at the same time. We started by digitalising our sketches, with the glucose character as the main focus. I handled the Insulin Attack, Skip, and Booster cards.

Fig. 2.6 Power Card Sketches

Before I started, Winnie had already completed the first version of the Steal, Shield, and Jail cards.

Fig. 2.7 Power Card - Version 1 (by Winnie)

I then finished the remaining three cards, standardising the expressions and limbs of all the glucose characters and adjusting the colours and borders to match the style of the stock market cards.

Fig. 2.8 Power Card - Version 2

After test-printing, we noticed the same issue as before: the description text was too small and too long. To address this, we shortened the descriptions, experimenting with three-line and two-line versions. We ultimately chose the two-line layout, as it looked cleaner and more consistent across all cards.

Fig. 2.9 Power Card - Three-Line Description Version

Fig. 2.10 Power Card - Two-Line Description Version (Final)

Card Back Design

After finalising the card front designs, we moved on to designing the card backs. We decided to feature the mascot on both card backs to strengthen brand recognition. For the stock market cards, we used a falling coin pattern as the background, while the power cards featured a falling lightning pattern to match their energy and impact.

We explored both bordered and borderless versions. In the end, we chose to keep the border, as it matches the front card design and prevents the cards from feeling visually disconnected when flipped over during gameplay. To highlight the mascot, we tested both outlines and shadows. We ultimately chose shadows, as they fit better with our overall flat and minimal art style.

Fig. 2.11 Card Back Design Exploration (with & without border)

For the final stock market and power card backs, we adjusted the mascot’s placement so that the upper body overlaps the border while the lower body stays behind it, creating a playful “breaking out” effect, as if the mascot is popping out to greet the player. We also chose to use a darker border instead of a white one, as it is more visible and helps frame the design more clearly.

Fig. 2.12 Final Card Back Design

Game Board Design

The game board design was handled by Guo Ying, Melvin, and Karyee. It consists of two parts: a main board, which is a shared area used by all players, and a personal board, which players interact with more frequently.

The circular main board was inspired by the layered structure of blood vessels. It includes red blood cells to represent the bank and yellow fat cells to represent the jail. The personal board is shaped like a mitochondrion and contains three key areas: the stock market, base camp, and investment zones.

Fig. 3.0 Initial Game Board Design

Based on the initial game board design, I made several colour adjustments to better align it with our overall pastel art style. The original pinkish red tones were shifted towards a warmer red–orange hue, and the text on the personal board was changed to white to improve readability.

Fig. 3.1 Refined Game Board Design

Packaging Design

For the packaging design, Guo Ying was responsible for measuring and creating the box dieline. Winnie designed the front cover and side panels, while I worked on the back cover. Yanny coordinated and consolidated the overall design to ensure visual consistency across all panels.

As this was my first time designing the back of a board game package, I looked at several references to better understand what is typically included. From this research, I found that a standard board game back cover typically includes the game logo, a short description, a brief how to play section, a list of components, key selling points, estimated playtime, number of players, age rating, as well as copyright information and a barcode.

Fig. 4.0 Game Packaging Back Cover References

After determining what content the back cover should include, I began designing it, dividing the layout into two sections. The left side features the logo, game description, and key information such as playtime, number of players, and age rating—these are emphasised because they are the details buyers usually want to see. A mock barcode was also added to make it feel like a real product.

The right side includes a brief “how to play” section and a “what’s inside” overview. In the top-right corner, I placed the mascot to add personality, while also highlighting the game’s unique selling point: “Bio + Economy Strategy.”

Fig. 4.1 Back Cover Design

Later, when Yanny consolidated all the designs, she suggested that the detailed list of game components could be moved to the manual. As a result, the back cover now features a mockup image of the game in play, giving a clear visual overview of the components instead.

Fig. 4.2 Final Packaging Design in A1 size

Glucose Tokens

Our Glucose Tokens were based on the design of the glucose character, keeping the hexagonal shape but without eyes, mouth, or limbs, since these details are difficult to realise on physical pieces. We decided to use the laser cutter at Taylor’s Makerspace to produce 1 cm-sided hexagons. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be there with the team to watch them get cut. After they were cut, each of us was responsible for one of the six colours. I took charge of the pink tokens.

Fig. 5.0 Glucose Tokens being removed from the laser cut mould

Since I wasn’t at school with the team, I sanded all 30 tokens at home while wearing gloves. I did this inside a plastic bag so the dust wouldn’t spread everywhere—otherwise my whole room would be a mess. Fig. 4.0 (right) shows the smoothed edges, though it’s a bit hard to see.

Fig. 5.1 Left: tokens being sanded; Right: after sanding

I thought sanding would be the hardest part, but painting was even trickier. We used acrylic paint, which is pretty opaque, but the wooden tokens still needed multiple layers to fully cover the original colour. The paint dried super fast, so at first some spots clumped up. Luckily, after 4–5 layers, it looked pretty okay.

Fig. 5.2 Left: after 2–3 layers of paint; Right: after 4–5 layers

Later at school, we sprayed a protective clear coat. It made the tokens a bit shinier, but the difference is small, haha.

Fig. 5.3 Left: me, Karyee, and Guo Ying spraying clear coat; Right: after spraying

Fig. 5.4 Final set of six Glucose Tokens and dice

From Digital to Physical

Finally, we printed all the components for our prototype, including the packaging box, partition, manual, power cards, stock market cards, ATP cash, main board, and personal boards. We used matte material for the cards to give a nice finish.

However, we ran into a couple of unexpected issues. First, the manual ended up printing much larger than intended due to an Illustrator sizing issue. We decided to also print a normal-sized version on regular paper, while keeping the oversized one for presentation so the lecturers could read it more easily.

The second issue was with the packaging box: its actual length was slightly shorter than we had expected, which made the partition too tight to fit. To solve this, we replaced it with a single thin cardboard piece to separate the game board and the cards.

Fig. 6.0 Packaging Box

Fig. 6.1 Packaging Box Interior

Fig. 6.2 All Game Components

Presentation

In Week 11, Dr. Luqman (Head of the Design School), Ms. Anis, and Mr. Shamsul attended our presentation. Dr. Luqman asked us to briefly play through one round of the game so he could understand how the components were used. He also clarified that his main focus was on the design and visual system rather than the gameplay itself.

Overall, our progress was encouraging. Within a limited timeframe, we managed to produce a complete and playable outcome. We were very open to the feedback given and found it extremely helpful in identifying areas for improvement. One key point raised was visual consistency across the system. From a first-time viewer’s perspective, the packaging cover did not clearly communicate what the game is about. There were also some inconsistencies, such as most components using borders while the manual guide does not, and the contrast between the green packaging exterior and the red main board inside, which could feel confusing when first opened.

We also appreciated the suggestion to move the gameplay mockup image from the back of the packaging to the front cover. This feedback helped us better understand how our design might be perceived by new users and gave us clear direction on how the overall experience could be improved.

Fig. 6.3 During the Presentation

After the presentation, we played a full round of the game ourselves. This was our first time playing the redesigned version of The Gluconomy, and it was honestly very satisfying to see everything come together and work as a complete game. We were happy to finally experience it from a player’s perspective.

Fig. 6.4 Playing the Redesigned The Gluconomy

Final Outcome

Fig. 7.0 Final Project Ideation Prototype

FEEDBACK

Week 11:

Visual consistency could be improved.
Packaging cover doesn’t clearly convey game purpose at first glance.
Inconsistencies between components: most have borders, but the manual doesn’t.
Green packaging exterior vs. red game board inside can be confusing.
Suggestion: consider placing gameplay mockup from back cover to front for clarity.

REFLECTION

I really enjoyed the whole design process for this project and I’m pretty happy with what we achieved over the 11 weeks. A big part of it was working closely with Winnie and Yanny on things like art direction, layout, illustrations, and other design decisions. I noticed that everyone has their own preferences. For example, Yanny usually prefers designs without borders, while I tend to like having them. But we didn’t argue at all. We just kept chatting, sharing opinions, and tweaking things together. Being open to feedback and iterating constantly was one of the most important parts of this project.

There were quite a few things I tried for the first time, which made it exciting. It was my first time designing a game packaging box, and actually printing it out really showed me that things rarely go perfectly as planned. The manual didn’t fit, the cards weren’t cut perfectly, and the box dimensions were slightly off. I learned that if you want to print anything, it’s better to start early because you never know what’s going to go wrong, and at least you have time to fix it.

I also tried laser cutting for the first time when making the glucose tokens. Sanding the edges and painting them all by hand took a lot of patience, and yes, some tokens ended up a little imperfect. But after all the effort, seeing the final set come together was super satisfying and gave a real sense of achievement.

I really enjoyed the team vibe too. We checked in every week, nobody slacked off, and everyone made sure their part was done on time. It made the whole process smooth and enjoyable.

Overall, I loved not just the final outcome, but the entire journey: brainstorming, collaborating, testing, fixing problems, and seeing everything gradually come to life. I feel like I learned a lot about teamwork, attention to detail, and what it’s really like to take a design from screen to real-life product.

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Chong Hui Yi (0363195)