Light or Dark Board Game

Press Kit

Unique Properties

A two-player board game based on the background of the world's energy crisis, guides children to complete tasks in a cooperative way under a variety of constraints through various element settings. During the game, children need to look at the overall situation and plan rationally when facing and solving a series of problems. This tests and develops the child's sense of time, concentration and comprehensive strategy.

Dimensions & Packaging

330 mm (w) x 235 mm (d) x 53 mm (h)

Tags

children's board game, educational design, strategy, consideration of reality

Production Technology

The base block of the game board is made of colored beech, and the rest of the components are mainly ABS or PMMA.

Design Challenge

We spend most of our time developing the rules of the game, thinking about how to project the serious and complex energy crisis issues into a children's board game, so that children can experience a sense of crisis, a sense of urgency, a sense of mission and a sense of victory, making the game educational, challenging and fun.

Project Duration

The project started in December 2022 in Milan and finished in February 2023 in Milan.

Operation Flow

After randomly drawing a map card and completing the assembly, place the hourglass to start the game. Players need to use limited raw energy to plant trees, withstand storms, control the spread of pollution and complete the task of building new energy stations to win the game. Every time the hourglass lights up, it warns of the spread of pollution, and when the energy stations light up, it means the generation of new energy. Players can get random raw energy supplies by rolling dice, and can also share new energy generated by new energy stations with partner.

Research

After the preliminary formation of the rules of the game, children over the age of 7 were invited to conduct a playtest. Light or Dark get their feedback on the game design itself and their rich emotional feedback. Some of them won the game by thinking calmly and adjusting their strategies in the face of the tense situation, while others failed in panic. But this also made them realize the necessity of environmental protection, which made the winning and losing of the game equally meaningful.

Inspiration

The problem of energy shortage and environmental pollution has a long history. In 2022, due to the combined effects of multiple factors, the global energy supply and demand was seriously out of balance. While looking for and developing more sustainable alternative energy sources, the concepts of energy saving, emission reduction and sustainable living should also be instilled in everyone's daily life.

Image Credits

Lan Zhou & Xinlu Yang, Light or Dark, 2023

Colors of Light or Dark Board Game