For my senior project, I created a board game that uses elements from free-to-play and pay-to-win video games. The purpose of this project is to highlight how wealth plays a big role in free-to-play games. The game I created is unfairly skewed towards those who spend more money in the game. After researching free-to-play video games, I understood what methods these types of games used to make profits despite being free. I included things such as pain points, which are tiny game play mechanics made to annoy the player into spending money, skins (change the look of the game piece for money), multiple currencies, leveling system, and various in-game services. The game is designed in a way that people who spend money in the game are given huge advantages while people who do not are often disadvantaged.

The game itself is a party based game. This means that is multiplayer and game play revolves around a series of mini games. The goal of the game is to win as many mini games as possible and to reach the end of the main board (the game is a race). A role of a die and whether or not a player wins determines the player’s movement. To elaborate: a player may only move forward if they win a mini game while the losers must move backwards. A die roll is used to determine how much a player moves. For example, you win a mini game and roll a 5. This means you move forward 5. Another example: You lose a mini game and roll a 4, you move back 4 spaces. The board also uses a chutes and ladder type mechanic: landing certain spaces may teleport you to another space.

The box comes with a detailed instruction list so all rules are explained thoroughly. This brief description only describes some of the many mechanics of this game.

Attached below is a link to the main instructions:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RqR1CMBQ-WSAKlm5UnmRZDVjl342-mNjt3pzvOE6mO8/edit?usp=sharing