Skills

Our goal is to make a fully designed board game into a realistic model within two weeks. We need to use image software (eg. Photoshop, Illustrate) to design the appearance of game cards and outer packaging, and complete the printing and cutting.

In terms of model making of chess pieces and chessboards, 3d printing and laser cutting will be used. We will provide a tutorial about the workflow of 3d printing and laser cutting and the precautions for specific operations.

Social Value

Inspired by post-war infrastructure development principle, INFRA-GAME aims to develop board game into an enjoyable educational tool for parents and teachers to enlighten children with the knowledge and consideration behind infrastructure and landscape planning. Furthermore, using board game enhances the communication between children and parents, and leads them to understand the importance of infrastructure and environment issues, and the relationship between them as well. We will be working together to develop the exciting board game into an aesthetically attractive product. The board game will be ultimately available both physically. Long-term social contribution will be achieved through this educational entertainment device.

Xinzi Deng

Atelier:
Urban Spatial Experimentation

Skills:
Rhino, Adobe Suite, After Effects, Premiere Pro

Interested in:
Explore the integration of multiple fields with architectural design, especially new technology and art, such as Interactive Architecture and Robotic Assembly & Fabrication.

Experience:
Architectural Design & Research Institute of SCUT, Guangzhou, Junior Architect, 2016-2019

Rongcheng Li

Atelier:
Infrastructure Space

Skills:
Rhino& Grasshopper, Adobe Suite, Autodesk, Maya

Interested in:
Semiology architecture, Adeptive architecture

Experience:
BEng Architecture, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, 2016-2020
Assistant Designer, Atelier Design Situ+Continuum, Shanghai, 2019

Yao Wei

Atelier:
Complexity, Planning and Urbanism

Skills:
Rhino& Grasshopper, Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign

Interested in:
Rendering, Python, Intelligent Architecture

Ryan Qirui Wang

Atelier:
Infrastructure Space

Skills:
Graphic design, Illustration, Photoshop

Interested in:
Enchanted by reality and imagination of urban landscape. Trying to find entertainment and humour in various design.

Experience:
The Architectural Design and Research Institute of HIT

King-Yi Wong

Atelier:
PRAXXIS

Skills:
Rhino, Adobe Suite, AutoCAD

Interested in:
Sustainability in architecture, Archigram, Heritage Adaptation

Experience:
Bachelor of Applied Science (Architectural Science), Curtin University, Australia, 2014-2017

Collaborators

Dr Richard Brook & Dr Luca Csepely-Knorr are experienced historians with extensive knowledge on post-war infrastructure and landscape. They ran the Year 5 MArch Research Methods Workshop titled: The Landscape and Architecture of post-war British Infrastructure: Coal.

Their knowledge and investments contribute to the network research: The Landscapes of Post-War Infrastructure: Culture Amenity and Heritage which is part of the UKRI project. The network has united multiple teams of academics with government agencies, the private sector, community groups and artists to consider the landscapes of infrastructure broadly. Moreover, it is running a public engagement program to disseminate the research to a wider audience, in which our project is involved.

The follow-on-funding will enable the research team to work with filmmakers, film archives, museums and local schools to create interactive games and an immersive filmic experience, both to be premiered at the Bluedot Festival in 2021.in which our project is involved.

Check out the broad UKRI project here:
https://landscapedecisions.org/the-landscapes-of-post-war-infrastructure/

Dr Richard Brook is the MSA Infra-space atelier leader and is a registered architect. He is particularly interested in post-WWII British modern architecture, infrastructure, and the impact of government planning and regulation on the built environment. Richard is an experienced architectural historian who is currently leading a project called ‘The Life of Buildings’, where he and his collaborators are creating interactive virtual reality models of historically important buildings from archival drawings and oral histories. The project’s long term aim is to create ‘mixed reality’ cities that co-exist with real cities to educate people on our lost architectural heritage.


Take a look at Richard’s website: www.mainstreammodern.co.uk
Explore ‘The Life of Buildings’ https://www.thelifeofbuildings.org.uk/


Dr Luca Csepely Knorr is the Joint Programme Leader of the Master of Landscape Architecture course and is a chartered landscape architect. Her research focuses on the histories of landscape architecture, architecture and urban design between the late 19th century to the 1970’s. Luca is experienced in co-ordinating multi-disciplinary teams within and outside of the university. She is also currently co-organising an interdisciplinary network ‘How Women Build’ exploring the role of women in the construction industry amongst involvement with many other research projects.

View Luca’s work here: msa-uk.academia.edu/LucaCsepelyKnorr

Dr. Paul Wake

Paul is a Reader in the Department of English at Manchester Metropolitan University, who specializes in games, narrative theory, and the twentieth-century novel. He has abundant experience in exploring games especially board games as a tool of education. For example, Paul and his team reconstructed the well-known board game: Catan with the global warming context, in order to use the game as a carrier in promoting awareness and discussion of this global issue.
 
He is also a prolific writer a monthly column in Tabletop Gaming magazine, and co-director of the Manchester Game Studies Network, which is a brilliant online platform for learning games from different perspectives.

Based on the enthusiasm of most students for game design, we updated the first-week plan. We will have more time to test and optimize the game. Thanks for all guys' ambitions! The game will be comprehensively improved from rules, models, packaging and manuals!

Welcome to Infra-Game!

Thanks to Richard and Paul introduced the background information about infrastructure and concepts of game design! We first tested the board game - 'Connection'. Many BA students put forward interesting ideas about the game. Hope to get more fantastic feedback from further game testing tomorrow!

Through further game testing, we today obtained more brilliant ideas. Looking forward to your new board game！

Thanks, Saul for sharing!

Saul shared how to design their mission cards and how to relate the history of Infrastructure/ national planning/ policy. Saul is a student at the Manchester School of Architecture. He and his team designed the ''Connection' game. Today, BA students and game designers have more ideas by the sharing session.

This image is a capture of the BA student's discussion today.

From now on, we have been divided into two groups responsible for model production and rule book production. We will complete and improve our respective work content in the next few days. Y5 students will help on the job every day.

The team has amazing progress in analysing and redesigning the board game components. Clear work distribution helps each team member to develop the design of characters, dice, symbols, etc. The laser-cut and 3D-print file of dice and tiles have been almost completed.
The team is also enthusiastic about improving the game rule to deliver an exciting final board game to children. Team members are working on the missions and sabotage cards to make the game more cooperative and interactive. Good work team!

The team has improved the 'Connection' Game!
'Connection' encourages children more cooperative and interactive. The new missions and sabotage cards make the game more interesting. Children will learn infrastructure knowledge by playing the new 'Connection' game. Our team began to focus on aesthetic improvements. Good work team!

Through a week of cooperation, we have tested the game and understood the educational purpose behind the game. In addition, BA students have excellently optimized the entire game system and redesigned the game's appearance to make it more beautiful.

Thanks to the guests who gave us wonderful lectures this week, and we are also pleased to see the exciting ideas brought by the BA students. We are looking forward to further cooperation with BA students next week and seeing their incredible performance.

Week 2 - First Day！

Our team enters the second week of work. Boardgame design has made further progress. The text content of the manual has been further optimized, the design of mission cards is almost completed, and the board design has been developed.

Week 2 - Second Day！

Our team started to enter the model-making stage. The layout of the manual has been determined. The game characters' design is basically completed. The most amazing development is that our laser cards have completed the physical model production.

Handicraft Activities - [ Week 2 ] Second Day！

Team members began to produce the board game. It shows that the laser cards produce the process.

Week 2 - Third Day！

We are moving on to the final stage of the board game design - the team today has worked hard to get every game components design finalized. The characters have been designed in a more cartoon-styled to make the game more appealing to children. Missions have been re-designed and settled, so the team can finally go ahead with finalizing each of the mission cards and the overall baseboard design. Y5 has tested the exact size and material of the hexagonal package box. All the remaining components are ready to be printed tomorrow!

Handicraft Activities - [ Week 2 ] Third Day！

Our team conducted game box production tests. In addition, the sabotage cards design has finished.

For game character design, there are four characters in the board game: Sylvia who is a Landscape Architect; Archie who is a world-famous scientist; Harold who is a motorway builder; Michael who is an electrical builder.

The team has improved the design of the characters and finished the design of 20 sabotage cards. On top of making the characters more aesthetically appealing and their professional background more understandable to children, the team has also considered the inclusion of different genders and ethnicities as professionals in the UK. Moreover, we hope to improve game fun with the sabotage cards. Good work team!

Week 2 - Fourth Day！

Time to put everything together! The illustration of 2D components (baseboard, game manual, package box, mission and sabotage cards, paper money, etc) are all ready to print! The team has communicated with the B15 workshop for all specific printing requirements, and the team representative will go to B15 today to get everything physically completed. Look forward to the completed physical board game!

The design of the base map board has been completed! The team has applied pastel color with symbols and illustrations to make the overall board more pleasant and engaging to children. The educational purpose is further strengthened by adding city names and revealing the basic geographical zoning of the UK, to help children understand more of the UK geographic concept. Can’t wait to see the physical version of the board!

The end!

Our team ended all the activities of MSA Live with a perfect presentation which was finished by Y5 and BA students together.

Happy Endings! See You Next Time!