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Keep London Moving Educational Card Game by Pawel Srokowski |
Home > Winners > Design #56735 >Interview |
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FS: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
PS: I am fascinated about the London Underground network and its iconic design. When I was a kid, I used to watch trains and count their carriages. This days, I created an exciting game about this fabulous transport system. I like to keep things simple, so my idea was to create a game, which has simple rules which everyone can easily understand. The game's motto is: So simple. Play once. Teach others. In addition, the gameplay is very dynamic. Everyone who played the game, was really excited about their graphic design and unexpected twists.
FS: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
PS: I want people to stop for a second. This days, everyone is in a rush. On one hand, I want to inspire others by the iconic London Underground network. On the other hand, I want people to meet their friend and family. Stay "offline" for a while and enjoy the game.
FS: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
PS: As we are at the development stage, we need to find a sponsor who can help us to fund the game. We are small company, so even if we have brilliant ideas and win design awards, we cannot afford to fund the project by ourselves. We are sure we will inspire others, as everyone who contributed in the game design and tests, really love it. We also plan to expand the game editions to other underground lines or even other metros around the World!
FS: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
PS: The feasibility study and concept design stages took around five months. I had to design a card, which is user-friendly and everyone can easily see and understand its content. It was a great challenge, as a Station Card contains many information, including the station photograph, which takes around 40% space of the card. We also tested the game many times to prove it is dynamic and its rules are designed well.
FS: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
PS: I took my inspiration from the iconic design of the London Underground network. I cooperate with the Transport for London Intellectual Property Office. I need to make sure, if I do not brake any Intellectual Property Rights, and if I use them correctly. In addition, we browsed the market and played several famous card games. We are happy to see, that our gameplay is unique and we did not copied anyone’s ideas.
FS: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
PS: The game is in development stage. As we do not have enough funds to fund the game, we definitely need to find a sponsor who can support us.
FS: What made you design this particular type of work?
PS: I am fascinated about the iconic design of the London underground and I like to play card games. I decided to connect those two and created a game about it. I observed that in present time we run all time and we have no time to stop. I wanted to give people a good reason to stay offline, meet friends, family and enjoy the time playing the game.
FS: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?
PS: We browsed the market and played several cards game. We observed their graphics, gameplay, rulebooks, box designs and other features. However, at the end of the day, we believe that our game is unique and one of its kind. In addition, living in London help us to understand how the London Underground works. We travel by tube every day. We can observe the underground graphics, signs, posters, people's behavior and issues. Most of these inspired us when we were creating Fortune Cards.
FS: Who is the target customer for his design?
PS: I trust that everyone, who understand the simple rules, can play the game and will enjoy it. I suppose that some people are fascinated more about the graphic design, and others by the gameplay or detailed information about the stations. However, everyone who have tested the game yet, young and older players, really loved it.
FS: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
PS: The gameplay is unique. We tested many other card games and we are happy to see that there is no similar game about transport system. Also, the game has unexpected twists, which are very exciting. Even when you think you lose, you draw a Fortune Card which can help you to win in the next two or three turns.
FS: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
PS: As the game players need to keep London moving by collecting Station Cards and connecting them to each other, I decided to keep it simple. I named the game Keep London Moving.
FS: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
PS: I always start sketching my ideas by hand. In which case, I am not limited by any software. However, at later stage, I used graphic software to create drawings. It was important to keep correct proportions and to draw in scale. I also had to capture a photo of each station and paste it into the cards.
FS: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
PS: The game is unique with its design. Many people complemented us that we combined really good design with high level of information included on each station card. All players were fascinated that information is so detailed. Even when information is not relevant for the game itself, it gives extra value, for ex. a distance to the nearest station or what borough a station belongs to. We also believe that in the future, we can propose the game variations, which may use these detailed information.
FS: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
PS: There were many people involved in the game creation process. Especially we had to involve our friends and family, who helped us to test the game. Their comments were extremely helpful and let us improve the game engine and rules. As we have high design skills and know how to use graphic software, we created the game in-house.
FS: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
PS: The technology was very helpful at our work. Mainly, it let us to amend existing design with minimum effort. It was very common that we had to change a description or text size for all cards. It would be very time consuming if we had to do in manually for all cards. Using advanced technologies let us automate the design process, so some changes were pretty straight forward.
FS: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
PS: The game is based on real data. It refers to the existing underground lines. Each station card contains true data, for ex. nearby stations, connections to other lines or fare zone. In addition, each card contains real photograph. Also fortune cards correspond to situations which may happen on the underground, for ex. Tube Strike, Signalling Failure or Modernisation Works. We trust that the real data gives the game extra value.
FS: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
PS: On the early stage, we had to face a challenge to design the game engine and rules correctly. We tested many game variations and ended up with the simplest solution. We also had to answer many questions, which automatically appeared when we played a beta version. Sometimes a small change made a huge impact for other parts. After many tests, we found the final solution for the game rules. The other challenge for us was to fit all information in 63 x 88 mm cards. We need to keep in mind that all data needs to be clearly visible and readable for everyone.
FS: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
PS: All people who played the game told us it is really unique and they enjoyed it. As the game is in the development stage, we face a problem with funding it. We decided to enter the competition to prove that the game is unique with its design. We believe that the award will support us with finding a sponsor.
FS: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
PS: We had to study many aspects of the London Underground network. Its history, design, performance and day-to-day situations. As we live in London and travel by underground every day, we could observe all of the above. We also visited London Transport Museum to study the history and how the underground changed and developed over the last 160 years.
FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
PS: We hope we inspire others by our design. We strongly believe that everyone who play the game, will really enjoy it!
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A' Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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