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Approach: Based on general Mexican culture, Picoso is a game that educates players on the diversity, gastronomy, and family traditions within Mexican culture through playing a game of trivia of questions.

 

Through the game’s theme - escaping away from machismo - players will become aware of the strong presence that machismo has in Mexican culture.

Brief: Design a game that reflects your culture.

Learnings: Exploration, Visual Design, Product Design, Systems Thinking, Prototyping, User Testing

Length: 4 weeks.

What is  picoso...

 

Picoso is a game based on general Mexican culture that, through playing a trivia of questions, educates players on the diversity, gastronomy, and family traditions within Mexican culture.  For those not so familiar, or not familiar at all with Mexican culture, after playing, players will leave with intriguing fun facts about Mexico, and its people. For those familiar with Mexican culture, they will be reminded about how amazing Mexican culture is.

 

 

 ma·chi·smo...

mäˈCHēzmō

 

noun

noun: machismo

 

Strong or aggressive masculine pride (very relevant in Mexican culture)

 

​

Through the game’s theme - escaping away from machismo - players will become aware of the strong presence that machismo has in Mexican culture.  Due to the possibility of misunderstanding, or misinterpreting machismo because of unfamiliarity with the culture, the deeply-seated marks machismo has left in Mexican culture are not addressed.  However, the goal of the game of escaping away from machismo makes it clear to the player that machismo is something negative, and not something to be aspired to in Mexican culture.

Game pieces

Game Board

Number Roulette

Card Roulette

Trivia Cards

diversidad

(Diversity)

comida

(Food)

familia

(Family)

  • Board

  • Trivia cards

    • Comida (food)

    • Diversidad (diversity)

    • Familia (family)

  • Jalapeño cards

  • Number roulette

  • Card roulette

  • Pesos ($10, $5, $2, and $1 - ten of each)

  • 5 sugar skulls 

Ideation/prototype

playtesting

 1ST PLAYTEST

  • Purely consisted of answering trivia, and completing challenges.

  • Board didn’t have any interactive function, served just to place trivia cards.

  • No win-state.

 

Cegan:

 

  • Man

  • 25 yrs old

  • Born in the U.S. 

  • CCA student - IxD major

 

David

 

  • Man

  • 25 yrs old

  • Born in the U.S. 

  • CCA student - IxD major

 2ND PLAYTEST

  • Three level structure added to board.

  • Introduced money to gameplay.

  • Introduced three chance elements:

  • “Wild card” (jalapeño card).

  • Roulette to advance spaces.

  • Roulette to randomly select trivia card.

  • Win-state introduced, with reward incentive.

  • Added machismo theme to game.

  • Introduced Machismo Pit as punishment

 

Parmis:

 

  • Woman

  • 20 yrs old

  • Born in the U.S. with Iranian ethnicity

  • CCA student - ID major

 

David

 

  • Man

  • 25 yrs old

  • Born in the U.S. 

  • CCA student - IxD major

 3RD PLAYTEST

 

Krystel:

 

  • Woman

  • 21 yrs old

  • Born in the U.S. with Filipino ethnicity

  • CCA student - IxD major

  • Eliminated Machismo Pit as punishment - too harsh

  • Replaced it with going back to previous spaces instead

  • Added more jalapeño spaces for more unpredictability.

  • Introduced chance to ask for help in trivia for those not familiar with the culture at all

 

Karen:

 

  • Woman

  • 23 yrs old

  • Born & raised in China

  • CCA student - IxD major

 

David

 

  • Man

  • 25 yrs old

  • Born in the U.S. 

  • CCA student - IxD major

Game rules & instructions

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