Board Games Showcase 2017 from ICAT, Chennai

A Board Game Showcase event of L4 UG Interactive Media (Game Design and Development and Game Development) department took place on 27 November, 2017, from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM at Gill Adarsh Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Royapettah, Chennai.

As a part of the PCTCM (Professional Context Technology & Communication Methods) module, L4 UG Interactive Media students created 33 Board games and 4 Life-Size games to showcase to their target audience, 7th grade school students.

At Gill Adarsh, our students presented their games in the school Assembly Hall, where the school students of class 7 pooled in enthusiastically to play the games. Though the school students were excited to play all the games, the Life-Size games were the most attracting for them. Games like 'Secrets of London', 'My Mirror', 'W.O.D.S' and 'Black Tile' stood out as the favourite for many students because they liked the gameplay, rules and fun factor.

Our students explained their games very well and interacted well with the audience. School students enjoyed the games as they were easy to understand and fun to play. They enjoyed their wins and sobbed for their defeats, which showed their interest in the games. Their happiness and interests were so transparent on their faces that our students could judge.

Always children are spontaneous and original; so were the feedback from the students of the School. Our students also distributed rewards like small trinkets, chocolates and other novelty gifts to the audience who won in the games which helped in making the event more exciting for the 7th graders. At the end, we had a photo shoot with all our students, school students and teachers. Overall, it was a fun and memorable experience.

Student's Feedback:

"Being a game developer and creating games is not an easy task. We are very much grateful to our college ICAT and the faculties for helping us to complete the board game within the limited time. We also thank our PCTCM and CST teachers who guided and helped us finish our game. And lastly, we thank Gill Adarsh Matriculation Higher Secondary School, who provided us with an auditorium where we were able to showcase our games. The children were very much excited about our games. They played every game. It was very motivating." Mahfuz Ahmed Barbhuiya L4 GMD

"Being a game developer can be a tricky thing. Overcoming a lot of prejudice and hurdles from our family and relatives, we take this course that specialises in making video games. To all that self-doubt and bitterness, the Board Game Showcase enlightened us on why we chose this field: it's because of the kids. Seeing them get excited playing our games and their attitude towards learning something new was refreshing. Children from Gill Adharsh were the epitome of a perfect crowd; they really enjoyed engaging us and were very polite in doing so. We were able to learn a lot from this showcase like our target audience's psyche, their interest, and their expectations from a board game." Varun Shivaram L4 GMD

"I got to learn a lot and got experience on how showcases are handled. In my opinion, this showcase went really well and organized." Shubham Rai L4 GDD

"Personally, I liked the environment of the hall because it was so full of life and I could see everyone with a huge smile on their face." Washington Kunal Raj L4 GDD