Mechanics

In The Three Little Pigs, players will compete against one another to build their houses the fastest. Other players are able to hinder progress. Each player is able to select a character they wish to represent them, as well as a material with which to build.

As players progress around the board, they will encounter material additions and subtractions which will either allow or hinder progress on building houses. Chance encounters may also provide or take away materials from your home. Players may encounter the “Wolf” tile or a “Wolf” chance card, which allows players to attack another player’s building. Rolling dice, they are able to see how much damage the other player will endure.

The building process has a staging mechanic. After players have collected a certain number of materials and built sections of their houses, they can move onto the next stage. Our stages are foundation (5 pieces), first floor (6 pieces), second
floor (6 pieces), roof (5 pieces), chimney (3 pieces). The “Wolf” cannot break a completed section. However, there are some chance cards that may destroy sections of the players house.

Dynamics

Through the ability to build with pieces in front of them, we hope players will find a more interactive system. Players are free to set up their houses however they would like, so long as the meet the requirements of each floor’s material needs.

Continuing with our theme of choice, player’s even can pick which players they wish to affect when they become the “Wolf”. They can choose whom they wish to strike, and which segment of their house they wish to strike (so long as the structure is not completed).

Aesthetics

Despite being a board game, we did not want players to feel restricted. This was overwhelmingly why we chose to incorporate a series of selections throughout the game. Despite the amount of choices we are giving players, we want them to feel some element of chaos. This was seen through the use of chance cards, the “Wolf”, and the board’s allocation of materials.

Overall Art Style:

The overall style of the game is greatly inspired by the cartoons of the 1930s while adding a bright and modern color palette to the aesthetic. The game features characters that share many basic design traits of those old cartoons, and are specifically inspired by Disney cartoons such as Steamboat Willie. Much of the text is also inspired by not only old cartoons, but also silent movies from around the same period. However, with the use of color it gives the game a more modern feel despite its’ vintage inspirations. It’s filled with bright colors and clean lines to give it a more modern look while still keeping some vintage design aesthetics.

Character Style:

The style of the characters is greatly inspired by the1930s cartoon style known as Inkblot. The style came about due to limitations in technology in which the characters needed to stand out because of being in black and white as well as needing to be simple to draw because of the amount of film frames needed to draw. Some of the more iconic parts on inkblot use include the pie shaped eyes, gloves for hands, and also the rubber hose limbs. 

The pie shaped eyes and gloves are one of the more iconic things that appear in all types of characters in 1930s cartoons. Rubber hose limbs were used because of technical limitations, but also allowed the characters to be expressive in different ways because of the lack of joints. When it comes to these three specific characters they follow these basic design traits, but use more clean lines, as well as bright colors. Each pig has a different color theme and expression in order to make them stand out from each other while sharing many similar elements. Another thing added to give them character was stylizing their nostrils in the same way as their eyes to add more expressiveness to the characters.

Scenery Style:

The scenery style is pretty simplistic, but still borrows much of the vintage aesthetic. The tiles all have different numbers that correspond with a color as well, so players can either identify the space by both color and text if need be. The text on the spaces also draw inspiration from title card text of the 1930s cartoons. The paths are winding and round to call back to the rubber hose limbs of the characters. 

The chance cards follow a different visual aesthetic while still keeping a vintage element. In many old silent movies of the time, dialog was delivered by white text on a black background with accents along the border. The chance cards are meant to mimic this silent movie with serif font that both fits the era while still being easily legible. While most was done digitally the building materials were hand painted. The materials are meant to look less cartoonish than the rest of the game since they are physical items that the player can physically build with.

Overall Color Scheme:

The color scheme of the game is quite simple. The characters of course being pigs are mainly pink, however they each have a distinct color that sets them apart from each other. In addition the entire game feature thick black lines as well as neutral color tones from the black and white era of film & television. 

The color palette of the board is a color palette that includes soft shades of both warm and cool colors. The cool colors are used for the positive aspects of the board that add materials for the player. The softer blues and purples are meant to give the player a sense of safety. The warmer oranges and reds are for the negative and Wolf spaces and are meant to give the players a warning. The use of both cool and warm colors are meant to invoke a specific emotion to the player.

Our GDD is 12 pages long, and spans everything from our revision history to our flowchart and tech needs.