(for lack of a better name,) Cord Board

Initially, I wanted to make a Twine game because it seemed like a good way to communicate the everyday discomfort that comes from being transgender and disabled. Then I opened Twine. It looked like a lot of organizing and writing. I do not have the discipline to make something that labor intensive in two weeks. I closed the screen and went to watch music videos instead. There was one shot where this kid was strapped down to a table with lots and lots of yarn strands. I really liked the way the yarn made a crazy pattern, and I had a leftover piece of cardboard and a lot of string leftover from learning how to hand-sew, so I figured putting string through holes could imitate the aesthetic.

I was learning how to hand-sew the other week. It was really calming. And the main reason I play games is to calm down, chill out, relax, quiet my mind, etc. so making a game about sewing seemed like a good idea.

After poking a lot of holes of varying sizes through the cardboard, I started threading a long piece of string through the holes to make a cool pattern. Maybe each criss-cross of string could be a point. It took 3 hours to finish using this piece of string, and by the end, counting each criss-cross was absolutely impossible.

In the meantime, because I had to take some breaks while playing, I wrote up these rules.

After finishing playing the prototype, I made these criticisms and got some from you.

I scrapped the point system and the criss-crossing parts. They did not work at all.

All the other rules seemed fine, though. Having to use the whole string, the ways to change difficulty, and everything else in the upper left corner of the rules page were functional. I just had to find a new goal. Then I looked into tangrams, for making shapes out of other shapes, and tested it. It worked much better. It is more enjoyable.

There are so many ways to improve this game. I have to explore different board setups, different string lengths, different materials, the time it takes to play, and make a more concrete goal. The player has too much freedom. Lots of the time I felt kind of lost while playing, wondering “why am I doing this?” which is not good, and I have to fix it. The problem is that I have some kind of aversion to putting restrictions on people who experience my work because I don’t like feeling “stuck in a box.” I have to get past that and look into rules in games. I know that they’re important. I know that rules+goal=fun. But it feels weird to have a lot of rules be an integral part of making fun things.

I’ll try to fix this game over the summer, and try to learn Unity. I should probably tackle more expansive projects in the future.

 

The game takes a really long time to play and finish, and I couldn’t figure out how to set up the camera, so I made an image gallery instead of a video. A video would have been super long. If you click on the first picture, it can work as a slideshow as long as you keep clicking. I played for around 30 minutes and did not finish. I think you can get the gist of it from this.

INSTRUCTIONS (these are copied on the left-hand side of the board)

CORD BOARD

OBJECTIVE

The goal of Cord Board is to create shapes and forms by threading a single piece of string through a perforated board. It is a one-player game.

MATERIALS

The game pieces are:

• a long piece of string
• a playing board with rows of holes of varying sizes

RULES

• use the whole string
• begin and end the string’s path in the same hole
• do not break the string
• the string can cross over itself no more than three times

GAMEPLAY

To begin the game, choose a hole to start and end the form with. Then, use the string as a continuous line to make a scene, series of connected drawings, or patterns by pulling it in and out of holes.

When the string goes into the board from the front, it should come out through the back.

There is no time limit.

VARIATIONS

To make the game more or less challenging, the player may opt to:

• change the length of the string
• change the type of string used (thinner string like thread is easy, thick string like yarn is hard, etc.)
• only enter each hole one time
• reenter holes as many times as possible
• change the number of figures to make on their board at one time

SUGGESTIONS FOR DRAWINGS

Similar to cloud watching, the player can “look” into the board to create many different shapes, such as:

• a house
• a heart
• a smiley face
• a bird
• a plane
• a crown
• a monkey
• a ruler
• a hand
• a tree

and so on. Players are encouraged to use their imaginations to create different compositions.

ABOUT

This game is meant to be a meditative exercise, a sort of mindless busywork helpful for calming down and letting time pass in a peaceful way. Its repetitive actions emulate motions typical of hand-sewing without the frustration of fabric, needles, and straight lines.

Cord Board may function as a safe form of self-stimulatory behavior and as a tool to improve motor skills.