Ahoy is the creative half of an honours research project, which draws upon the thesis and it’s research into design thinking, game studies, and practice-led research. This investigation lead to the proposal of seven hybrid game design principles for further research and development of hybrid games.

“Elysse’s set of recommended principles is particularly intriguing and promising in terms of future research.”
Dr Teodor Mitew

The creative work is grounded in this research, using the proposed game design principles to design and develop a hybrid game prototype.

This document outlines the design process of the game, showcasing skills such as brand creation through naming and logo design; game design, highlighting the ability to create an original and compelling tabletop game design; character design within the game, using research to influence design decisions; and graphic design skills including app design to create a visual representation of how the game would look and function, grounding the abstract design into a work which readers can understand and engage with.

“This is an impressive piece of work. The candidate is to be commended on the sophistication and complexity of her hybrid game design.”
Dr Brigid Costello

The app mockup below shows an example of the app in action, looking at the settings, running through the tutorial screens, and playing through the digital side of the game.

It also showcases an understanding of sound design, with the sound of waves looped in the background, and a digging sound used to signal a tap that changes a setting or navigates to the next screen. These sound effects have been edited through Pro Tools to fix the sound levels and filter out unwanted background noise with EQ settings.

“The creative work documentation does well to translate the complex structure of the game by mapping it to the double diamond design model supplemented with the seven hybrid game design principles developed in the thesis. The game illustrations, both analogue and digital, are playful and cohere well with the game’s overall feel and proposed style of play. I particularly appreciated the way Elysse has isolated critical incidents throughout the game design process, both in terms of contextualizing the development process and the user-friendly yet playful visual style. The use of QR codes in the digital section of the game design process documentation is helpful in illustrating important contextual aspects of the game and playfully hybridizes the experience. The written exposition is insightful and does well to clarify the creative presentation.”
Dr Teodor Mitew