Map Of Change

Map of Change Overview

I designed the Map of Change to help NGO partners and school system leaders come together and understand the different transformation challenges faced by schools. The underlying problem was that school leaders and funders often struggle to grasp the trade-offs of real-world decision-making in schools that don't have enough resources.

So, the idea was to build a game that allowed the players to feel the tension, not just read about it, because the moment you feel something, it becomes a whole lot more real and visceral.

What's the game about?

The Map of Change was sparked by stories where there were schools that were improving drastically despite facing overwhelming odds. It is a solo strategic board game where players run a low-income school for 12 rounds. The key mechanics in this game are resource management, card drafting and a variety of branching decisions that you need to make.

The player experience is all about making tough calls, especially when you have limited resources and you have to keep in mind long-term goals as well as short term survivability. All of this was designed in such a way so that players would have a strong emotional experience while playing the game.

What were the challenges?

When I had to design the game, there were a bunch of challenges that I had to overcome.

First, the game was to be debuted at a conference. Therefore, it needed to be a solo experience that packed a punch – and could be run very quickly.

Personally, I wanted to make sure the game had high replayability. This would mean that players would get the opportunity to unearth different dynamics between the different resources and situations, the different paths that the players take and the challenges the game presents.

What was the design journey like?

The design journey began with the Map of Change being a way more complex game with lots of fiddly bits. I had dice, multiple card decks, a lot of randomness and a lot of luck that made the whole game very swingy. Strategy didn't matter much. So, I tweaked the components and mechanics to make sure that players' intentions mattered. I removed most of the luck based elements and added in more meaningful decisions.

In the beginning, I didn't have an overarching goal for players to work towards either. But with each iteration of solo testing and design, I realized that this game would benefit from being as close to reality as possible – and so, goals were introduced, along with decision choices that aligned with different goals.

One of the earlier avatars that I had for the game explored multiplayer approaches to this too, because there are different stakeholders who are responsible for helping a school succeed – and I thought it'd be cool.

But I decided to refine it and keep it to a solo player thing for a couple of reasons:

1. First, in a conference environment, being able to play a game requires attention, and that's going to be in short supply.
2. Second, I applied the Pareto principle. I needed to make sure that players strongly felt what was happening. I wanted to give them deeper immersion, and the best way I decided was to focus on a single perspective.

So, to increase the decision space that players had, instead of adding multiple roles and players, I decided to add in a branching pathways on the board with variable resources as a mechanic, because it mirrors, to some degree, the actual decisions that people who run the schools actually have to make.

I was satisfied with that.

What were the challenges?

Despite my design coming along well, I still grappled with a ton of challenges.

Realism vs. Replayability

First was trying to figure out the balance between realism and replayability. Real-world decisions are messy, but the game needed structure. I could easily make the decisions simpler/black and white, but that wouldn't work towards the ultimate goal.

The game also brought up a bit of sorrow (for me) when I saw the work being done by the school leader, but didn't see any results. I didn't like that. So, I tweaked the balance between happiness and tradeoffs – I added some elements of joy, while keeping some tough decisions too.

Because that's how life is, right? You need a little bit of everything.

Accurate Content

Another challenge was the content for the opportunity cards themselves.

I've not been in a situation where I have to make tough calls like these. And to honestly reflect the genuine dilemmas that people who run the schools face, that took some research and some thinking to actually get right.

Mood & Vibes

The final challenge was something to do with the aesthetics. Often, while playing the game, it can feel like it's a losing proposition – like you're drowning.

It had a psychological effect where players would just get stuck in a vicious mental loop of sadness, saying, "Oh my God! I'm just spending, but I'm not actually able to see the kind of impact I'm having!"

So, I had to make sure that that was fixed as well.

What were the innovations?

There were a couple of cool innovations that stood out for me in the design journey.

Win Condition

The first was goal-alignment-win condition. In the game, players would ideally be making the best choices that maximize the amount of resources they have.

But, more often, players have to make the choices that align with the higher goal they have to achieve. These are often sub-optimal decisions.

Often, the card market itself would not have enough opportunities to make the progress that players want – but that was by design. It's not that players will fail, but to drive home the fact that achieving a bigger goal takes much longer than what we anticipate.

Resource Depletion

I also exaggerated a little bit and added a mechanic where if any of your available resources are over, then it's an instant game over. Now, obviously, the real world doesn't work like that, right? I mean, schools tend to limp around. But, to accentuate the emotional roller coaster, I added that as a mechanic.

That made some players really weigh their decisions carefully and think multiple opportunities ahead.

How did the game evolve?

Decision Space

In the early days, the game had no card market. There was no branching or player agency. It almost felt like they were doing the work of a spreadsheet.

I didn't want that.

I wanted to introduce player agency. That's why the market came in. The branching nodes. The multiple options.

All of these increased the decision space for the player.

Card Size

This one really tripped me up. I didn't anticipate that the size of the cards would matter – and I designed with the default. Poker-sized cards work well at a table, but in a conference setting, you need things to be bigger. Text is hard to read, and you definitely need to fix that. From now on, I'll be using A5 as the minimum size for a game that will be played in a conference.

Element Positioning

Another thing that changed was the positioning of the market and other elements of the game board. During a playtest, I realized that players would be on one side of a big table and facilitators would be on the other. I had to make sure everything was easier for the player to play, so I moved thigns around for easy access for the players.

What are my takeaways?

I'm quite happy with this game. It's been quite useful for my clients. They agree that it has triggered many conversations, especially with school leaders and stakeholders. That's a big win.

Another win is that players understood that school leaders had to make difficult decisions considering multiple parameters to turn their school into a success.

I mean, it's easy for us to admire these people in a documentary or read about them online, but when we're forced to make the same hard decisions they make day in and day out, it generates newfound respect.

But personally, the biggest win was this: I learned how to effectively get people to feel the things I want them to feel.

And for that, I'm super happy.

Work with me?

If you wish to collaborate on education, systems change or learning design, I'd love to talk.

I design custom games that make mindset shifts happen.

Get in touch.