Blizzard U: DesignCraft
DesignCraft was a class occasionally offered to Blizzard employees, taught by World of Warcraft designer Craig Morrison. Each week, groups of 3-6 would tackle various challenges of theme, materials, and/or mechanics to brainstorm and build a board game prototype in about three hours. These are some of the games I helped create.
DesignCraft: Mario Kart
I got to build this one twice with different groups; while the instructions were the same, the executions varied:
- V1 used a d20 to determine player movement and random item rolls; V2 used card draw;
- V1 included a risk/reward “acceleration” mechanic to add depth to track navigation, while V2 had a double-wide track to encourage tactical choices;
- While V2 leaned into the random chaos of Mario Kart (including a crossover track and kart collision), V1 attempted to mimic some of the catch-up mechanics in the digital games by changing item pools and boost power based on player position.
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