A Description of my friend and I's educational board game

Click on the image for better quality!

GATE is a strategic, social board game and was created for the purpose of educating players ages 16 and up about the ancient civilizations of Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese, and Vikings. To accomplish this goal, two areas were researched: the history of those ancient civilizations and popular board games among older players. Academic articles and books with a strong emphasis on ancient cultures and militaries, such as Wars of the Ancient Greeks and Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt, were read to select which historical information would be incorporated into GATE. Furthermore, reading Challenges for Game Designers aided in balancing the strategic play preferred by adult players with the chance-of-luck preferred by social gamers. This research was accompanied by analyzing two of the most popular board games aimed at older players, Small World and Settlers of Catan. The designers of Small World, a fantasy game where players acquire territories to win, and Settlers of Catan, a European styled game where players must interact to manage and collect the most resources for victory, created games that invite accessibility and replay ability . Combining the research and gameplay from those games culminated in a colorful game board of territories and dynamic resources that facilitate the social aspect of the game. The educational aspect of the game arrives not only from managing a civilization’s resources, but from cards that effect gameplay and offer historical information about each civilization’s culture and military. GATE is significant because it represents an opportunity to educate social and strategic gamers about past civilizations beyond traditional classroom settings.