Alex Kaplan

Campaign Trail 3000

An educational board game where players compete to win the hearts and minds of the Mechamerican voter.

Campaign Trail 3000 is a simultaneous-play card drafting board game. You are a presidential candidate in Mechamerica, a post-apocalyptic world of robots running elections to keep their circuits warm.

This was a project created as part of Professor Zamboni's Educational Gaming Lab course at Wesleyan University.

Director/Designer

Designed the game's mechanics and systems, and handled balancing and adjustment according to playtest feedback, all the while ensuring that gameplay aligned with educational goals. Managed team of artists in designing and producing the board, cards, tiles, and tokens.

• Wrote and developed the game's rules and mechanics.
• Designed stage bonus board, including sixteen distinct bonuses with their own costs, tracks, strategies, and synergies.
• Created 48 unique cards, each with their own resource costs, point values, and flavor.
• Managed card balancing and resource availability using Microsoft Excel.
• Worked with art team to create fun and thematically appropriate player characters, with six options to choose from.
• Planned and designed gameplay flow, including both turn-by-turn and higher-level gameplay loops.

Writing

Wrote the game's rules, cards, flavor text, and educational modules.

• Create game rules and organized them into a rulebook and quick reference card.
• Wrote 8 cards and 4 bonuses for each of the game's four interest groups, ensuring cohesion with educational goals and entertainment during gameplay.
• Included unique names and flavor text for each card.
• Designed and wrote 8 thematically appropriate random scenarios for the game's "October Surprise Event" mechanic.
• Worked with art team to ensure efficiency of communication and readability.
• Wrote two sets of discussion prompts designed to encourage deeper thinking about the electioneering process, whether at home or in a classroom.

Playtest Coordination

Administered playtests to players with different demographic backgrounds, familiarity with games, professions, and education levels.

• Gathered playtester response data and formulated design adjustments.
• Directed rapid post-playtest iterations for efficient and effective testing.
• Communicated with the art team to adjust visual design to improve player experience.
• Formulated list of playtest evaluation questions and administered player surveys.

Campaign Trail 3000 was made in collaboration with the art team, Leigh Allen and Juan Galan. Special thanks to Professor Camilla Zamboni and Alessia Caviglia for their help with balancing, educational analysis, and playtesting.