ride along
I designed ride along, a whimsical yet educational board game to teach future drivers about cyclist safety and inform them of the dangers on the road. The game is silly, yet educational as it supports cyclists in teaching the next generation about the many dangers one may experience while biking, as well as how to keep themselves safe at the same time.
how to play
every round, the group will encounter a hazard card. the goal of every round is to avoid the hazard card through the use of point and power cards. point and power cards refer to various safety equipment that can potentially be used to keep a cyclist safe. players with the highest point gets to travel further on the board, while the player with the lowest card will get the hazard card. once a player has collected 5 hazard cards, they are out. in order to win, players must reach to the destination on the board, or by being the last one still biking.
point and power cards
Point cards are a series of safety equipment that a player may use to keep themself safe on the road and avoid the hazard cards every round. The safety equipment was designed based off of the answers I received from the 11 interviews conducted. in the interviews, I asked my guests to name the items they’d bring along with them when they bike. along with the named items, I added a few fun items to make the playing experience fun and educational.
hazard cards
These are event cards that represent potential dangers that a cyclist may experience while biking in charlotte. these event cards can be either emergency hazards, environmental hazards, or emotional hazards, these broadly represent the wide amount of dangers a cyclist may become victim to. Since the game is designed for the younger audience, I designed it to be whimsical. This way the user experience will be an enjoyable learning process; with that said, a few of the cards are a tad bit exaggerated and maybe… unrealistic.
board meeples
As this product is to promote safer roads within the charlotte area, I designed the board to replicate a potential route within the city that an individual may take. When designing the board, I was being cognizant about a route that a cyclist may take. In Charlotte, there is often times construction in the way making it dangerous for cars and bikes to cross, so knowing that I didn’t want it to be a straight path to the finish line.
As for the meeples ( I had no idea it was called that either ), I wanted players to feel as immersed as possible leading me to go with a bicycle. to get them printed, I reached out to the workshop within the UNC Charlotte library and they got it printed!
