Afro n Seek

 

Afro n Seek is a game about strategic thinking, hand dexterity, and time management. There are two players, one game board (my hair), and five objects (five cotton buds).

 

The two players are playing against each other. Player A is blindfolded, while Player B has to hide the five cotton buds inside of my hair. Player A then has to find the buds in my hair while still being blindfolded. Then, Player A and B swap places. The player who can find all five buds in the shortest amount of time wins the game.

 

Game test video:

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1t2BhdBByROgw7LtK890wMdXlEWzPzxQx

 

Impressions of the players:

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LN4edBL1D3GBGP0oj9oNOJx6uYamiPSU

 

Analysis: During the playtest, we were sitting in a student residential lounge on a sofa, but it could been player pretty much anywhere else so the context in this sense was not particularly essential to the course of the game. There is a clear goal; find the buds, and quickly. There wasn’t a story behind it, and my hair (nor the buds for the matter) did not symbolize anything. I chose buds because they are small enough not to be easily found, and shaped in such a way that it is easy to lodge them in my hair without falling. When I realized though that their bright color would make them easy to find, I came up with the idea of blindfolding the player. I also experimented with hiding an M&M is my hair, but I realized, after the candy came out of my hair white (it was blue when it entered), that that wouldn’t be completely hygienic. As for appropriating a space, we chose to have the game test in a residential lounge because it was night and that was a close-by well-lit space, but it really could have happened anywhere without appropriating a big space since we didn’t take much room. There was no one else besides me and the two players in the lounge at the time though, so I expect the game could be a lot funnier had we been in a more public space.

 

The game test went smoothly, as the two players quickly understood the rules and respected them throughout the game. I suppose that the lack of too complex rules/their straightforwardness also helped that. Neither of the players were too aggressive with my hair, and I actually found the treatment almost therapeutic. It might have gone differently with different players though. Both of the players reported having had fun and enjoyed the process, and I can say the same, so I’m glad. They also said that they liked the feeling of my hair texture, and that being blindfolded actually heightened the experience. One of them did however mention feeling “lost”, but that did not seem to bother her much. A few other observations:

 

• I did get hit once in my eyes, so eye protection for me might be useful.
• The game wouldn’t have worked had I shorter/straight hair. I also hadn’t washed my hair for a few days, so it was frizzier than usual. I’m not sure of how well the buds would have held onto my hair had I just washed it.
• “The longer the hair the better” the game might have been more fun had I longer hair (maybe in a few years?).

Assessment: Again, my game is very straightforward; it’s hard to play it “wrong” as all you have to do is rummage your hands through my hair until you find the buds. The part of the game that does involve creation is when the player has to hide the buds in my hair, where they might start thinking about where best to hide them so that the other player would have a harder time finding them. The part where the player has to extract the buds also evokes destruction, but the player has to be careful as not to damage the game board (a.k.a. tear out my hair or hit me). The general act of searching through my hair brought laughter to both the players and the board (me) during the playtest, so engaging with the game might be considered expressive in that way. The player who hides the buds may also express themselves by adding their own personal touch to where they hide it, but it is only to their own pleasure as neither the board (me) nor the other player (because they’re blindfolded) will be able to enjoy/look at it.