Worcester Polytechnic Institute

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2016-04-28

The Transmediation of Journey to the West into a

board Game
Zihui Wu
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

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Wu, Zihui, "The Transmediation of Journey to the West into a board Game" (2016). Masters Theses (All Theses, All Years). 457.
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 The Transmediation of Journey to the West into a board Game

By

Zihui Wu

A Thesis

Submitted to the faculty of

WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Degree of Master of Science

in

Interactive Media and Game Development

__________________________________

April, 2016

Approved

________________________________

Dean O’Donnell, Thesis Chair

________________________________

Britton Snyder

_______________________________

Lee Sheldon

1
 Abstract

China is a cultural and economic giant in today’s world, but has been somehow

misunderstood in the past decades 1. With more and more educational and economic

communication between China and the western world, more non-Chinese people find a need to

know China. This project has created a board game based on Journey to the West, a 2000-page

novel which is one of the four great classical novels in China. The project seeks to transmit some

of the cultural aspects of China, stimulate people’s interest in China through simple gameplay.

The ultimate goal of this project was to develop a game which was fun for friends and families to

play together, as well as to offer a relaxing and pleasant play space for people to experience a

different culture without extensive reading.

The paper explains the research that has been done to realize the project, Journey to the

West: the Board Game, and the production expectation. A study has been done behind the

project explored the game’s mechanics, appeal and effectiveness. The paper also details the

results of this study to determine if players of this board game learn about Chinese culture more

than readers of the book.

1
Jacques, Martin.2009

2
 Acknowledgements

First of all, I want to thank my thesis advisor, Professor Dean O’Donnell, for his useful

advice with regard to my project. He played an important role in my design iterations and

playtests’ process. I would also like to thank Professor Lee Sheldon and Professor Britton Snyder

for being my thesis readers and for sharing with me their opinions on my project.

I also want to thank Professor Huili Zheng for her advice on ways to teach Chinese

culture, for sharing of her understanding of the book Journey to the West and her help with

finding people to participate in my experiment.

I would like to acknowledge the help of my friends Chun Yang, Yuteng Zhou, Yue

Chang, Chaima Jemmali and Yakin Najahi in being my game testers and offering me feedback

on the game play. They helped me to improve and balance my game mechanics. I also want to

thank Zhen Tan, Siqi Liu for their help with the art design of my game.

I would also like to express my gratitude and love to my parents and my grandparents for

being so supportive and caring, especially when I feel stressed. They are always there for me and

encourage me.

3
 Table of Contents

ABSTRACT --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
LIST OF FIGURES ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6
INTRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8
ANALYZING ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9
Why should western people know Chinese culture? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9
Why choose the book Journey to the West? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10
Board games and their educational functions ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11
Learning objective of the board game --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12
BACKGROUND ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14
THE NOVEL JOURNEY TO THE WEST----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14
Brief summary and structure --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14
The popularity in China and other cultures -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15
CHINESE CULTURE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16
Religions and Philosophies ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17
Chinese characters ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18
Ancient literature ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 19
Visual art ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19
JOURNEY TO THE WEST THE GAME THE BOARD GAME -------------------------------------------------------------- 20
INITIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAME --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20
Chinese culture components in the game ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21
Experience--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22
Mechanics and inspirational references ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 22
DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAME ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30
Paper prototype -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31
Art creation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 32
REVISED GAME ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 42
Target audience -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 42
Duration ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 42
Numbers of People to Play------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 42
Game elements --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 43
How to play ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 45
CHINESE CULTURE COMPONENTS IN THE GAME -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46
Experience--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46
The stories --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46
The art style ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46
Other components ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46
PRINTING AND PRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 48
EVALUATION AND SURVEY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 49
SUBJECTS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 49
METHOD---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 49
RESEARCH QUESTIONS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 50

4
 The demographic information-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 50
Questionnaire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 50
Test ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 50
RESULTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 52
THE DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 52
PRE-EXPERIMENTAL RESULT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 52
POST-EXPERIMENTAL RESULT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 55
POST MORTEM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 61
EVENTS THAT WENT WELL --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 61
FUTURE WORKS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 61
CONCLUSION --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 63
BIBLIOGRAPHY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 64
APPENDIX A: INSPIRATIONAL BOARD GAMES REFERENCES ----------------------------------------------------- 70
APPENDIX B: THE GAME ELEMENTS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 71
APPENDIX C: THE GAME RULES --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 72
APPENDIX D: THE PRINTING PRICE TABLE --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 79
APPENDIX E: DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 80
APPENDIX F: SURVEYS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 81
APPENDIX G: THE TEST----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 86

5
 List of Figures

FIGURE 1- AN EARLY DESIGN’S PROTOTYPE ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 23

FIGURE 2- THE GAME BOARD OF LEWIS AND CLARK ---------------------------------------------------------- 25
FIGURE 3- THE GAME LORDS OF WATER DEEP 33 --------------------------------------------------------------- 26
FIGURE 4-THE COVER OF CITADELS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27
FIGURE 5- THE GAME BRUGES AND THE DICE THAT ARE USED IN THE GAME ---------------------- 29
FIGURE 6- A PLAYTEST SESSION ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30
FIGURE 7- A ROUGH GAME BOARD DRAFT ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31
FIGURE 8- THE FINAL HAND-DRAWING BOARD ------------------------------------------------------------------ 32
FIGURE 9- WUKONG FIGHT THE THIRD LOTUS PRINCE 44 --------------------------------------------------- 33
FIGURE 10- THE EARTH DEITY IN CHINESE FOLKTALES45 -------------------------------------------------- 34
FIGURE 11- CHINESE SHUI MO PAINTING46 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 35
FIGURE 12- THE BACK GROUND IMAGE OF THE MONSTER CARDS --------------------------------------- 36
FIGURE 13- THE BACK SIDE DESIGN OF THE EVIL DECK ----------------------------------------------------- 37
FIGURE 14- THE SPIRIT AND POWER SYMBOLS’ DESIGN ----------------------------------------------------- 38
FIGURE 15- THE WANSHENG PRINCESS, CHARACTER DESIGN --------------------------------------------- 39
FIGURE 16- A COMPLETE MONSTER CARD ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 40
FIGURE 17- THE PLAYER’S BOARD ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 40
FIGURE 18- THE GAME BOARD’S FINAL DESIGN ----------------------------------------------------------------- 41
FIGURE 19- JOURNEY TO THE WEST: THE BOARD GAME ----------------------------------------------------- 43
FIGURE 20- THE MONSTER DECK --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 44
FIGURE 21- THE PRINTING PRICES------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 48
FIGURE 22- THE PROCESS OF THE EXPERIMENT ---------------------------------------------------------------- 50
FIGURE 23- WHY THE SUBJECTS ARE INTERESTED IN KNOWING CHINESE CULTURE ----------- 53
FIGURE 24- THE WAYS THAT THE SUBJECTS HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO CHINESE CULTURE --- 53
FIGURE 25- DO YOU LIKE BOARD GAMES? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 54
FIGURE 26- WHAT TYPES OF BOARD GAMES DO YOU LIKE TO PLAY ------------------------------------ 54
FIGURE 27- DO YOU THINK LEARNING ABOUT CULTURE THROUGH PLAYING BOARD GAME IS
A GOOD IDEA? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 55
FIGURE 28- DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF MORE INTERESTED IN CHINESE CULTURE? -------- 56
FIGURE 29-DO YOU THINK LEARNING BY READING (LEFT)/ PLAYING BOARD GAMES (RIGHT)
IS A GOOD IDEA? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 56
FIGURE 30- AFTER THE RESEARCH, WILL YOU LOOK UP MORE RELEVANT MATERIALS OF
DIFFERENT CULTURE? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 57
FIGURE 31- DID YOU READ THE CONTENTS ON CARDS? ------------------------------------------------------ 58
FIGURE 32- HOW DO YOU LIKE THE ART OF THIS BOARD GAME? ---------------------------------------- 58

6
FIGURE 33- DO YOU THINK THE GAME IS FUN TO PLAY? ----------------------------------------------------- 59
FIGURE 34- TESTS’ ACCURACY COMPARISON -------------------------------------------------------------------- 59

7
 Introduction

China has been somehow misunderstood and overlooked in the past decades 1. With

more and more economical, educational and cultural exchanging 2 between China and the world,

there is more need for non-Chinese people to know more about this emerging global power.

A traditional Chinese novel, Journey to the West, which is one of the four great classic

novels in China (The other three great classic novel are Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Dream

of the Red Chamber and Water Margin), was used as the basis for a board game in order to

disseminate some of the Chinese cultural aspects and stimulate non-Chinese people’s interest in

China. The motivations behind this decision were:

Journey to the West is one of the few books that have received huge popularity from

people in all ages. It is also among the list of the most representative and influential books of

China. Some aspects of Chinese culture, like the religious views of ancient Chinese people, are

shown in the book and can be put into the game. These aspects are widely-known by Chinese

people and should be known by non-Chinese people. The board game was chosen to be the

medium that the book would be transformed into because it has an important advantage that is

not seen in other types of games. This advantage is that board games can offer Chinese and non-

Chinese people opportunities for face to face communication, which allow them to discuss

cultural aspects while playing, so that besides learning, they can gain mutual understanding

during game play as well.

2
"China Overview." <http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/overview>.

8
 For the project, the ultimate goal was to develop a game which is fun for friends and

families to play together, as well as to offer a relaxing and pleasant play space for people to

experience a different culture in an untraditional way.

Analyzing

Why should western people know Chinese culture?

Nowadays, people are more globally connected and therefore are more interested in

foreign cultures. As one of the predominant cultures in the world, Chinese culture has received

more and more interests from those with a non-Chinese heritage, from all over the world. One of

the notable aspects of Chinese culture is its 5,000 years of rich history and archaeological

values3.

China has become the second largest economy and is increasingly playing an important

and influential role in the global economy 2. Since there are more business contacts between

China and the world, there is more need for non-Chinese people who have the demand to

communicate with Chinese people in knowing this country. Another aspect that shows the

cultural exchanges between China and the world stands on the educational experience. In the

past few decades, more and more Chinese students choose to study abroad. For example, there

are more than a quarter of a million students from China in colleges in the United States - a third

of all international students in the country-which is almost a fivefold increase since 20004.

Chinese people can be seen everywhere around the world. In the daily life, non-Chinese have

3
"Chinese Dynasty Guide - The Art of Asia - History and Maps." <http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-
asia/history/chinese-dynasty-guide.cfm>.
4
Svoboda, Sarah. "Why Do so Many Chinese Students Choose US Universities? - BBC
News." <http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32969291>.

9
more chances to contact with Chinese people. Mutual understandings are required for Chinese

and non-Chinese people to build up good relationships. All these phenomena below can show

China’s deep connection with the world.

Chinese culture, which was conceived through its glorious history, its people, and its vast

landscape, has been regarded as a point of pride for this country. Knowing some of the cultural

aspects, this focal point can connect individuals from China with those who are not. China has

always and continues to be regarded as a nation that is intertwined with both prominent and

developing countries. These connections are based off of sharing ideas and innovations that

concern anything with education, resources, and economics. These ties have demonstrated the

ever- increasing needs of what China can provide to external masses, including Chinese culture.

Why choose the book Journey to the West?

The novel Journey to the West, was the inspiration of the board game. It is a thick book

and the length of this novel can prevent people from reading it. The most well-known English

translation version of the book has more than 2,000 pages. Many transmediations of this book

have been done before and helped the story to gain huge popularity among Chinese people of all

ages.

There are several reasons of choosing this book. Firstly, as one of four classic novels in

China, the book itself is an icon in Chinese literary culture. Knowing the book implies knowing

some of the aspects that are integral to Chinese literary culture. Secondly, many Chinese cultural

aspects are shown in this story, such as Chinese folk religion, Chinese mythology, and Taoist and

Buddhist philosophy5. A successful transmediation of Journey to the West would not only teach

5
"Journey to the West." <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_West>.

10
the story, but also introduce some of the related cultural aspects. Thirdly, the book vividly

depicts a magical, timeless and complex world with ancient Chinese people, deities and demons.

The themes of the book are illustrated through many interesting, entertaining, and engaging short

stories that can be easily accepted and understood by non-Chinese people. As a result, Journey to

the West is undoubtedly a great book that could be used in teaching cultural aspects without

being too serious.

Board games and their educational functions

In the book Popular Culture in Counseling, Psychotherapy, and Play-Based

Interventions, the author Lawrence C. Rubin discusses some of the benefits that people can get

from board games. “Board games can help people to develop skills and moral instruction”6. And

although in a digital age where everybody worships technology, a growing number of companies

are going in the opposite direction. According to board game historian Margaret Hofer, board

games serve as “cultural mirrors of our societal and technological progress and offer fascinating

windows on the values, beliefs and aspirations of humans”7. These studies show that board

games could potentially be a way of teaching.

Board games have a long history and have received a lot of popularity, especially in the

western world. Combining board games with eastern culture would be a good way to stimulate

people’s interest in culture, and compared to the book, Journey to the West: the Board Game

offers a more dramatic and entertaining way of disseminating culture. Furthermore, since the

book is too long for people to get a general idea of it in a short time, the board game will help

people more easily achieve that goal. Board games do not take long to be played while at the

6
Rubin .Lawrence C. 2008.
7
Hofer , Margaret. 2003.

11
same time, the replayablity of them is high. Board games are supposed to be played many times.

As a result, with the experience of the whole journey being condensed in the game, people can

learn the story and the cultural aspects behind the story and get the change to gradually to learn

the story for multiply plays.

Board games can offer opportunities for people to sit together and to communicate with

each other face to face. This merit could potentially create perfect spaces for Chinese and non-

Chinese people to play and discuss Chinese culture together, and will definitely help to achieve

the goal of sharing cultures.

Learning objective of the board game

A board game is designed to help non-Chinese players gain the awareness of Chinese

culture. Ultimately, this game will be the first step in allowing players to learn more about China.

The game gives players a general idea of some of the important components of Chinese

culture, which involve Chinese composition characters, Chinese religions, etc. These

components of the Chinese culture will be explained in later sections.

Since Chinese culture is a field of study that includes extremely rich and complex

contents, it is difficult to explain the various aspects in detail of this complex culture. The task of

the game is not to teach everything, but to give non-Chinese people a general idea of some major

components of Chinese culture. For example, the game can introduce people to some Chinese

culture aspects by familiarizing them with some of the traditional art styles and Chinese gods,

such as Maitreya and Queen Mother of the West who was worshiped by ancient Chinese people.

12
 Beside the functionality of the board game, the playability and the amusement that the

players get from playing are essential to game as well.

Teaching culture is meaningful and the book Journey to the West was authored to make a

game. The intended purpose of the game was to provide players an enjoyable board game to

play, and expose them to an environment which could show some different aspects of Chinese

culture, including famous Chinese mythological figures (which involves deities that Chinese

people worship and demons that Chinese people fear of), Chinese folk tales, Chinese religions,

etc. Those aspects are all considered to be very well-known and as important culture aspects to

Chinese people in all ages.

13
 Background

The novel Journey to the West

Journey to the West was published in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty and

attributed to Wu Cheng'en 8. In China, it is considered one of the four great classical

novels of Chinese Literature and is one of the few classic novels that have received popularity

from all ages. The book is a long novel. The original Chinese version contains an approximate

of 866,000 words. The most common unabridged translation to English has a total of more than

2,000 pages and published in four volumes 9. It vividly described a magical, timeless and

complex world with ancient Chinese people, deities and demons.

Brief summary and structure

The novel has in total 100 chapters and can be divided into two parts based on its plot.

The history of Wukong (the Monkey King) and his companions is introduced in the first 12

chapters. These chapters talk about the conversion of the Monkey King, Sha Wujing (Friar

Sand), Zhu Bajie (the Piggy) and the White Dragon Horse to Buddhism and their promises to

wait for the master Sanzang (the monk, also known as Tripitaka) and accompany him on a

journey. Also told in these chapters is the background story of the Tang Emperor Taizong and

his selection of Sanzang to undertake the pilgrimages10.

8
"The introduction of Journey to the West".<http://www.thn21.com/wen/chang/9965.html>.
9
The review of Wu, Cheng. Journey to the West. Trans. W. J. F. Jenner. Foreign Languages, 1993. Print.
10
"ExEAS - Teaching Materials and Resources.". <http://www.columbia.edu/cu/weai/exeas/resources/buddhism-
journey-to-west.html>.

14
 The main part of the story, the actual journey to the Western Paradise, the obtainment of

the scriptures, and the trials are presented in chapters thirteen to one hundred: The Master

Sanzang and his disciples undergo the necessary eighty-one trials, the nine by nine of perfection.

Along the journey, they confront numerous encounters, which include a variety of wild beasts,

supernatural monsters, demons, as well as good and evil humans. Some of these demons and

monsters are defeated by Wukong and his companions, some of them were taken away by

Chinese gods and deities. In the final three chapters, the pilgrims present the scriptures to

Emperor Taizong and return to the Western Paradise for their rewards10.

The popularity in China and other cultures

Journey to the West has been received popularity from all ages through all time. It is

difficult to find someone, even a child, in China that doesn’t know about Journey to the West. It

is probably also the best-known Chinese novel to the people in other Asian countries or even

outside of the Confucian cultural sphere11. With its fabulous magical battles starring the lovable

short-tempered Wu Kong (the Monkey King), Journey to the West has an immediate appeal that

transcends cultural differences. The translations have been done in many languages, including

English, French, Japanese, German, Russian etc. 12. The book has been scholastically analyzed

inside and outside the world of China. Outside China, Japan has done the most work on it,

including early works like Inomata Shohachi’s writing About Journey to the West, and the

scholar of Chinese culture, Nakano Miyoko’s works10.On the other hand, many transmediations

that have been realized in different counties and regions include movies, TV series, video games,

Beijing operas, Manga, animations, dramas, etc. Some of the most notable movies are Journey to
11
Miyamoto, Yoko. "The Journey to the West: Chinese Views of History - Demystifying Confucianism.".
<http://www.demystifyingconfucianism.info/the-journey-to-the-west-chinese-view-of-history>.
12
Wang, Lina. <http://www.literature.org.cn/article.aspx?id=18314>.

15
the West (1966, China), A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box (1994, Hong Kong), and

Journey to the West (2013, China). The Monkey King Returns (2015, China), a hugely popular

animated movie in China, is also among this list. Ever since the first TV series Journey to the

West had been shot in 1982, the novel has been transformed to TV shows in 1998, 2000, 2010,

and 2012 in China. Even Japan shot the TV Series Journey to the West in 1993, 1994 and 200613.

There is also an American miniseries of this novel called The Monkey King that was directed by

Peter MacDonald and produced by NBC and the SciFi Channel14 in 2001. Another TV show that

is based on the novel is the Japanese anime series titled Dragon Ball Z, which has been popular

in America11.

Video games that have been inspired by this story include Fantasy Westward Journey,

QQ Journey, Fantasy Westward Journey Mobile, and so on. The main character, the Monkey

King, can also be seen in some other games such as Warriors Orochi and League of Legends and

Manga such as Sukiyaki (,Japan), Dear Monkey (Japan). Animations such as The Monkey King

(China) and Havoc in Heaven (1964, China) are well-known in China. Furthermore, more than

30 Beijing operas were made based on Journey to the West 13.

Chinese Culture

Chinese has more than 5,000 years history and its culture is one of the world's oldest

cultures 3. Thanks to the extraordinarily rich and complex Chinese history 3.and the vast territory

of China, Chinese culture has its glorious, unique and notable aspects. The components of

13
Baidu baike.<http://baike.baidu.com/subview/2583/5315045.htm>
14
"The Monkey King (TV Movie 2001)." < http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0198779/>

16
Chinese culture include, architecture, music, literature, martial arts, visual arts, religion and

many more. When discussing Chinese culture, a variety of topics could arise.

Religions and Philosophies

China has been a cradle and a host to a variety of the most enduring religions and

philosophical traditions of the world. Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism are generally known

as the "three teachings", and combined to form the foundation of Chinese religion. They played a

significant role in shaping Chinese ancient culture 1516.

Confucianism, which is sometimes considered a system of philosophical and "ethical-

sociopolitical teachings” 17 rather than a religion to Chinese people, had been the predominant

philosophy in China for a long time since Confucius first started it. Because of its unique training

that could allow multiple religions to coexist and to be practiced by the public at the same time,

other religions, such as Taoism and Buddhism were able gather large followings. As a result,

these three religions peacefully coexisted in China for a long time.

Taoism (also called Daoism), which originated in China, is a polytheistic religion that

contains a multitude of gods and goddesses. Its profound impact on Chinese culture can be seen

in many aspects, such as Chinese alchemy, Chinese astrology, and traditional Chinese medicine18.

In China, some of the widely-know theories were first proposed by Taoism, such as the

theory of Yin and Yang, and the theory of Five Elements. Five Elements (Wuxing), which refers

15
Miller, James. Chinese Religions in Contemporary Societies. 2006. p57.
16
Yao, Xinzhong, and Yanxia Zhao. Chinese Religion: A Contextual Approach. 2010.
17
Engler, Steven. Historicizing "Tradition" in the Study of Religion. p232.
18
Levitt, Susan.2013.

17
to Metal, Wood, Earth, Water and Fire19, is a fivefold conceptual scheme that many traditional

Chinese fields used to explain various scientific or mysterious phenomena. These phenomena

encompass cosmic cycles, the internal body functions, the succession of political regimes and

the properties of medicinal drugs20.

Another religion that was somewhat widespread in ancient China is Buddhism. Traditions,

beliefs and practices of this religion are based on teachings attributed to Buddha 21. When

Buddhism was first introduced into China from India in the Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years

ago, its theory continually interacted with and gradually became an important part of Chinese

culture22.

These three religious philosophies, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, as a whole

coexisted in harmony with each other in China for a long time. They became the sources of the

deities and the gods that people believed in and some of them were shown in the book Journey to

the West.

Chinese characters

Chinese characters, also known as Han characters are logograms used in the writing of

Chinese23. Chinese characters constitute the oldest continuously used system of writing in the

world 24. and are among the most widely adopted writing systems in the world. In Chinese

myths, Cang Jie invented a lot of symbols that were inspired by the footprints of animals in

19
Dr Zai, J. 2015.
20
Jin, Zhengyao. 1990.
21
Lopez, Donald. < http://www.britannica.com/biography/Buddha-founder-of-Buddhism>.
22
"Buddhism in China." . <http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/buddhism.htm>.
23
Potowski, Kim. 2010.
24
Fisher. Study guide for World History with Student Activities. 2013.

18
5,000 years ago25, and these symbols gradually transformed to Chinese characters that we have

today . Chinese language and its characters are an essential part of Chinese culture.

Ancient literature

The Zhou dynasty is regarded as the touchstone of Chinese literary development.

Concepts covered include a wide range of subjects including poetry, astrology, astronomy,

calendar, constellations and many more. The Song dynasty was also a period of great scientific

literary progress. There were also enormous works of historiography and large encyclopedias.

The notable works are the Four Great Classical Novels. Countless fictional stories were inspired

by these four classics in that period 26.

Visual art

Different forms of art have developed under the influence of great philosophers, teachers,

and religious figures. Chinese painting became a highly appreciated art form. For example, a

type of painting called Shui Mo (ink and wash painting), Which was first developed in Tang

Dynasty27, has been popular and influential in China.

Chinese line drawing is another drawing style that involves traditional ink and brush. It

could show an object’s quintessence using simple and concise lines without redundant embellish.

This painting technique was also very common in ancient China.

25
"Legendary Origins of Chinese Character."<http://characters.cultural-china.com/talk14.html>.
26
Dr. Ulrich Theobald, phil. "Chinese History - Song Dynasty Literature, Thought and Philosophy."
.<http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Song/song-literature.html>.
27
"Chinese Painting (from C.200 BCE) Characteristics and Aesthetics.". <http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/east-
asian-art/chinese-painting.htm#washpainting>.

19
 Journey to the West the Game the board game

The following section details the process of transforming the theoretical work and the book

into an actual game play. The complete game will be described in the later sections as well.

Initial development of the game

The board game was initially meant to be an entertaining game with the function of

disseminating Chinese culture. The book Journey to the West was chosen to be the main theme

of the game because of its profound influence and popularity in China. This board game aimed

to combine the entertainment elements with educational functions, helping Non-Chinese, who

are interested in Eastern culture become familiar with this influential Chinese literature and

know more about traditional Chinese culture. In this way, they will build a basic concept of

Chinese culture and may create a better understanding when communicating with Eastern

people. In short, the intended purpose of the game was to provide players an enjoyable board

game to play, and expose them to an environment which could show some different aspects of

Chinese culture.

The designer, a Chinese citizen, wanted to develop a game that she could bring to her

non-Chinese friends and create a space that they could play together and build up more

connections based on a mutual understanding.

The targeted audiences are defined as non-Chinese people who are not familiar with but could

be possibly interested in Chinese culture. However, other groups of people, such as Chinese

people, can also play the game if they are interested.

20
 There are in total three major questions that need to be answered in the earlier stages during

the design process:

 Which Chinese culture components should be put into the game?

 What kind of experience can people get from the game?

 What kind of mechanics should be involved in the game?

Chinese culture components in the game

Based on research and the feasibility of the game design, the following Chinese culture

aspects were chosen to be included in the game:

The book Journey to the West

The novel Journey to the West itself is among the list of the Four Great Classical Novels

in China. Knowing stories of the book implies some knowledge of Chinese literature culture.

Getting people familiar with the book is a major task for this game.

Some culture aspects related to the book will also be discussed in the game, such as

Chinese gods, ancient costumes, Painting art and Chinese characters.

Chinese religions and Chinese gods

The novel depicts a magic world with a variety of Chinese supernatural spirits and evils,

which could largely reflect the religious concepts and beliefs that ancient Chinese people

conceived. Showing these supernatural figures and introducing their religious origin helps non-

Chinese people build up a basic idea of the religious view of ancient Chinese people.

21
Chinese costumes, painting art and Chinese characters

Some culture aspects such as Painting art, Chinese characters, and Chinese ancient

costumes, can directly convey aspects of Chinese culture and are easily incorporated with the

cards or board of the game. Therefore, these aspects were decided to be included in the future

revisions of the board game.

Experience

The game aimed to create an opportunity for each player to play a role in the story,

Journey to the West, to experience the characters’ difficulties, fighting vicious powers, in order

to obtain the final goal, which is gaining enlightenment. This experience is actually related with

a Taoism theory of helping people in need, fighting the bad and eventually achieving immortality.

The game also aimed to provide players a sense of accomplishment. Although in the

original story, four protagonists worked together to face multiple trials, the game was defined to

be a competitive game, in order to increase the interest and reach a larger audience.

Mechanics and inspirational references

The term “journey” in following sections refers to the whole process of Master Sanzang

and his disciples, who were going through a journey to reach the west. They started form Xi’an,

China and ended up in India.

22
Grid Movement-Istanbul(2014)

The term Grid Movement in board games refers to an action that pawns, (the player’s token)

move on the grid in various directions. Usually, the grid is a square or hexagon.28.

“Istanbul”, which was designed by Rudiger Dorn and published in 2014, is a tiles based

table- top game that involves dice rolling, grid movement and some other mechanisms.29 The

Grid Movement mechanism helps to make the character’s movement more flexible. At the early

stage of the game design, in order to generate randomness and add flexibility to the game, this

mechanism was first brought in to simulate the journey.

Figure 1- An early design’s prototype

28
"Grid Movement."<https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2676/grid-movement>.
29
"Istanbul."< https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148949/istanbul>.

23
 Figure 1 shows an early design of the game. As shown above, multiple situated tiles are

randomly placed on the table. The characters could move around on all the tiles and encounter

different monsters and events.

This mechanism was eventually removed because it weakened the players’ perception of

the experience of a linear journey, and the tiles couldn’t show a whole picture of a map that

depicted the journey from start to finish, as a whole.

Racing - Lewis and Clark(2013)

The Board game Lewis and Clark is a racing game made by Cédrick Chaboussit. The

game play utilizes Deck Building and Worker Placement 30.

Deck Building is a mechanism in which players start the game with a pre-determined set

of cards and could add more or exchange cards during the game. These new cards generally

expand the capabilities of players and allow them to build up a system that would be helpful for

further playing 31.

Worker placement is defined as a game mechanic where players allocate a limited

number of tokens ("workers") to multiple spots that provide various defined actions, for example,

getting resources.3233

A very impressive aspect of the game is a simulation of an actual journey with the

combination of multiple mechanics. This was a mechanical system that could be used as a

reference for the board game Journey to the West.

30
"Lewis and Clark." < https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/140620/lewis-clark>.
31
"Deck pool building." < https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2664/deck-pool-building>.
32
Woods, Stewart.2012.
33
Adams, Ernest, and Joris Dormans.2012.

24
 In the early stages of designing Journey to The West: the Board Game, the game board

imitated the board design of Lewis and Clark, and all players were competing and racing to

strive for being the first one to get to the end. While in the original story, all of the main

characters would stick together during the whole journey and eventually reach the west paradise

as a team. Taking the mechanical aspect of racing into the Journey to the West game would set

players apart in game play and reduce the sense of being unison. Since the mechanics in Lewis

and Clark lack the ability of offering the real experience, only parts of this game were used as

references.

Below is a picture of the game board of Lewis and Clark:

Figure 2- The game board of Lewis and Clark

25
Worker Placement- Lords of Waterdeep (2012)

Lords of Waterdeep is a German-style board game designed by Peter Lee and Rodney

Thompson34. It is one of the paragons of Worker Placement games. On one hand, the worker

placement mechanic is relatively easier for designer to realize, to calculate the weight of each

resource, and eventually helps to balance the game. The reason is that in general, when designing

a worker placement game, if each spot on the board has the same weight, which means these

spots are theoretically balanced, the game would be relatively easier to design as a balanced

game, which means one player won’t have an advantage over another player, and one action that

a player can take won't be clearly beneficial then other actions. On the other hand, this mechanic

helps to increase interaction among players and make the game more interactively fun to play.

The following is a picture shows the game Lords of Waterdeep35.

Figure 3- The game lords of Water deep 33

34
"Lords of Waterdeep." < https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/110327/lords-waterdeep>.
35
"Lords of Waterdeep Gold and Double-Dealing Flow Freely in the City of Splendors."
<http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/board-games/lords-waterdeep>.

26
Variable Player Powers, Set Collection- Citadels (2000)

Citadels is a card game that involves the mechanics of Card Drafting, Set Collection,

Variable Player Powers36 and etc. Figure 4 shows the cover of Citadels.

Figure 4-The cover of Citadels

Games that have Card Drafting allows players to pick cards from a limited subset to gain

some short or long term advantage, or to assemble cards that are used to meet their goals37.

The Set Collection mechanic encourages players to collect a set of items to meet

objectives within the game38.

36
"Citadels."< https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/478/citadels>.
37
"Card Drafting." <https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2041/card-drafting>.

27
 Variable Player Powers is a mechanic that grants different abilities and/or paths to victory

to the players39.

In Journey to the West, four protagonists have their own super powers or specialty, the

mechanics of Variable Player Power was planned to be included in the game. However, using

this mechanic requires more play test simulations. It was eventually removed and become a task

in future studies.

The Five Elements theory is a general theory that is widely-known by Chinese people and

was first proposed by Taoism. It is a culture component that the designer wanted to involve in

the game. Since the five element-water earth, wood, fire and metal-each have their represented

color. Collecting colors became a good way to count for final scores. As a result, a Set

Collection mechanic is applied to the game.

Hand Management, Dice Rolling- Bruges (2013)

The board game Bruges, which is a hand management and Dice Rolling game, was made

by Stefan Feld and published in 201340. This game demonstrates various ways of dice rolling and

card usage to generate randomness and choices. The game was a great reference of dice rolling

mechanics. In order to add a mechanism that was based off of luck, the dice rolling component

was applied to the game.

Hand Management is a major mechanic that has been seen in many board games. It is

defined as an action of managing the hand and playing the cards in certain sequences or groups

in order to get the best reward under given circumstances. Cards often have multiple uses in

38
"Set Collection." <https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2004/set-collection>.
39
"Variable Player Powers." <https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2015/variable-player-powers>.
40
"Bruges.".< https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/136888/bruges>.

28
games that have this mechanic41. This mechanic was applied to the game because it gives

multiples uses based on a limited numbers of cards, and this reduced the number of cards that

need to be made. Besides, cards are good platforms to convey information. There are a great

numbers of Chinese supernatural and devils in the story Journey to the West. Having decks in the

game offers a feasible way for players to learn about numerous monsters and stories in Chinese

culture. Figure 5 shows the game Bruges and the dices that are used in the game.

Figure 5- The game Bruges and the dice that are used in the game

41
"Hand Management." <https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2040/hand-management>

29
To see the full list of the reference games refer to Appendix A.

Development of the game

Developing the game required frequent playtests and fast iterations. “Game is quickly

prototyped, played, and refined again and again before it is finalized” 42. Iterative design allows

designers to quickly identify mechanic bugs and get feedback to revise the game. In the design

process of Journey to the West: the Board Game, elements are added to or removed from the

game based on the feedbacks from the playtests.

The picture below shows one play- test session during the design process:

Figure 6- A playtest session

42
Brathwaite, Brenda, and Ian Schreiber. Challenges for Game Designers. p19. 2009.

30
 Journey to the West: the Board Game took a six-month mechanics’ development and a three-

month art design process. In the mechanic development phase, paper prototype was the major

technique that I used. The art referred to some of the traditional Chinese art style and developed by

hand.

Paper prototype

Paper-based prototyping bypasses the time and effort required to create a work. It only

needs very simple tools such as paper and scissors43. A4 paper and poster paper were used to

create rough, hand-draw cards and board as prototypes.

After revising the game rules for many times, a rough draft of the board had been defined.

Below is a picture of this final game’s first board draft:

Figure 7- A rough game board draft

43
"Five Paper Prototyping Tips." <https://articles.uie.com/prototyping_tips/>.

31
 The picture below is the final hand-drawing board of the game before it was printed out:

Figure 8- The final hand-drawing board

Art creation

Reference art

The art style referred to traditional Chinese painting styles, the common art styles of

board games, and existing images of the characters in Journey to the West. The following

pictures show different Chinese visual art styles.

32
 An image example of the characters of Journey to the West in the animation Havoc in

Heaven44 is shown below:

Figure 9- Wukong fight the Third Lotus Prince 44

44
Havoc in Heaven. Dir. Laiming Wan. 1964. Film.

33
 Figure 1045 is a drawing of a deity figure in Chinese folktales that applied Chinese line

drawing technique.

Figure 10- The Earth Deity in Chinese folktales45

45
Free design components download website-Qiantu
< http://www.58pic.com/tupian/xiyoujibaimiao.html >

34
 Figure 11 shows a sample of a Chinese Shui Mo painting46 (ink and wash painting).

Figure 11- Chinese Shui Mo painting46

46
Free background design components download website- Qianku <http://588ku.com/>.

35
Art design

For Journey to the West: the Board game, the software and the tools that were used to

design the art is Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and the drawing pad. The design of the art

includes elements of both the front and the back sides of the card, as well as the game board and

players’ references board. In detail, these design involving designing the map board, the

background of the front side of cards, the back side of cards, the symbol of various elements and

the characters’ image.

Some of the design components were came from several open source art websites 45 46

and were edited in Photoshop for later use.

Figure 12- The back ground image of the Monster cards

The background patterns of the cards vary from deck to deck. Figure 12 above shows an

example that illustrates the background of the front side of the Monster deck.

36
 In order to design the backgrounds of the front sides of the cards, several techniques were

used in Photoshop, such as, distorting, changing colors, and changing the opacity of images.

The cards back were designed to achieve Chinese ink and wash painting style. An

example of the card back shows below:

Figure 13- The back side design of the Evil deck

In the designing stage, it was evident that the font style and size, the border and the

background’s style, and the Shui Mo painting needed more imaging development. The goal in

designing these images was to have each one blend with one another, creating a harmonious

image. During this process, many drafts and changes were made to the images in order to have a

complete and full image that would be compatible with the overall style and themes of the game.

37
 There are many visual components that play important roles in the game. Although they

only take small spaces on the card and seem as very detailed components, these still could not be

ignored in the design process. An example is the design of the Spirit symbol and Power symbol,

which can be seen in the picture below.

Figure 14- the Spirit and Power symbols’ design

Chinese brush drawing style was applied in designing these two symbols and many other

key symbols in the game. Photoshop it the main software used to develop these symbols.

38
 Figure 15 below shows images that were created using Adobe Photoshop and the drawing

pad. It demonstrates a line drawing image of a female (as seen in the left) and how it evolves

after being colored (as seen in the right). This design was achieved by incorporating a style of

Chinese line drawing in traditional ink and brush.

Figure 15- The Wansheng princess, character design

All the characters shown in the game were original hand-drawings inspired by some of

the existing works of Journey to the West.

Various elements were designed and eventually put together on the card or the game

boards. Figure 16, 17, and 18 show examples of the final designs of the card, the player’s board

and the game board respectively. The Style of Chinese seal, the Five Elements and the Chinese

characters were applied in the design of these cards and boards.

39
Figure 16- A complete Monster card

Figure 17- The player’s board

40
Figure 18- The game board’s final design

41
Revised game

After a 9-month development process, Journey to the West: the Board Game was finally

printed and can be played as a complete game.

Target audience

 Non-Chinese people who are interested in but not familiar with Chinese culture

 People aged 12+

Duration

 90+ minutes

Numbers of People to Play

 2-4 players

42
Game elements

The elements of the game include one game board, four player’s boards, four decks and

many other pieces. The figure below shows a generally view of the game pieces.

Figure 19- Journey to the West: the Board Game

The game board

The game board is the place where plays get resources and more importantly, get the idea

of the whole journey and what happening during the game play. It is a functional game board

while could not clearly show the actual route of the journey from China to India. Some future

work is needed to revise the board.

43
The Monster deck

This deck services two main functions.

 It is a medium that contains some of the Chinese culture aspects in two forms, verbally or

visually. Contents on the cards tell the stories in the book and the images on the cards

demonstrate different art styles, Chinese evils in folktales and Chinese costumes.

 Most importantly, the cards are for playing. The concise symbols on those cards show the

ways of playing it.

Figure 20- The Monster deck

The Spirits deck

Similar with the Monster deck, the Spirit deck is used for playing while at the same time

for disseminating some culture aspects. Some typical Chinese deities and gods were designed on

the spirit cards and were sorted by their origin, which are either Taoism or Buddhism.

44
Other pieces

Dice, tiles and many more other pieces are used in the game. The full list of the game

elements and the number of them are showing in Appendix B.

How to play

Journey to the West: the Board Game is a card-driven, worker placement and resource

management game. Scores (Enlightenment points) can be earned during the journey and will be

summed at the end of the game. There are two ways to win the game:

 The game ends when players reach the Western Paradise, which is located in India.

Then the player with the highest Enlightenment points wins the game.

 The game ends at the time a player first earn 10 Enlightenment points. This player

wins the game.

The game board will show the actual route of the journey in Journey to the West. There

will be several places for players to place their token (bowl) on, which allows them to get

resources, such as water, rice and fruits, get Threefold Training points(Virtue/ Mind/ Wisdom

points) or get bonus cards. Players play or collect cards by paying their resources, powers or

spirits in order to eventually earn Enlightenment points.

The complete rules are described in Appendix C.

45
Chinese culture components in the game

Experience

The game allows players to play roles in the story Journey to the West, to experience the

characters’ tribulations and fighting devils in order to obtain the goal of gaining enlightenment.

This experience is actually related to a Taoism theory of helping people in need, fighting evils

and eventually achieving immortality. The experience that players could achieve after playing

the game would somehow help them gain the knowledge that is related to the ancient Chinese

religious philosophy.

The stories

The game tried to simulate the process of the journey in the novel Journey to the West. It

gives players a basic idea of what this book is about. The contents that are written on the cards

tell mini stories of the book. Gaining some knowledge of the book would in turn mean gaining

some knowledge of the Chinese literature culture.

The art style

The art was created to show some common Chinese panting styles and Chinese costumes.

Players can receive this information directly by looking at the cards.

Other components

Some supernatural figures, for example, the Third Lotus Princess and Maytreya, are not

just characters in the book; they are actually the deities or gods that ancient Chinese people

46
believed in. These characters are depicted in this game verbally and visually, aiming to immerse

players in an environment that encompasses numerous mystery figures in Chinese folktales.

47
 Printing and production

The complete game was printed by The Game Crafter, which is a company based

in Madison, Wisconsin that produces tabletop game components and custom print-on-

demand card and board games47.

The cost of one copy of the game is 46.89 US dollars. The retail price should be 50 to 55

US dollars so that at least 10 dollars profit could be made per copy. For larger scale printing,

more than one hundred copies, it cost 33.13 US dollars per copy. In the future, when the game is

ready to be sold, the reasonable price of the game would be 45 US dollars. At least 10 dollars of

profit per copy could be made. These are very rough statistics, and for future publishing, a more

detailed and accurate business plan should be made.

For the full table of the printing price, please see Appendix D.

Figure 21- The printing prices

47
Game Crafter. <https://www.thegamecrafter.com/>.

48
 Evaluation and Survey

A test of the game was conducted for the purpose of obtaining playtest feedbacks, finding

mechanic and game play bugs, and exploring whether the game achieves the original goal of

disseminating and stimulating non-Chinese people’s interest in Chinese culture. This study also

helps to identify opportunities for design improvement.

The evaluation was conducted by comparing outcomes of experimental subjects who are

given the board game versus those who are given an abbreviated version of the original story.

The experiment is conducted anonymously.

Subjects

The subjects of the experiment are WPI non-Chinese students, professors and alumni

who are not familiar with the novel Journey to the West.

Method

Subjects were assigned to two groups: one experimental group and one control group.

The experimental group played Journey to the West: the Board Game, and the control group read

the children’s book (Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, Retold by Christine Suh, and

Illustrated by Shirley Chiang). The subjects were required to take several questionnaires and tests,

both before and after they played the game or read the book. The questionnaires and the tests

were available online, while a paper version of these surveys was offered to people who were not

able to use online survey due to certain circumstances. The website that was being used to

generate surveys is Survey Monkey. Figure 22 demonstrates the evaluation process.

49
 Figure 22- The process of the experiment

Research questions

The demographic information

The demographic survey was required for all subjects to take at the begging of the

experiment. The questions that were asked involved their ages, nationalities and more.

See the whole demographic questions in Appendix E

Questionnaire

A pre-survey and a post-survey were designed to collect people’s opinions toward

cultural learning aspects. The questions included how they think about the traditional ways of

learning, how they think about the board game, and more. Feedback about the game was also

asked in the post survey.

See the whole pre-survey and a post-survey in Appendix F.

Test

A pretest was conducted to show how much the subject knew about the novel and Chinese

culture. The results of this test were used as comparison references for the post test. The post test

50
was taken after the game play or finish reading the book. This test showed how much the subject

learned about Chinese culture after their experiment.

The whole test questions are in Appendix G.

51
 Results

In total, 36 valid responses were collected from the study, including 17 responses from

the experimental group and 19 responses from the control group. WPI non-Chinese students,

professors and alumni participated in this experiment.

The demographic information

The subjects’ ages ranged from 19 to 44 years old, and most of them aged from 20 to 26.

These 36 people were from different countries. 18 of them were from the United States, 3 were

from Tunisia, 3 were from Ukraine, 2 were form Brazil, and 1 person was from each of the

following countries: Basque, Turkey, Albania, India, French, Mexican, Jamaica, Iran and

Grenadian. There was also one person that was born in America with a Chinese background. 27

of them were WPI students, 1 was a professor, 1 was a student from another school, and 8 of

them were WPI alumni. The subjects’ area of studies included Interactive Media and Game

Development, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Biotechnology, Materials Science and

Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics Engineering, Data Science, and Electrical

Engineering.

Pre-experimental result

For all 36 responses, 31 people had never heard about the book Journey to the West

before, while the other 5 people had heard about it but were not very familiar with it. 33 people

considered themselves to have interests in Chinese culture to varying degrees. The aspects that

make them interested in Chinese culture are shown below. The other category includes interest in

52
the rich history of China, Chinese music, professional connections with Chinese business,

Chinese language, and relationships with Chinese people, and one person lived in China before.

The Figure 23 shows why they are interested in knowing Chinese culture and the Figure 24

shows the ways that they have been exposed to Chinese culture.

Figure 23- why the subjects are interested in knowing Chinese culture

Figure 24- The ways that the subjects have been exposed to Chinese culture

53
 For all 36 participants, only 4 people do not like playing board games.

Figure 25- Do you like board games?

The types of the board games that are usually played by these responders are shown in Figure 26.

Figure 26- What types of board games do you like to play

54
 The majority of the responders showed very positive attitudes toward the idea of learning

Chinese cultural aspects through playing board games. Figure 27 shows the participants’

response to the question, “Do you think learning about culture through playing board game is a

good idea?” In this figure “1” means they think it is a bad idea and “5” means they strongly

agree with the idea that learning through reading is a good idea.

Figure 27- Do you think learning about culture through playing board game is a good idea?

Post-experimental result

The subjects’ opinions and feedback after they played the board game or read the book

were collected. In Figure 29, the left table shows how people from the control group think about

learning through reading, and the table on the right shows how the experimental group thinks

about learning through playing board games. In general, people think learning by playing board

games is a good idea.

55
Figure 29-Do you think learning by reading (Left)/ playing board games (Right) is a good idea?

Figure 28- Do you consider yourself more interested in Chinese culture?

56
 Figure 30- After the research, will you look up more relevant materials of different culture?

After the game section, more than 70% people are more interested in Chinese culture, and

about 50% of them claimed that they would like to look up more relevant materials to find the

information about aspects of Chinese and other different cultures. Figure 29 and Figure 30 above

show these results.

Some positive feedback to the game play and the game art had been received. In general,

all subjects think the art is very impressive and can show Chinese visual art styles. For all 17

people who played the game, 13 of them read some or all of the content on cards and found the

stories interesting. While some people think the content on the cards are too long this prevents

them from reading these stories.

57
 Figure 31- Did you read the contents on cards?

Figure 32- How do you like the art of this board game?

58
 Figure 33- Do you think the game is fun to play?

Subjects in both the experimental and control groups did two tests, a pre and a post test.

Figure 34 shows how reading or playing the game help people gain understandings of some

Chinese culture aspects.

Figure 34- Tests’ accuracy comparison

59
 Reading the book and playing the game basically have similar effects. There is 33%

increase of the accuracy of the test after the subjects played the game. Although this

improvement is not significant, both the experimental and the control groups were getting

familiar with the story. While people from the reading group are more clear about the characters

and the overall story, the playing group received more information about the related cultural

aspects.

To conclude, all the charts and data above show that the art is well-made and the game is

functional. The majority of the subjects from both the experimental and control groups consider

learning culture by playing board games is an effective way. The game achieved the goal of

stimulating people’s interest in this specific culture and helping them to gain understanding of

some of the Chinese culture aspects.

60
 Post Mortem

Events That Went Well

Based on the feedback of the playtest, the game is functional and somewhat fun to play.

No evident unbalanced mechanic appeared during the playtests.

The numbers of the cards in decks are appropriate. Decks do not run out fast. The

numbers of cards are adequate and can satisfy the game play.

The finished art is good and people have given very positive feedback to it. It reached the

goals of showing Chinese style. All the boards, cards and mini tiles are in their right sizes; this

means the game elements are clear enough to be seen by people but without being too big. The

symbols are designed clearly, and are easy for players to understand what they represent in the

game play.

The experiment that was conducted behind the project was successful. Besides the

feedback from the game testers, many other opinions and suggestions from other players were

collected during the evaluation process. This feedback will be helpful for improving the game in

the future.

Future works

Due to the limitation of the time, not all important characters in the book are designed

and shown on the cards. Some of the images were shown more than one time on cards. More

characters should be designed in future iterations of the game.

The introductions and the mini stories on the cards should be more concise. The long

contents on cards sometimes prevent players from reading them. In order to give people more

61
clear and direct information, the stories should not be too long and unnecessary parts should be

cut down. A more efficient and concise way of telling stories should be applied to the game.

There is a small problem with the rule for getting spirit points. The spirit cards should be

more tempting for players to get. The observation of the play test sections show that players

seem to focus more on getting the powers rather than getting the spirits. Future improvement on

this mechanic is needed.

The four main characters’ powers should be specialized in the future. In the original

novel, the four main protagonists each have their own skill sets. So in order to make the game

show more about the book and help them have better understanding of the story, different

personal skills should be included.

Most importantly, the design of the box and the rule book should be finished soon. The

game should be available on the Game Crafter website soon.

62
 Conclusion

Overall, the results of the experiment and the observations of play-tests show that the

game is a functional game with a measurable degree of entertainment, and the art was very well-

made and can show Chinese art styles. The capacity of this game to stimulate non-Chinese

people interest in Chinese culture can also be reflected in the evaluation. Even though people

have not learned significant amounts of culture aspects from playing, they become familiar with

the stories and several related Chinese culture aspects. The depth of culture teaching in this game

can go further in the future versions of the project.

63
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<https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148949/istanbul>.

"Legendary Origins of Chinese Character." Cultural China. Web. <http://characters.cultural-

china.com/talk14.html>.

"Lewis and Clark." BoardGameGeek.

<https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/140620/lewis-clark>.

Levitt, Susan. "THE FIVE TAOIST ELEMENTS: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and

Wood."Susan Levitt‘ Blog. 2013. Web.

Lopez, Donald. "Buddha: Founder of Buddhism". Encyclopedia Britannica.

Web.<http://www.britannica.com/biography/Buddha-founder-of-Buddhism>

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"Lords of Waterdeep." BoardGameGeek. Web.

<https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/110327/lords-waterdeep>.

"Lords of Waterdeep Gold and Double-Dealing Flow Freely in the City of

Splendors." Dungeons &Dragons. Web. <http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-

games/board-games/lords-waterdeep>.

Miller, James. Chinese Religions in Contemporary Societies. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-

CLIO, 2006. Web.

Miyamoto, Yoko. "The Journey to the West: Chinese Views of History - Demystifying

Confucianism." The Journey to the West: Chinese Views of History - Demystifying

Confucianism. <http://www.demystifyingconfucianism.info/the-journey-to-the-west-chinese-

view-of-history>.

Potowski, Kim. Language Diversity in the USA. New York: Cambridge UP, 2010. Print.

Rubin, Lawrence C. Popular Culture in Counseling, Psychotherapy, and Play-based

Interventions. New York, NY: Springer, 2008. Print.

"Set Collection." BoardGameGeek. Web.

<https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2004/set-collection>.

Svoboda, Sarah. "Why Do so Many Chinese Students Choose US Universities? - BBC

News." BBC News. 2 June 2015. Web.< http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32969291>

The Game Crafter. Web. <https://www.thegamecrafter.com/>.

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"The Monkey King (TV Movie 2001)." IMDb. IMDb.com. Web.

"Variable Player Powers." BoardGameGeek. Web.

<https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2015/variable-player-powers>

Wang, Lina. "《西游记》在海外." 中国文学网. Web. ("Journey to the West" abroad .

Chinese literature website. Web.) <http://www.literature.org.cn/article.aspx?id=18314>.

Wikipedia contributors. "Journey to the West." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

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Wu, Cheng. Journey to the West. Trans. W. J. F. Jenner. Foreign Languages, 1993. Print.

Yao, Xinzhong, and Yanxia Zhao. Chinese Religion: A Contextual Approach. London:

Continuum, 2010. Web.

"《西游记》内容简介."华语网. Web. ("The introduction of Journey to the West", Huayu

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69
 Appendix A: Inspirational board games references

 Tales of the Arabian Night (2009)

 Lords of Waterdeep (2012)

 Istanbul (2014)

 Citadels (2000)

 Troyes (2010)

 Lewis and Clark (2013)

 Bruges (2013)

 Navegador (2010)

 Journey: Wrath of Demons (2015)

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 Appendix B: The game elements

 The Journey board (1): The journey map

 The Player’s board (4)

 The Monster cards (72)

 The Spirit cards (30)

 The Evil cards (8)

 The Bonus cards (35)

 The Power value cards

 The player’s reference cards

 Food supplies tokens

 The Bad Luck markers

 Dice

 Bowl token (4)

 The Spirits/Enlightenment tracker (16)

 The Journey tracker (1)

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 Appendix C: The game rules

Winning condition:

There are two ways to end the game.

 The game ends when the Journey tracker reaches the Western Paradise, India. Then, the

player with the highest Enlightenment points wins the game.

 The game ends at the time a player first earns 10 Enlightenment points. This player wins

the game.

There are in total 5 ways to get Enlightenment points:

1. Playing and collecting 3, 5, 8 or 10 of the same color or type of Monster or Spirit card

equals 1, 2, 4 or 6 Enlightenment points respectively.

2. Earning 1 Evil card equals 1 Enlightenment point.

3. Some Bonus cards offer ways to get Enlightenment points.

4. When players reach certain places on the journey, they need to compete with each other

and count the Enlightenment points by comparing certain resources that each player has,

including:

 Count Five Elements’ points: the ones who have the least Bad Luck markers on the

Five Element Matrix get 1 Enlightenment point.

 Count Virtue/Mind/Wisdom points. The player that has the most V/M/W points get

1 Enlightenment point, which type of these three points is compared is decided by a

die roll.

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Game setup:

1. Place the game board in the center of the table.

2. Place the resource (Water, Fruits and Rice) tokens on the table.

3. Each player chooses a character (Monkey King, Sanzang, Bajie or Wujing ) to play. Each

character is represented by different colors(yellow, red, green and blue). Each play get

the token in their color

4. Each player places a Player’s board in front of them

5. Each player draws 4 Monster cards. these cards can be played in two ways:

 As Monster cards: the power value shown on the right-down corner of the card

indicates how much power is needed to give away to defeat this monster.

 As Formula cards: the formula on the top shows how to exchange the resources

(Water, Fruits and Rice) for powers.

6. At each players’ board, we use a token to indicate no Enlightenment points, and 1 each of

Virtue/Mind/Wisdom points

7. Every player take 2 Bad Luck markers and place them cover two spots on the Five-

Element Matrix. The spots that are covered cannot be used to be placed the Bonus cards

on from then on. In later game play, ways of removing the Bad Luck marker are provided.

8. Place the Evil deck on the board. Place 1 Spirit card on each of the Spirit card spots on

the board. Place 1 Bonus card face up on each of the Five Elements’ spots on the board.

9. Get resources:

For a 2 player’s game:

 The first players: 2 fruits, 3 waters

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  The second player: 1 rice, 2 fruits, 2 waters

For a 3 player’s game:

 The first players: 2 fruits, 3 waters

 The second player: 1 rice, 2 fruits, 2 waters

 The third player: 1 rice, 3 fruits, 3 waters

For a 4 players’ game:

 The first players: 2 fruits, 3 waters

 The second player: 1 rice, 2 fruits, 2 waters

 The third player: 1 rice, 3 fruits, 3 waters

 The fourth player: 2 rices, 3 fruits, 3 waters

Game Play:

1. All players start their journey in Chang’an, China (the up left spot of the journey). Each

player rolls a die. The one who rolls the highest number goes first.

2. Turn based action:

At the beginning of every round, move the Journey Tracker one step forward on the

journey route

3. General actions:

During a player’s turn, he/she can do 2 general actions and choose the order of doing

these two actions:

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1) Place workers action: Place your bowl (the token in your character’s color) on

an unoccupied spot on the board, to get resources, Spirits cards or Bonus cards.

There will be three types of resources or cards you can get:

 Living supplies: Including Water, Fruits and Rice. Based on the numbers on

the board, you get the corresponding amount of resources.

 Spirit Cards: You can get a Spirit card of your choice in one of the threefold

training you want to have (Virtue/Mind/Wisdom). That way, the player can

move the corresponding value on the Player’s board 1 step ahead. Once you

get a Spirit card, it goes into your hand and adds to the Monster cards. You

cannot have more than 5 Monster and Spirit cards.

 Bonus cards: You can get a Bonus card based on the dice roll. The bonus

card can help you with the game play in a certain degree. The board shows

each of Five Elements (the Fire, Water, Wood, Metal and Earth) with its

corresponding dice roll, In order to get a bonus card, you need:

 Roll 2 dice, according to the number you rolled, you can potentially get a

bonus card. For example, if you roll a “2” and a “4”, the corresponding

elements on board are Wood and Fire. If on your player’s board’s Five

Elements matrix, the Wood spot or the Fire spot is available (no Bad Luck

marker on it), you can get a bonus card and place it on your corresponding

element’s spot on your play’s board. On your player’s board, one spot can

only has one card on it, if you want to have more bonus cards, you need to

discard the one you already have.

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  If your dice roll includes “6”, you can choose any card on the board, while

you still need to have the corresponding elements’ spots available on your

player’s board.

 Getting living supplies(resources) or Virtue/Mind/Wisdom point based on

luck: There are 2 spots on the board that you can place your token on, based

on the dice roll, you can get the corresponding living supplies or

Virtue/Mind/Wisdom points

2) Cards’ action: Play/Draw/Exchange up to 3 cards, the maximum number of the

cards (Monster& Spirits cards) you can hold is 5.

 The Monster cards could be played in 2 ways:

 As a Monster card: you can play a Monster card if you want to defeat the

monster on it. The power icon on the bottom-right shows how much

power you need to defeat the monster. After you defeat the monster, that

card goes to your collection, and at the end of the game, we count the

Enlightenment points depending on the color/type of Monster cards that

you defeated.

 As a formula card: The formula on the top of the Monster cards shows

how to transfer from living supplies to powers. The powers that you have

earned could be used in the game later. After you play the card as a

formula card, it goes to the discard deck.

 Play the Spirit cards: After you play a Spirits card, the card goes to your

collection, and at the end of the game, we count the enlightenment points

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 depending on the cards that you have played. Some Spirit card can help you to

remove 1 Bad Luck marker when you play it.

4. Special actions: When it comes to certain places on the Journey route, some special

actions are required:

1) Reveal an Evil card: When the Journey tracker steps on a place that has an Evil

card symbol on it, an Evil card must be revealed and placed on the board.

According to the values on the Evil card, each player must give away resources or

they will gain a Bad Luck marker.

2) Resolving an Evil card: When the Journey tracker steps on a place that has a

Fight symbol on it, all players must work together to resolve the Evil card on the

board. In order to survive from this evil place, certain amount of power must be

given away. The number of the power that is needed is indicated by the power

icon on the bottom-right corner of the card. Each player must secretly choose the

number of the power that they want to give away and all players reveal the power

at the same time. If the total number of the power is bigger than the number on the

card, then the card is successfully resolved and the player who gives away the

most powers earns the Evil card. If the total number of the power is smaller than

the number on the card, then the player who gives away the least powers must

take a Bad Luck marker and no one get the Evil card.

3) Compare the Bad Luck markers: When the Journey tracker step on a spot with

a Back Luck symbol on it, players much compare the number of the Back Luck

marker they have. The one who have the least bad Luck markers on the Five

Element matrix earns 1 Enlightenment point immediately.

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4) Compare the Virtue/Wisdom/Mind points: When the Journey tracker step on a

spot with a Spirit symbol on it, Players must roll a die to define which one of

these three points will be compared. Players then compare the number of the

chosen type of points they have. The one who have the most of this type of points

earn 1 Enlightenment point immediately.

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 Appendix D: The printing price table

Production Type Type Amount Unit price Total price Total price
(US dollar) (US dollar) 100+games
(US dollar)
Quad-fold board Journey board 3 6.67 10 8
Skinny mat Player’s 4 0.46 1.83 1.4
boards
Poker deck Monster card 75 0.09 10.53 6.89
Spirits card 30 0.09
Devil card 8 0.09
Reference card 4 0.09
Micro deck Power card 21 0.07 3.99 2.44
Bonus card 35 0.07
Mini square tile Food supply 57 0.12 9.49 5
Punishment 20 0.12
tiles
Dice 6 Dice 4 0.24 0.96 0.96
Avatar Bowl tokens 1*4(colors) 0.15 0.6 0.6
People S/E trackers 4*4= 16 0.14 2.24 2.24
Avatar Journey 1 0.15 0.15 0.15
tracker
Jumbo booklet Rule book 1 1.10 1.10 0.76
Box Box 1 6.00 6.00 4.69
Total price=46.89 Total price= 33.13(100+)

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 Appendix E: Demographic questions

Q. Age: What is your age?

___________________

Q. what nationality are you?

__________________

Q. What is the highest level of education you have completed?

o High school

o Undergrad

o Master’s degree

o PhD

Q. What is your occupation?

o Professor

o Student

o Other

If you are a student, what is your area of study?

__________________

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 Appendix F: Surveys

Pre-survey for both playing the experimental and control groups:

Q. Are you familiar with the Chinese story Journey to the west?

o Yes

o No

Q. Are you interested in knowing about Chinese culture?

o Yes

o No

If your answer above is “Yes”, what makes you interested in knowing about Chinese? (Check all

that apply)

o Interested in Eastern culture

o Have Chinese relatives/friends that I want to communicate with

o Interested in traveling to China

o Other ( please specify)

___________________

Q. In what ways are you usually exposed to Chinese culture? (Check all that apply)

o TV/ Movies

o News

o School

o Books

o Friends

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 o Food

o Music

o Performances

o Holidays

o I have never been exposed to Chinese culture

o Others(please specify)

___________________

Q. Do you like board games?

o Yes

o No

If your answer is “Yes”, how often do you play board games?

o Several times a week

o Once a week

o Once a month

o Less than once a month

What kinds of board games do you usually play? (Check all that apply)

o Party games (Werewolf, Cards against Humanity)

o Casual games (Apples to Apples, Monopoly, Clue)

o Card games (Magic/CCGs, Munchkin, Fluxx: the board game)

o Euro games (Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Lords of Waterdeep)

o War Games (Squad Leader, Memoir 44, Axis and Allies)

o Cooperative Games (Pandemic, Forbidden Island, Lord of the Rings)

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 o Strategy Games (StarCraft TBG, Battlestar Galactica, Terra Mystica)

o Others (please specify)

________________________________________

Q. Do you think learning about culture through playing board games is a good idea?

Very Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Very Good

Post-survey for the experimental group:

Q. What do you think of learning cultural knowledge through playing games?

Very poor idea 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent idea

Q. Do you consider yourself more interested in knowing Chinese culture?

o Yes

o No

Q. Did you read the content on the cards?

o Read every cards

o Read some of them

o Read none of them

If you did read the contents, did you find the stories interesting?

o Yes

o No

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Q. After research, will you look up relevant materials to find out more information about

the aspects of different cultures?

o Yes

o No

Q. How do you like the art of the board game?

Poor art 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent art

Q. Do you think this game is fun to play?

Not at all 1 2 3 4 5 Very fun

If yes, can you specify some examples?

If no, can you tell what parts degrade playability?

Post-survey for the control group:

Q.Do you think learning about culture through reading is a good idea?

Very Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Very Good

Q. How much are you willing to learn though reading?

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 None 1 2 3 4 5 Much

Q. How much do you think you can learn from reading?

None 1 2 3 4 5 Much

Q. Do you consider yourself more interested in knowing Chinese culture?

o Yes

o No

Q. After research, will you look up relevant materials to find out more information about

the aspects of different cultures?

o Yes

o No

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 Appendix G: The test

Q1. Which of the following does NOT belong to the threefold training in in Buddhism? (Check

all that apply)

o Wisdom

o Virtue

o Concentration

o Effort

o Mind

o Not sure

Q2. Which of the following is not the main character in the story Journey to the West?

o Sun Wukong(Monkey King)

o Xuanzang

o Wu Cheng'en

o Zhu Bajie(Piggy)

o Sha Wujing(Sandy)

o Not sure

Q3. Which of the following are common philosophies that Chinese people value? (Check all that

apply)

o Taoism

o Mitogaku

o Buddhism

o Jainism

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 o Not sure

Q4. Which of the following gods were worshiped by Chinese people in ancient times? (Check

all that apply)

o Jade Emperor

o Guan Yin

o Confucius

o Buddha

o Not sure

Q5. In oriental culture, which of the following do people tend to value more?

o Individualism

o Collectivism

o Not sure

Q6. When do you think Journey to the West took place?

o Qin Dynasty

o Tang Dynasty

o Qing Dynasty

o Song Dynasty

o Not sure

Q7. Which one of the following is NOT an element that belongs to the five-element theory of

Chinese philosophy? (Check all that apply)

o Wind

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 o Earth

o Wood

o Water

o Not sure

Q8. Which country is the destination of the story?

o India

o Thailand

o Pakistan

o Nepal

o Not sure

88