Training Implementation in Cyprus
The penultimate meeting of the Game Change project, where participants from Romania, Cyprus and Poland met in Hylatio Tourist Village in Pissouri, from the dates of 8 to 14th of March 2026, in order to learn how the essentials of board game creation, learning all about game mechanics, game balance, game design and more, for one simple goal. To create the best possible innovative board games design for youth engagement, as it has been proven to be a powerful tool for enhancing learning experiences, fostering inclusion, and encouraging active participation among young people. Organized by president of NGO ACPELIA, Mr. Nikolas Nikolaou, with the bulk of the knowledge coming from game developers Catherine Chudinova and Dmitry Sergeev, and managed and put together by youth worker Boghos Avetikian.
The project flowed in a learning by doing manner, whereby trainers presented and explained new concepts in the morning, participants worked on their games during the day and received feedback on their work by the end of the day. This directly emulates the real nature of game development, filled with iteration after iteration in order to create the optimal result.
Due to safety concerns due to the recent conflicts in the middle east, certain participants opted to take part in the training and creation process of the project online.
With a short meeting with all participants taking place on the 8th of March, the travel day, below you will find the process of the creation of two board games of the 5 training days of the project.
Day 1 – Monday 9 March 2026
The first day of the training and game creation process. The goals of the day were as follows
- To learn Game Design theory basics
- To turn a real social problem into a clear "game mission" checklist
- To create a concept of the future board game
Starting with a mission briefing from Gita Vaskelyte, Gita covered the how's and why's of the project, and the purpose these board games are trying to solve. Gita covered important aspects of the project, especially what comes next. This includes the translation of the board games in Greek, Romanian and Polish, and just as importantly the 10 local workshops that will take place well after the completion of the trainings course. This is quintessential, as it is likely that both games may receive further modifications when as more tests take place.
You may see the timeline of the project as presented to the participants as below
With game developer Catherine Chudinova taking over, Catherine presented all important aspects of Game Design basics. Catherine ultimately introduced the basics of game design and taught participants on how to transform the social problem into a clear checklist of requirements for the future game. The checklist will become the foundation for creating game concepts.
One of the basics taught was that good games create motivation through player experience and motivation, not rewards. Fun cannot be forced or imitated. The key concept elements of a game being as follows
1 – The core loop - What actions players repeat again and again?
2 - Goal & Victory – What is the player trying to achieve? Who wins? How?
3 - Theme Setting - What is the game about? (story, world, idea)
4 - Player Interaction – How do players interact with each other? Do they work together? Or work separately against each other?
5 - Turn Structure - What can a player do on their turn? What options do they have?
6 - Rules & Playtime – What are the set of rules? What are the limitations?
IYou may access the full presentation file showcased by Catherine below
With the splitting of the teams taking place right after these presentations, participants spent time brainstorming game concepts for their teams. This included answering basic questions, including amount of players for the game, the turn structure and of course the basic expected core loop. All of which, of course, was likely to change in the next days.
In the afternoon, participants returned to the activity room to present to Bobbie the current selected flows of the game, and participants continued working on their concepts until the evening.
This was when Dmitry came to teach participants just how narrative strengthens meaning and engagement in games. Dimitri showcased how popular games use stories to enhance the game, even though such games are completely playable when boiled down to basic shapes. Ultimately, narrative supports game design, and adds context and immersion. In short, any part of a board game IS a narrative instrument.
You may access the full presentation file showcased by Dmitry below
For the second session, trainers Dmitry and Catherine assisted participants with the games they had started brainstorming.
To end the day and celebrate participants visited Το σπιτικό της Γιώτας, a Cypriot restaurant to enjoy traditional Cypriot food serving as the welcoming of the project and icebreaking important for the next few days we will be working together.
Day 2 – Monday 10 March 2026
The prototype day!
Armed with a better understanding on board game making due to the feedback received the day prior, Chaterine hosted a presentation showcasing the practical techniques for board game prototyping: how to quickly test ideas, reject non-working solutions, simplify rules, avoid overcomplication, and build a prototype that is playable the same day. Catherine introduced prototype kits, with meeples, erasable cards, die and more allowing participants to spend the entire day on prototyping.
You may access the full presentation file showcased by Catherine below
The day therefore consisted of participants of using prototype kits to create their games, and just as importantly, conduct internal testing.
Team one, started creating a game focused on a bunch of racoons in a supermarket. As such, they started working on the board, which are different rooms in a supermarket. Using the meeples as racoons, and erasable cards as rooms, as well as other cards representing items, events and more started conducting their internal playtesting.
Team two, focused on creating a traveling game within Europe in a DiscoveryEU type game, started creating a map and sets of trivia questions in numerous categories such as fun facts, historical, geographical and cultural. In the evening, Dmitry and Catherine returned, taking over each team to see concepts and results of playtesting. This prepared the participants for Day 3, playtesting externally, and see what to do with this feedback.
Day 3 – Monday 11 March 2026
The testing day!
Starting the morning with yet another presentation by Catherine, this time, we learned exactly how to run a board game playtest properly. This includes specifically what to observe, what questions to ask players, how not to "save" the game with hints, and how to separate real issues from personal preferences. Participants receive a feedback form template and an observation checklist.
Catherine covered important aspects of what is known as the working system and working experience, which is in fact not the same thing. For example:
A game system may be
- Logically correct
- Mathematically balanced
- Structurally complete
But may still fail. Why? Well because
- Players feel lost
- Players feel bored
- Players don't see meaningful choices
- Players disengage emotionally
In short, game design is designing the human experience of the game and not the game mechanics.
During playtesting, meaning when one group was watching the other group play their game, the following are tracked
- Game duration
- Average turn time
- Rule clarifications needed
- Moments of laughter
- Moments of silence
- Player quotes
This was because there were three ways to test the game, and these were the following
1 – The Silent playtest – where designers do NOT explain anything, players have access to the rules, and all items and figure it out own their own
2 – The Guided Playtest – where players are explained to once, and then observed
3 – Stress Tested – where players try to break the system.
You may access the full presentation file showcased by Catherine below
As such, the day went as followed.
Both teams, the game with the racoons and the game with travelling finished a working prototype, as well as a ruleset. Then, creators of the one game played the other game first using the silent playtest, meaning without being guided.
In the second round, teams replayed the game this time around directly guided by the creators of the games. This helped the participants realize issues with the games, including unclear rules, making decisions in the game they weren't actually allowed to, and even moving in directions that was not allowed in the game.
With testing the games numerous times, the participants were now ready to make a working version of the game, meaning, creating the raw files where organizations (and anyone else) can directly download and play the game.
Day 4 – Tuesday 12 March 2026
The crunch
The busiest day of the training course and emulating real-world game development. Crunch refers to a period of intense work to meet project deadlines, as this day focused on creating the final raw files of the project. An important aspect of games are also pitching them, as in showcasing them to new audiences. As such, today's presentation by Catherine focused on marketing and pitching. In short, the important aspects are
- Communicating your idea clearly
- Showing the value of the game
- Convince others that the game deserves their attention
- Turn a concept into something people wanna try
Ideas without a clear message get ignored, and in turn a clear idea gives the game a chance to succeed.
You may access the full presentation file showcased by Catherine below
What are raw files and why are they important? Well, the raw files of the two games ensure that the game files are endlessly modifiable and useful for translations. These are the direct files that can be reiterated upon during the lifetime of the project.
As such, participants worked on the following for the day
- Creating final versions with final arts of every aspect of the game meaning
- Rule books
- Quick-start guide
- The board itself
- Cards
- Marketing material (such as whats on the box)
By the end of the day, full versions of both games were complete.
The first was a game called Save Pedro!
The marketing line being " For fans of cooperative games, Save Pedro! is a push-your-luck stealth heist game that delivers edge-of-your-seat tension by combining strict resource management with unpredictable room exploration, challenging your raccoon crew to balance risk and survival to rescue a captured friend before the supermarket locks down."
Check out the dedicate page for this game below, as well as downloads to all materials of the game.
SAVE PEDRO GAME: https://gamechange1.webnode.page/save-pedro/
The second game is titled Connected
A game where players from across a map of Europe are striving to meet halfway, through trivia questions focused on fun facts, culture, history and geography!
Check out the dedicate page for this game below, as well as downloads to all materials of the game.
GAME "CONNECTED" :
Moreover, participants created humorous marketing for both games. "Save Pedro" went with the social media route, by jumping on a recent humorous meme, while Connected focused more on a TV based horizontal add
Day 5 – Tuesday 13 March 2026
The final pitch
The final day of the project, and the end of the game creation process. Both groups presented the work produced so far, showcasing both the marketing material, and a presentation covering every aspect of their game. With further advise given on how to make even better pitches in the future, participants found out about follow-up aspects of the project, filled in evalauation reports, received their youthpasses digitally and it was time to celebrate.
As such, participants visited the cultural city of Paphos to explore, serving as a reward for the hard work in the game making process of the last 4 days.
Next stop, the local implementations in each of the 3 countries! 🇵🇱 🇨🇾 🇷🇴
