Starship Titanica

Collaborative Puzzle Game · 2016

Starship Titanica

A light-hearted, puzzle-filled romp through an artificially-intelligent spaceship that is trying to kill you.

Roles
Game Designer
Skills
Project Management, Game Design, Graphic Design, Copywriting
Context
Collaborative puzzle-solving game for multiple groups of 3–5 players
Venue
Any location

Goal & Strategy

A game board big enough for any space and any crowd.

Goal

A game that works for five friends or an entire festival.

Strategy

A game of literal and figurative space exploration that uses text-based puzzles to create a narrative overlay for any location.

The Project

Starship Titanica is a collaborative puzzle-solving game for groups of 3–5 people. Players join the crew of the Titanica on its maiden voyage, only to realize that the artificial intelligence controlling much of the ship's operations has seized control. The players must then race around the ship, confronting obstacles that the AI has created for them as they search for tools that might be useful in regaining control and rescuing the rest of the crew.

Players start the game in 1 of 5 roles on the ship, each with three associated tools. As they explore the space, they can discover different locations such as the Science Lab, the Airlock, and the Brig, each with its own unique and dangerous obstacle. The team must then engage in collaborative critical thinking to determine which tool is right for the job. Solving the puzzles will net a new tool that can be used to overcome other obstacles and eventually take on a series of more perilous challenges standing between the team and their fellow crew-members still trapped on The Bridge.

In order to accommodate a number of different team sizes, spaces, and timelines, the architecture of Starship Titanica is extensible. The difficulty of the final challenge can be tailored to require a different number of tools acquired from earlier obstacles, and tools can be traded or assembled between groups, creating opportunities for collaboration between large numbers of players.

I designed the game and every piece of it: the crew role cards, the tool and item cards, and the room cards that turn any hallway into the Airlock or the Brig.

Graphic Design

Fonts

  • Spacejunk XL type specimen
  • JLS Data Gothic CNC type specimen
  • Andromeda type specimen

Colors

  • #FDB10D
  • #007AC2
  • #016700
  • #EA570A
  • #A50C14
  • #CE2027
  • #69CDE8
  • #B6D433
  • #3EC0BB
  • #5BBB47
  • #5D4B9E
  • #DEB225
  • #F36822
  • #97509E
  • #3B5FAC
  • #EB3F2F
  • #3C2B71
  • #75C69B
  • #F7EC3E
  • #228D93
  • #E82230
  • #C74F9B
  • #73BB4A
  • #ED2D8E
  • #40C4D6
  • #C3232E
  • #1C4422
  • #6A2E7B
  • #EA788A
  • #EC232E

Game Design

The Rules

  • Titanica rules card 1
  • Titanica rules card 2
  • Titanica rules card 3

Crew Roles

  • Titanica crew role 1
  • Titanica crew role 2
  • Titanica crew role 3
  • Titanica crew role 4
  • Titanica crew role 5

Tools & Rewards

  • Titanica reward card 1
  • Titanica reward card 2
  • Titanica reward card 3
  • Titanica reward card 4
  • Titanica reward card 5
  • Titanica reward card 6
  • Titanica reward card 7
  • Titanica reward card 8
  • Titanica reward card 9
  • Titanica reward card 10

The Areas

  • Titanica area card 1
  • Titanica area card 3
  • Titanica area card 5
  • Titanica area card 7
  • Titanica area card 9
  • Titanica area card 11
  • Titanica area card 13
  • Titanica area card 15
  • Titanica area card 17

The Obstacles

  • Titanica obstacle card 2
  • Titanica obstacle card 4
  • Titanica obstacle card 6
  • Titanica obstacle card 8
  • Titanica obstacle card 10
  • Titanica obstacle card 12
  • Titanica obstacle card 14
  • Titanica obstacle card 16
  • Titanica obstacle card 18