Caketopia - What's Your Baking Point?

WHO WE ARE

A group of left-handed first year students from Parsons MS SDM. Grouped together by Adam Hayes for the New Economies class, now we all listen to Reggaeton while we work and Laura is slowly learning to love Indian spices.

Samaksh

Jain

Base

without which a cake would be in crumbles

Bhumika

Keswani

Icing vital in sandwiching and binding the whole cake together

Tanmayi

Dresmukh

Filling the flavour and texture

Laura Martinez

Frosting the finesse, perfection and appeal

CONTENTS

The Concept The Game The Process Mockups

THE CONCEPT

LEARNING ABOUT PLATFORM ECONOMIES IN A SIMPLE, GAMIFIED WAY.

Everyone understands food. In this sense, cake making was the selected metaphor to explain a much more intricate concept of economics, society and politics. It is a way to tangibilize the intangible digital environment of platform economies.

The defined metaphor for platforms: cake recipes.

UNDERSTANDING THE INFRAESTRUCTURES OF PLATFORMS AS SOCIO-POLITICAL ECONOMIES

PLATFORM

BUYERS

SELLERS

VALUE

ECONOMIC TRANSACTIONS

Platforms are programable infrastructures constantly being built and rebuilt (like a website, mobile app, or any digital tool), that facilitate transactions and interactions between users. At the same time, the platform is controlled by a programmer within itself that stablishes parameters and regulations for said interactions.

THE CONCEPT

UNDERSTANDING THE INFRAESTRUCTURES OF PLATFORMS AS SOCIO-POLITICAL ECONOMIES

Economy

Regulations- Hiccups, Taxes- Burdens

Multi-sided markets

CAKETOPIA

Business development, Buyer, Seller,ClientStakeholders, BarterTrade off, cost and value, Embededness of platforms in society, supply and demand (of ingredients) Society

Politics

Strategies, Game plan, Policies, Platforms and personalization, power relationships

THE CONCEPT

Caketopia is a game (social interaction) that aims to educate its players on the impact of platforms on the contemporary economy and their own life decisions (societal impact). The game allows players to create personalized infrastructures (a cake recipe) within a platform (a table game) while illustrating the unpredictability of this kind of economic environment (through regulations, tax implementation, bartering, and shopping catalyzers). It also emphasizes the interdependence of players in maintaining a multi-sided market through play.

Caketopia was designed to make the player question whether regulations implemented by a platform are in the benefit of its own survival itself, if platform economy should be regulated by an external entity, and who benefits (and who does not) within the system.

More importantly, how the actions of an individual have an impact on the entire platform dynamics and, on the same note, how platforms have the power to "control the game".

THE GAME GOALS

1 1

INSPIREREFLECTION RECREATION SIMPLIFICATION BUILDRESILIENCE

What is the impact of platformization on 21st-century economics and namics? What is its pact in society and politics?

2 2

Learn through doing and playing: what is how does a multi-sided marketworkandcreate interactionsina fictitiousenvironment, and platformization concepts such as the control from the platform itself

Understand a robust topic through a simple metaphor (platforms as building a cake).

3 4 3 4

Our current world requires resilience as a common characteristic in society, economy and policy making. Specifically, in platform economies, since it is a constantly changing environment

THE GAME

The packaging

LOGO ILLUSTRATIONS COLOR PALETTE

The branding of the game brings the metaphor to an extreme. Using very "cute" elements that coat the real concept and goal of the game is a strategy created to make the game more appealing and unexpected. As stated before, it simplifies the way people understand platform economies.

Inspire Competition

Each player is given a different recipe goal to demonstrate the personalization of platforms and inspire competition.

Collect the required ingredients to create a cake recipe

Buy, sell and barter ingredients to collect the ingredients before the other players

Build resilience around the constant change and implementation of new rules in the game to complete the cake recipe

Keep dynamic relationships between players to create a market economy that allows the barter, selling, and buying of ingredients

The motivation of completing the recipe forces each player to come up with a game plan or strategy within the uncertainty of the platform economy.

2-6 PLAYERS

OVERVIEW

CUSTOMIZABLE INFINITY BOARD

MONEY CARDS: FACE UP

INGREDIENT CARDS: FACE UP

DEED TOKENS: FACE DOWN

HICCUPS: FACEDOWN

Caketopia can be played by Start by setting up the Shuffle and set up the card and token piles next to the board

Each player is dealt with

The goal is to gather the ingredients to bake your cake

The first one to bake the cake successfully

1 TOKEN 1 RANDOM CLIENT: RECIPE CARD MONEY: $15 ($10 + $3 + $2), 3 RANDOM INGREDIENTS.

WITH THE EXACT RECIPE SPECIFIED AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE WHILE TACKLING THE HICCUPS THAT COME YOUR WAY.

HOW TO PLAY?

Roll the dice to start, any box on the board can be considered the start point. Once decided, it remains the same for all players.

3.

Move the specified number of spaces and pick a token from the “Deed” pilethis will be your main playing pile

4.

Place the token you picked on your place on the board- this will remain on the board for the game.

Every time a player crosses the center circle, they can collect $6 from the money pile.

1.

2.

1 Infinity Board

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?

6 Player Tokens

1 Game Dice

10 Client-Recipe cards

1 deck of Money cards: ( $10, $5, $4, $3, $2, $1)

1 deck of Ingredient cards: ( Milk: Almond, Whole, Skim, Sugar: Regular, Substitute, Butter: Regular, Coconut, Eggs: Regular, Organic, Flaxseed, Decorations: Chocolate spread, Fresh fruits, Chocochips, Sprinkles, Cookie Crumbs, Sprinkles, Flour and Baking powder.)

1 deck of Deed Tokens (these will be the tokens you place on the board): Scoring time, Trade Off, Skip, Hiccups, Burdens

1 deck of Hiccups

RECIPE CARDS

The recipe cards are the "ch players pick from. They will type of cake they will be creating during the game, and the amount and kinds of ingredients they must collect during the playtime.

Being assigned a client and a recipe creates space for empathy, possibility of different perspectives, importance of adherence to rules and structures. Each client would have their own journey in the game depending on the regulations aka hiccups thrown at them.

WHAT DO THE CARDS MEAN?

DEED TOKENS

Caketopia is a buildable game. This means that the board will always change. This is achieved through interchangeable deed tokens that are placed on the board by turns, by the players during the first few rounds.

For example, if a player rolls a 6, they will move 6 spaces on the board, select a random deed token and place it on the board. Then, they would proceed to retrieve the card from the respective deck.

WHAT DO THE CARDS MEAN?

MONEY CARDS

$ $ $

3 2 1

$ $ $

The money cards come in the denominations of $1, $2, $3, $4, $5 and $10. They are a medium of exchange in the form of cards, however the concept of change doesn't exist in Caketopia. If one doesn't possess the exact payable amount, they pay the closest highest amount.

WHAT DO THE CARDS MEAN?

HICCUPS

FRONT BACK

A hiccup card is a regulation card. They might benefit or prejudice a player according to the moment it is pulled out from the deck. It can be something that affects the player positively, negatively or indifferently for a round, or the entire game for a period of play time. These cards define openings and limitations of the game.

WHAT DO THE CARDS MEAN?

BURDEN FEES

FRONT BACK

The burden fees represent taxes. They also respond to a token, They will require the player to return money back to the money pile.

WHAT DO THE CARDS MEAN?

INGREDIENTS

FRONT BACK

The players will buy and barter the ingredients, and collect them to complete the cake recipe they got. They might buy them during scoring time or exchange between players during trade off time.

INSTRUCTIONS MANUAL

THE PROCESS

+

Intermediates (Platforms)

The three actors are interdependent on each other.

PROCESS

CONCEPTUALIZATION

Givers Takers

The actors have their own set of assets to offer.

All the actors jointly complement each other.

PROTOTYPING AND IDEATION

Including testing the initial design within the New Economics and Societies class cohort. Players were divided into buyers, sellers, and main players.

The goal was to create an environment where there is an exchange of data and commodities and introduce regulations that may or may not work in your favor.

THE MOCKUPS

THANK YOU