Miami professor begins with pad and pencil in video game design

Matt Board sits at his computer.

Matt Board creates video games for national science exhibit.

By Jessi Zachman, university news and communications intern

When it comes to designing video games, for Matthew Board it's all about the process that begins with pad and pencil.

He starts by taking pencil to paper in his sketchbook, and then he'll look to media, film, books and art museums for inspiration. Returning to his sketchbook, Board organizes his art style guide and envisions how the game will look.

Board, assistant professor of art and interactive media studies, is designing "Mysteries of the Core," the first video game in a collection of three that will travel the country in a science exhibit beginning spring of 2019.

First involved with the game's design in 2014, he is now designing a second version for Pop Up Drill Down, the traveling exhibit funded by the National Science Foundation to provide ocean and earth science education opportunities to underserved communities.

In the new version, users can visit rivers and collect mineral samples with Rovee, a guide avatar that helps with game navigation and user agency. According to Board, the second version also sports a jump in visual quality due to improvements in game graphics technology.

"I think maintaining the level of accuracy in a game like this is the most challenging, but it's also the most rewarding part about the whole thing. It's really a lot of fun," said Board

Video game is based on scientific data

"Mysteries of the Core" explores different types of experiments and what you can learn from the ocean floor. Board based the game design on data from the JOIDES Resolution, a research drilling ship used by the International Ocean Discovery Program.

To help with the process, Board collaborated with geologist and author Bruce Bjornstad to accurately design the natural landscapes users interact with in the game. Through emails and phone calls, they worked together to make the moments come to life.

"The way we visually communicate is different, but I think that makes for a good day because it gets you out of your comfort zone," said Board.

With the game's animations blocked and its game play and placeholder art set, Board is focusing on the second game in the educational series, which is yet to be named, that will feature a different game play and art style.  

"It's going to be a little more cartoon-like and abstracted, because we're dealing with microorganisms in the ocean," said Board. "They don't even exist in light, so having an understanding of what they look like, that in itself is a complex endeavor."

After examining electron microscope photographs sent by microbiologists, Board goes to the drawing board.

"It's cool seeing what they send and then seeing where you're supposed to go with it and getting it all to work in a game," said Board. "Sometimes you have to take some artistic license but in a convincing way because the images of the plankton aren't color images."

Whether it's designing video games with guide avatars or plankton, Board picks up his pencil, sketches his thoughts and revels in the process of designing video games.

"I like the idea of emergence software, where the process kind of defines itself. It grows as you're making it, and that's what makes it exciting," said Board.