Creating the Environment

Now that we have the game play pretty much sorted we are focussing more on the environment of the game. We want to make it exciting and stimulating for he children, using colour, texture, sound and imagery to further engage them in the experience. We want something that will support the themes of the game and set the scene, without blocking the grid and hindering the game play.

We came up with the idea of creating a sea canopy over the grid. By hanging things over the grid it creates a great immersive visual and kinetic environment, whilst leaving the floor space clear for the game play.

We are planning on using an inexpensive gazebo to create this canopy ($30 from Bunnings or The Warehouse) and hanging hand made decorations from it. For these decorations we are planning on making a number of large plastic bag jellyfish to create a jellyfish forrest. Other decorations may include fish, seaweed and other sea creatures which could be made from any variety of things such as plastic, cardboard, paper or fabric.

Another thought we had was how it would be cool to light this with a black light (As an option for the indoor version). It would create a fun yet eerie environment of glowing, ghostly jellyfish that would be something different and exciting for the kids.

We have also been considering ways of creating the grid used for the game. Currently we have been using tape to draw it however this is time consuming, costly (when having to repeatedly make new grids with more tape), and can only been done inside. Other options we have considered are: sewing a grid out of tapes of fabric,  making a fabric mat, a tarpaulin either painted with a grid or taped up to be reused.