Today we prototyped how to make our game Othello! We started by writing out a rough plan as to how the game will operate. We brainstormed different styles of making the boardgame to compare how we would want the game to be played, and what would be the best way to construct the game. One option which we discussed was making a board with physical pieces that the players would place down on the board. They could have sensors to show which player they belonged to, and activate LEDs to light up to the corresponding colors. This would be much more intensive on the components it would require and more complex to create. A second option we thought about would be to have a grid of LEDs and the players would use a controller with two potentiometers and a button to navigate the board and input their choices. If we continued with this second design, in a later iteration of the game it could be expanded to allow for remote play so that two players could have boards in separate locations and send the moves they make to each other.

We constructed two very low fidelity prototypes to represent how the game could be constructed. We sketched the game as an 8×8 grid with each box representing a neopixel. In one prototype, the little clear tiles represented the game pieces which could be placed on the board and activate the LEDs underneath. In the second prototype, it showed how the LEDs could be covered with a semi transparent covering so that they would not be visible, but they would shine through to look more visibly appealing.