BOLD

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BOLD

User Interface + Game Design

BOLD is a competitive card game by Mattel. Our team analyzed its marketing points, researched how we could improve gameplay and visuals, and developed BOLD onto a virtual platform, as part of a classroom assignment.

Team: Lidia de Oleo, Maya Zimmer, Steven Ou, Ryan Stifler

Research

About the Game

BOLD is a puzzle-competitive card game by Mattel which involves players flipping over cards in a 4x5 grid and matching them based on one of four properties - container, size, color, and pattern. The player may keep flipping cards until a non-matching card is flipped or when the player decides to "bank" the cards, which can be accounted for points later on. As the cards can be seen by everyone in the game, each player is incentivized to memorize the cards and "steal" points from other players. The deck consists of 81 cards and the game ends when the grid cannot be refilled.

Number of players: 2 – 4

Game time: 10 – 15 minutes

Year released: 2016

MSRP: $4.99

Problem

Unlike its Mattel counterparts (UNO, Phase 10, Skip Bo), BOLD does not sell too well. It can hardly be found in the three largest toy retailers in the nation, Target, Amazon, and Walmart, or sometimes sold at an inflated rate.

Research

We visited several department stores and found that most of the board/card games are designed to be played in a party setting, and rely heavily on social interactions. Many of the puzzle games also have more competitive gameplay with features that enhance the experience, such as power-ups and effects.

Through playing BOLD, we found that it has a few disadvantages. To play, one needs to find a space large enough to fit a 4x5 grid of standard sized cards. In terms of gameplay, the act of refilling the grid with cards from the deck eats up lots of time, and has the potential to disrupt the grid's existing cards.

Findings

After analyzing all the elements and visual system of BOLD, we found that many aspects of the game that we deemed were hindering gameplay was actually implemented to distract players from memorizing the cards by repeatedly exposing them to the same images. For example, the patterns on the back of the cards mimic the patterns on the front of the card, which can potentially add to the player's confusion.

Solution

Though BOLD did not end up being as popular as Mattel's other games, we believe that it has potential to be a fun game that can bring people together. We decided to create an app that will stay true to the original card game, yet also include new additions which will enhance gameplay. Thus, we added additional game modes that allow the players to use special power-ups or relax in a non-competitive setting, and also bring in essential elements such as timer and score into the game. We decided to keep the illustration style of the original game and expand it into user icons and other decks.