The Makers received a request from Darrel for the adaptation of the board game Risk. In the game of Risk, the players aim for global conquest to claim all the territories on a world map. Darrel is blind and plays with his sighted friends. It was very important to Darrel that the game could be played closest to the original version of the game.
When the Makers first started this project, they were thinking of the best way to achieve Darrel's wishes. They started this by finding the exact board that Darrel's group was using and kept the basis of the map. The Makers team traced the map, recreating the outlines of the borders for tactile sense.
The Team corresponded with Darrel to figure out the best way to keep track of territories. They tried a few different ways to track, including some 3D printed systems along with a website counter system, but overall, Darrel did not like those systems.
Darrel is fluent in Unified English Braille, so with that basis they made a counter system that would stick onto the board and would be able to change out easily. The counter system was made up of 3-digit number pieces with raised numbers and braille. The counters were glued to the borders of the territories and were color coded with the border. The numbers pieces have Velcro on the back of them for easy change out when taking over territories.
They designed the player pieces that are color coated with shapes to help differentiate each player, pink circles, blue hexagons, green triangles, and Orange X's all with Velcro on the back for easy placement and removal.
As the Makers team worked on this project, they sent Darrel weekly updates letting him know where they are in the process. Once the Maker team came up with the final version and all the pieces were done, they placed the original board on wood backing to help keep structure to the board. Once completed, they sent Darrel the finished adapted game. Darrel was overall happy with the game and liked the creativity used to make it functional for him and others. He reported that it has inspired him to adapt some other projects in his life.
