Variant: Designing Your Own Board Game
Way back when I was a much younger geek, I used to draw and create my own board games. They were very simple games that I used to play with friends, but nothing that delved too far outside of roll and move games or little battle games with whatever miniature soliders we used to have at the time. At some point, I grew up and started to play “real games” like Risk or (ugh…) Monopoly, and the pastime of making my own games died away.
Flash forward to the present, much older me. I’ve now played dozens of different games, learned about deeper strategy, and played with different types of mechanics. As time passes, and with all of these great crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter.com or Indiegogo.com , that old and squeaky creative part of my brain has turned on. I want to make my own game. This could actually be a real thing
Now, I’m positive the first 10 ideas I have will be miserable failures in terms of gameplay, fun, and general balance. There’s tons and tons of work that must go into board game creation and tons of business acummen that I currently do not posses. But that desire is definitely there.
The question for you, dear readers, is: have you felt that creative itch to make your own board game?
Is there some game, theme, or mechanic that you wish existed? Have you gotten the urge to add your own Variant to a game you love just to see it there?
Let me know! I’m curious as to how many others have tried or attempted to make their own games. What worked? What did not work? What advice would you give an aspiring board game designer?
We actually started an email/google docs based game design coop where we throw our ideas out and get a thread going that’s an advice board for how this could be made. THen the ideas that start to sound good go into the alpha phase. We have two successful games in Beta right now, we’re talking about trying to kickstart. It’s nice because we have a group of people who can take printa nd play versions off their their various friends and playtest for feedback. The one that might go to kickstarter had probably gone through 8 or 9 versions tweaked per comments with friends. I think that you should totally trymaking a game if you, it’s just reallyimportant to playtest and get feedback, so many things are different once you really start to play it.
I actually made two games this year! They are both science oriented, and I played them with my science college classes, but they can be played by anyone, no knowledge of science required.
They are both semi-complex, European style and rely on multi-phase turns and victory points for winning. I’m planning to playtest them with friends this summer and then I don’t know what my plan is. I’m tossing around the idea of kickstarter vs talking to education/game companies.
I’m already starting to plan a new one for next fall based on the circulatory system!
Hey Hectarion,
Have you published any of your games ? Our company was founded due to our strong passion for creating board games. We have created 11 games to date. Our strongest offering will be considered for publishing next year. We have developed a really epic game mechanic that allows each play to take on the role of a dungeon master at certain moments in the game. Our working title is Kingdom of Havenloft. It’s going to be revolutionary. Have a great day !
Cool! Thanks for all the comments folks.
I’m really at the early stages of my game development. Still playing with hand written cards and fake beads that I’m using as tokens. I’m still a long ways away from publishing but it’s certainly fun to play things that are completely new all the time.
@Lisa Crowd designing games sounds very interesting! Do you have concerns about IP or someone stealing the ideas you guys create? That’s been a concern of mine.
@Rosalind I think games that have an educational background are awesome. I wish I had played more when I was younger
@Frankie Cool! Can you keep me/us posted on it? Does the same player become the DM or does it rotate around?
Sure ! Yup, the DM is played by all players at one time or another based the cards you pick. So if someone lands on a square that says, “At your feet, you find…” anyone else with the continuation to this story can just jump in and decide your fate ! Our game mechanics are really outside the box. Have a great day ! Let me know if you have any questions !
Frankie