I’m a game lover. I have hundreds of games. When I was a kid I used to make my own board games. When my daughter, niece, and nephew came along, I made board games for them to play, and they loved them!
Inspired by me, my daughter would sometimes endeavor to make a game of her own.
There are a lot of ways your kids can make board games, the ideas are endless.
I like to start by picking a theme for my game.
Your child can have a lot of fun deciding on a theme by looking for miniature playing tokens to walk around the board amongst their toys.
If the child has a lot of tiny dragon figurines, for example, the game can be about dragons.
Your game board doesn’t have to be cardboard to start with, it’s a prototype.
Your child can look at his/her other games to get ideas on how to draw out a board, make paths for the tokens to travel on, etc … it can be a winding path, or squares in a line or whatever works.
Dice and token movers can be borrowed from existing games, along with timers, or whatever is needed.
There should be some places that coincide with the theme and spaces on the board should reflect things that go along with the theme as well. For example, in the case of a dragon theme, a cave or lair instead of “Home”
It’s always fun to have a shortcut, but not too much so that if someone gets the shortcut others feel there is no hope to win. The shortcut should match the theme as well, moving the player ahead with a reason that works for whatever theme has been chosen.
The creativity your child will use to make the game will be unique to your child.
The game can be entirely with dice for movement, with spaces directing players to move ahead or back, or your child can cut out some paper to make cards with directions and certain spaces can indicate drawing cards.
Players can use cards in their hands to make strategic plays, or rely on dice and directed movements by cards drawn on their turn or spaces they land on.
The child will ultimately learn what works and what doesn’t by trial and error. One of my earliest works involved a never ending loop where a token moved forward so many spaces and that space directed them back so many and it never ended, but I learned from that, and quickly went on to make better and better games.
Who knows, maybe your child will make a game so good you can market it and build a college fund for your child.
Once the game is complete you or the neighbor kids can test the game by playing it with your child and seeing what works and what needs tweaked.
Make sure your child writes out the directions to the game. This is a good skill to have, being able to write clear, concise directions, and will also help you remember if you drag it out to play again in the future.
If a game turns out to be pretty good you may want to invest in some poster board and have the child re-draw it out nicer, and make a box for the game, with full color illustrations.
Making games will keep your child busy, your child will learn a lot from the experience, and it could end up being a money maker as well. It’s also a great way to spend some family time testing the game, later.
You will get to know a lot about your child by the game he/she produces as well. What types of pitfalls he/she invents for the game characters, and what it takes to be the winner of the game, for example, will tell you a lot about your child.
In the end, no matter if the game works or not, the time spent will be valuable and fun, and you will both be winners.