How to Design a Board Game

Board games are a way to pass time, interact with people, compete, and have a great time. The game board, pieces, rule book, and other miscellaneous components pour out when we unpack a new board game. Inventors put their thoughts into each part of the game for players to interact with. This is an instruction set on how to design a board game for beginner game designers and hobbyists. The time this will take is entirely up to you and how polished you want the board game to be.

(1) Planning template (Download)

(2) Paper

(3) Coloring utensils

(4) Playing pieces you have in mind that are accessible (Ex: Dice)

Note: The type of paper is up to you. This will be used to create your prototype such as cards and a board.

Choose the type of board game you’d like to make. (Types include, but not limited to abstract, luck-based, collecting, area-control, trivia)

Feel free to consider successful existing board games and their qualities.

Consider objectives to fit an appropriate game length. This section is for you to put the main idea of the board game into words.

The winning condition is an occurrence that causes the game to end.

The player amount is a range. The lower amount is the least number of players needed to begin the game. The higher amount is the greatest number of players the game can handle.

If you are unsure of the appropriate age, compare your theme and objective complexity to other existing board games.

This is a list of all the components needed to play the game. The list should include everything that would be included in the box of the manufactured version (besides the rule book).

This is a quick sketch of the board game layout. Make sure to consider the orientation of where the players will be facing during gameplay. Include necessary labeling and color.

Note: If your game does not necessarily have a board, sketch out the game’s complete setup.

Be very specific on how to set up the game, use the playing pieces, play the game, and win the game. Consider all conditions possible.

After laying out the game’s structure, come up with an eye-catching name. This can be a made-up word, something that hints the objective, or something that portrays the theme. Consider the age group from Step 6.

This is a “rough draft” of the board game.

For this step, the game does not have to be entirely complete. It just needs to have enough pieces and information to function for one full game. Try to make a replica that will resemble the actual board game.

Pretend that you are newly introduced to the board game and playtest on your own to see if you can play the game as intended.

Polish the game to the best of your ability. This is the last step before you show your creation to others!

Do not interfere to explain any rules or set up the game. This is the time where you can see if your rules and conditions make sense.

Pay attention to how they read the rules and interact with the game pieces. Note if the players are playing the game how you intended.

Take the feedback you received from Step 14 and revise the game.

Repeat Steps 14 and 15 with as many groups of players you find necessary.

End

Congratulations! You have completed your board game design.

You can either continue playtesting the board game to strengthen it or turn the prototype into reality. You might find yourself applying minor changes along the way, which is completely normal. If you need to change or remove a rule, make sure to playtest the game again with the adjusted version.

This is the basics of how to design your own board game.