Educational Project - Board Game

So you aren't really interested in designing the game I take it. As that would remove your question regarding copyright issues. Is the goal more to do the graphic design of something that is already developed and then work through the process of producing it? If that is the case, you could perhaps look at print n play games (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/10218 & http://printandplay.mypodcast.com/ offer some guidance in this realm). If you find free print n play games that you could then redesign (graphically that is) and produce. Just a thought.

You only need to worry about art and text for copyright - the mechanics themselves are not. As long as you don't use any art from Monopoly and write your own rules from scratch, you should be okay.

In the New-York-Opoly game you linked, notice that NOWHERE on the page does the name Monopoly appear. Get it?

I think board game design will be a great learning experience for many of your students. In order to produce a different type of monopoly your students will only essentialy have to change the look of the game.
I think a more fulfilling (and challenging) experience for your students could come from the production of an original game.

I think this is a GREAT idea! I just read a pretty good book called "The Game Inventor's Handbook" by Steve Peek. (2nd Edition). This book was published in 1993, so it's a bit dated, but I believe the concepts are still valid. Some things like self-publishing are MUCH easier and cheaper to do now. Mr. Peek's suggestions on how to market the game, write a business plan, etc. are still valid. Contrary to what I thought, this book does NOT tell you how to create a game. It illustrates how much work is involved in getting it published and selling it. Perhaps you can pick up a cheap copy and grab the chapters that are useful to you?

Another suggestion is to go to http://www.barebooks.com/gameboards.htm

They've got kits that contain lots of game pieces and blank cards, play money, tokens, etc. My daughter made a game for her 4th Grade class she called "Survive the Titanic" and we used one of these kits. It worked great. We used PrintMaster (a banner and greeting card making program) to make the board. We were able to print it out on regular 8½ x 11 sheets of paper and simply used a spray adhesive to attach the sheets to the included game board.

Business cards designed to go through your inkjet or laser printer work well for prototyping. You can also use name badge inserts, which are closer to playing card size. A pack of Avery 5390's should work well for you. Size of the cards are 2.25" x 3½". I got 400 of these on eBay for a pretty good price...(one pack contains 400...I didn't buy 400 packages!) Also...be sure you get just the inserts! The packages with the name badge holders can be expensive.

What else....OH! Have you heard of a program called rasterbator (yes...that's the real name). Go here:

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

This cool program will let you take any image you want and make it as big as you want. You can do it online, or you can download it for free and run it from your PC. I did the latter because I had better control over the dot size. This program will take your image and break it into as many 8½ x 11" sheets of paper you want. My daughter wanted to run for a student council election. I grabbed a picture of Uncle Sam and stuck her face on it. Then I put a slogon on the pic and told Rasterbator I wanted a picture that was 3 sheets wide and 3 sheets long. I printed out the image and after I trimmed it down I put it on some poster board and viola! A simple poster, but MUCH bigger than I could've made myself without going to a print shop.

OH. I forgot...you've got access to a wide format printer...well...the site is interesting anyway. Lots of people have posted what they've rasterbated. Pretty cool.

Good luck with your class!