Hello everyone, this is my first time posting on this site, and I'm not 100% sure this is the correct forum for this question, so please excuse me if I picked the wrong one.
I have made my own card and board games and tweaked my favorite games throughout childhood and beyond. I am leading a once-a-week class for a group of six kids (ages 8 to 13) to conceive, design, and create their own board or card game. We will be using thegamecrafter.com to make playable copies available to the kids and their families when they are done.
I'm popping in here to ask for suggestions. I've got a good outline for the class topics each session, but I'm wondering if anyone here has experience doing something like this or would just like to throw in their $.02 about ideas I ought to cover or stuff I should do to help the kids get rolling and stay motivated.
Thanks in advance,
Jonathan
Thanks! Looks like a good read.
My wife and I homeschool our children. We were part of a homeschool coop that fell apart, so we opened up our house to some other homeschool families one day per week. I am leading the game design class in the morning and the kids take a brain science class and a short story class led by other parents in the afternoon.
Here is some information about the class:
We have had two classes so far. The first class we talked about key terms: Concept, Setting, Objective, Physical Components, Design Elements, and Play Mechanics. We differentiated between the look and feel of a game (Design Elements) with the actual rules (Play Mechanics). The kids had fun answering the question "What if you replaced the gingerbread men figures in Candyland with army soldier figures?" We talked about how the rules could be the same but the feel of the game would be different. We also talked about possible new rules for calling in gumdrop air strikes.
We discussed the difference between random and ability play mechanics and how most games use a combination of the two. We identified that random mechanics make gameplay decisions for the player and ability mechanics allow the player to make the decisions.
This week we brainstormed together. I wrote down everyone's ideas on a white board and asked questions to keep the conversation going. When we started running out of creative steam I suggested taking any two ideas and mashing them up. We ended the class with two viable game concepts to choose from: "Cafeteria food fight with trivia and different characters" or "pets in spaceships defending the earth from aliens".
The kids will eventually be making their own prototypes with cheap materials so we can playtest and change the game eaily over time. Once we get a decent design made we will make a few copies so they can take one home and test it with their families. There will be at least one class devoted to writing the rules. Once we are satisfied with the game we will submit everything to thegamecrafter site so we can order our own copies.
I expect our big stumbling block will be the graphic design for any cards and board. I do not have skills of an artist and we will need to create computer graphic files to send in when we are ready to have the game made. Right now, my master plan is to search for an artistic volunteer who will turn our idea into a .pdf reality.
Next week we will discuss the iterative design process, decide which game concept to use, and start making decisions about the objective, components, design, and mechanics.
Anyone with ideas or thoughts to contribute please feel free. This is my first time leading this class, but I am hoping it will go well enough that we do it again in the future.