In the summer months we all love playing board games with our friends and family. Sometimes we can play Monopoly only so much before we get sick of losing to our sibling, again! Why not create your own board game so you can play a game that is fresh. Who knows, you may even sell it to a game company one day.
Here is what you will need to create your own game:
- Posterboard, parchment paper, gift-wrap, or newspaper for your board
- Different colored paper, like construction paper or sticky notes to make game tiles and question cards
- Scissors
- Tape and glue
- Markers and pens
- Dice
- Game pieces (you can use pieces from another game, trinkets, or coins)
Now that you have all of your supplies nearby, you’ll want to come up with an overall game design. Here are some questions to get you thinking about what kind of game you want to create:
- What are your favorite board games? How are they similar to each other?
- How many players do you want your game to have?
- How is the game won?
- How does the game end?
Come up with a theme. Think about what you want the objective of the game to be. You could make a trivia game based on your favorite book or movie, or an action based game, like Pictionary. You could even create a game to help you study for a school exam. Write down your rules so you don't forget. What will your prototype be like? Share some photos and tag us @alachualibrary using the hashtag #summerwiththelibrary
Items with more ideas and information about board games from our collection:
-Unlock Your Imagination: more than 250 boredom busters by DK
-Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg
-A Game of Birds and Wolves: the ingenious young women whose secret board game helped win world war II by Simon Parkin
-Cool Board Games: crafting creative toys and amazing games by Rebecca Felix (a juvenile book with some great ideas)
You can also find out more information about the history and rules of board games by searching "board games" in our esource World Book.