How to make a Board Game: Prototypes and Play Testing
Anyone who wants to make their first board game struggles with tons of questions:
- “Where do I start?”
- “How to I come up with a game concept?”
- “How do I make a board game prototype? (or “how do I make a card game prototype?”)
- “How do I make sure it plays well?”
- “How do I get my game to market?”
There are a lot of questions here. And there are great resources both online and in print to help you with some of them. But when we were starting out, it was tough to find info on how to make a board game prototype or how to make a card game prototype. So, we thought we’d capture some of the ways we’ve done it to make things easier for those starting out.
In this post, we’ll cover a quick intro to prototyping and testing since they go hand in hand. Later, we’ll look at this in more depth and we’ll look at how to mock up a card game and game board. Many board games include cards so it’s good to learn how to make both even if you mainly want to focus on board games…
It’s rare that you can make a game that won’t need changes from the first concept.
Knowing how to prototype or mock-up your own games is important. Why? Because it’s always best to iron out “bugs” in your game when it’s cheap and easy to make changes. It’s rare (read: near impossible) that you can make a game that won’t need changes from the first concept. Changes become more expensive—and take longer—the further along you are in the process. Once someone else is making expensive prototypes for you, it’s no longer cheap or easy to make changes. So DIY (do it yourself) pays off—a lot—in the beginning.
Back to the Beginning
Let’s assume that you’ve already got your initial board game/card game idea thought out and are ready to move on to mocking up an early prototype. Before you begin prototyping, it’s always helpful to have thought about your game at a high level and make sure you have at least your basic ideas captured. For that, use sticky notes, blank paper, graph paper, drawing materials, flowchart or “mindmapping” software, a spreadsheet…anything that’s good at letting you brain dump ideas and information and (this is key), letting you change both later. Most of these tools are cheap or free.
Also, remember that prototyping can also be a great tool for sparking new creative ideas, or improving them. So don’t always wait to start on mockups until you think your idea is 100% perfect, or you’ll never get started.
And Beyond
In our next post, we’ll talk about why to make a prototype. Hint: protos aren’t important for the reasons that many new game designers think.
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