Board games are a great way to have fun with friends and family. Almost every company, whose members often play board games, has its own house rules - the so-called "homerulls", their preferences are formed - long or short games, strategies, "role-playing" or logic games, etc. And sooner or later, someone comes up with the idea to create a board game that would suit exactly his company.
It is necessary
Multi-colored pens, paper, pencils, computer and printer
Instructions
Step 1
Decide on a genre: strategy, tactical "combat", role-playing, card game, walker-walker, logic like checkers or another. There are games at the intersection of genres. The setting and - to a greater extent - the game mechanics directly depend on the chosen direction.
Step 2
The setting is the world in which your adventures will take place. Their number is limited only by your imagination. Fantasy worlds, space, the prehistoric era, the distant future with cyborgs and lasers, the Wild West, Ancient Greece, Mars … But it's not enough to invent a world - you need to make sure that your world is not internally contradictory. It doesn't hurt to come up with its history and laws.
Step 3
Each setting and each genre needs its own game mechanics. The heart of the role-playing game is the role-playing system, the economic strategy is the ways of winning and events, the collectible card game is the order of moves, the rules for turning and / or removing and laying out cards, the tactical combat game is the characters and the order of inflicting damage, etc.
Step 4
Think over the rules. They are usually tied to mechanics, reflect the principles of interaction between players, the laws of the world and the system of moves. Think about how you change the rules.
Step 5
Start making a game layout. It includes: playing field, chips, cards, cubes. All this can be drawn by hand and cut out. But if you want to offer your game to a publisher, it's best to arrange everything on a computer. You can use the "classic" editors Word or Photoshop for making the game, more complicated - InDesign, or use special programs for the layout of board games, for example, DangeonPainter.
Step 6
Beta test. The first is desirable to carry out alone in order to eliminate the obvious "jambs". Then you can get together with friends or family. It is advisable that they already have experience playing board games, otherwise they may not like it. And your game may not be so bad.
Step 7
Final "debugging" of the game. Consider the experience of playing with the "focus group". Remove all imbalances in mechanics, stabilize the economy, adjust the power of lasers, beat swords into plowshares, dress orcs and elves in different types of armor, take axes from aliens and hand them blasters - and go ahead, to new adventures!
Step 8
If the game works out with a bang, you can try to offer it to publishers. Many board game makers are looking for talented authors. Good luck and inspiration!
