Year 7 Economic & Business
Creating a Board Game
1. What makes a board game fun?
Board games have been a form of entertainment for thousands of years but what makes a board game fun?
Have a look at the following videos to remind yourself of how some of the most common board games work.
How do these games achieve the following:
- Fun
- Challenging
- Have a clear way to win
- Offers a different playing experience each time
2. Planning your board game
How do you decide who goes first?
- Roll of the die?
- Answering a knowledge question?
- Oldest or youngest player?
Will the players take on different roles?
- Can they choose these or will they be allocated?
- Will they have particular advantages or handicaps?
What is the objective of the game?
Is the winner:
- The last person left alive?
- The first person to reach a certain place?
- The first person to have reached several places on the board?
- The first person to have collected certain objects?
- The first person to have answered a set amount of questions?
- The person to have the most money the end?
In what direction will the players move?
Will they:
- Always head in one direction? (like Monopoly)
- Zig-Zag upwards? (like Snakes and Ladders)
- Be able to choose their direction (like in Trivial Pursuit)
How will the cards picked up affect the game?
- Go to ‘jail’ or some other holding place?
- Move forward to places on the board?
- Miss a turn?
What will the board look like?
- A map of key places associated with the topic?
- Will it be on different levels?
- Will it be modelled after an existing game?
Some games have different themes like Trivial Pursuit
3. Making your board game
THE BOARD
Here are some resources that may help you construct your game board.
Dining Table Print and Play. (2016, October 26). How to make game boards [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbbD_Qn4dY4
Shauna1934. (2016). 16 free printable board game templates. Retrieved from https://hubpages.com/games-hobbies/board-game-templates
THE CARDS
Here are some resources that may help you construct the cards for your game.
Dining Table Print and Play. (2016, October 26). How to make game boards [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbbD_Qn4dY4
Shauna1934. (2017). Make your own trivial pursuit cards. Retrieved from https://hubpages.com/games-hobbies/make-your-own-trivial-pursuit-cards
Young, D. (n.d.). Game board for homemade games. Retrieved from http://donnayoung.org/homeschooling/games/game-boards.htm
THE TOKENS
Here are some resources that may help you with some ideas for tokens for your game.
Game tokens can be made from almost anything including Lego minifigures, marbles, counters or even coins.
Dining Table Print and Play. (2016, October 26). How to make tokens [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqqFvPZe4qs
THE QUESTIONS
Here are some resources that may help you create the questions for your game.
ENTREPRENEURS
Atkinson, A., Byrne, P., Hamann, J., Hamper, D., Kleeman, G., Melissas, S., … Wilson, K. (2017). Humanities and social sciences, 7, Western Australia. Melbourne: Pearson.
Conti, L., Easton, M., Saldais, M., Dumovic, V. & Kostecki, R. (2016). Humanities and social sciences: Western Australian Curriculum, 7. South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.
Darlington, R., Mraz, J., Smithies, G. & Richardson, M. (2018). Humanities and social sciences: for Western Australian, 7. Milton, Qld.: Jacaranda.
Kim, L. (2015). 11 most famous entrepreneurs of all time. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/11-most-famous-entrepreneurs-of-all-time-and-what-made-them-wildly-rich.html
UNLIMITED WANTS & SCARCE RESOURCES
Conti, L., Easton, M., Saldais, M., Dumovic, V. & Kostecki, R. (2016). Humanities and social sciences: Western Australian Curriculum, 7. South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.
TYPES OF BUSINESS OWNERSHIP
Business Ownership and planning. (n.d.). In Business and personal finance (pp. 520-547). Columbus: McGraw Hill.
WHY PEOPLE WORK
Atkinson, A., Byrne, P., Hamann, J., Hamper, D., Kleeman, G., Melissas, S., … Wilson, K. (2017). Humanities and social sciences, 7, Western Australia. Melbourne: Pearson.
Conti, L., Easton, M., Saldais, M., Dumovic, V. & Kostecki, R. (2016). Humanities and social sciences: Western Australian Curriculum, 7. South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.
Darlington, R., Mraz, J., Smithies, G. & Richardson, M. (2018). Humanities and social sciences: for Western Australian, 7. Milton, Qld.: Jacaranda.
ADVERTISING & MARKETING
THE GRAPHICS
You will probably want to use some images for your game. Don’t forget to make sure that you source your images ethically. The best images are those listed as Creative Commons or Royalty free.
Remember you cannot legally use an image if it has a watermark. You need to purchase the image before you can use it. This is what a watermark looks like.
Here are some websites that have Creative Commons or Royalty Free websites.
This search will allow you to find images licenced as Creative Commons.
This website has both free and paid images. You can download up to 10 free images per day.
Free stock photos you can use everywhere. Free for commercial use. No attribution required.
Pixabay is an online platform that enables users to find high quality photos, vectors, and illustrations.
References
Brgfx. (n.d.). Game templates in different colours [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/background
Board games [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://random-shots.net/2017/06/03/top-board-games-random-shots-podcast-episode-17/
First [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://twitter.com/firstplaylists
Friends Trivial Pursuit [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.thehut.com/toys-games/trivial-pursuit-friends-edition/11666344.html
Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.thenile.com.au/toys/trivial-pursuit-harry-potter-edition/5053410000493
Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://goodtoyshop.com.au/trivial-pursuit-lord-of-the-rings/
Macrovector. (n.d.). Hand holding trophy [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/business
Monopoly logo [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Thimble-tossed-Game-piece-voted-out-of-Monopoly-board-game-413953053.html
Payday logo [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgVM4aT12nU
Pile of cards [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=6605637
Roles [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://personalityspirituality.net/articles/the-michael-teachings/the-seven-roles-in-essence/
Signpost [Image). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://tinycards.duolingo.com/decks/6pMUudj9/direction
Sorry! logo [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://fontmeme.com/sorry-board-game-font/
Speech bubble with question mark [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/background
Tarr, R. (2017). How to help students design educational board games. Retrieved from https://www.classtools.net/blog/get-students-designing-educational-board-games/
Trivial Pursuit logo [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trivialpursuit-logo.svg