How to Make a Dinosaurs Board Game
In 1987, the board game publisher, Avalon Hill, produced "Dinosaurs of the Lost World." Up to four players had to form an expedition and explore prehistoric times to collect dinosaurs and other specimens. Board games are a great family activity. If you don't have a dinosaur game on hand, don't worry. With a little creative thinking and imagination, you can create your dinosaur board game.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Dinosaur-related items (figurines, props, scenery, etc.)
- Craft materials (markers, cardboard, paper, glue, paint, etc.)
Instructions
-
-
1
Outline the basic premise of the game. For example, you could choose to be paleontologists on an expedition, dinosaurs escaping extinction or cavemen trying to survive in prehistoric times. Flesh out a back story and determine the mission or underlying theme of the game.
-
2
Gather and create the pieces for your board game. This may involve buying a cheap set of plastic dinosaurs to use as player tokens. You can also create chance cards with various consequences for the player. For example, one card might be "Tyrannosaurus Attacks! Move back three spaces." Also gather other props and scenery, such as volcanoes, palm trees, and rocks and boulders.
-
-
3
Design the game board. Your design can be simple or complicated. Simple designs resemble Candyland -- the players move along a designated path and the first person to reach the end wins. Complicated designs may involve including several pathways or using a honeycomb pattern to provide some degree of free range of motion.
-
4
Create an instruction manual. List the items included in the game, the age range and step-by-step details about how to play the game. Include dinosaur pictures and themes to add interest and content to the manual.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
While dinosaur props and scenery add authenticity to your board game, the items may make the board game difficult to set up and put away. Be mindful of how you intend to store your game between play sessions.
Model your game after an existing template. This may help the creative process. For example, you could model your game after Aggravation, with the goal being to move four baby dinosaurs from the start location back to their home base where the parent dinosaur is waiting.
Dinosaurs are a favorite of little children, but be careful with small playing tokens and other small props or scenery used in your game. The items may be a choking hazard.
References
- Photo Credit Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
