Things You'll Need:
- Paper
- Old Board Games
- Spray Glue
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Step 1
Write down your game rules.
Take an inventory of your game’s physical elements. Is it a turn-based dice game, a card game, or both? What are your game’s physical elements? What will the board and game pieces look like? Will the game board be a path of squares like Monopoly, or a simple grid like Scrabble? Will the game be played for fake money or points? -
Step 2
Make a rough mock-up of your board game on paper for your own testing. At this stage, keep taking notes.
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Step 3
Once you’ve established the game’s rules and look, you’ll be ready to go from paper mock up to a more durable first game board prototype.
Instead of re-inventing the wheel, use the board from an old board game with the intent of spray-gluing a new game-face on it. Of course, if you’re a perfectionist and have a flair for design, do make your own game board, preferably with a material like foam-core board that’s easy to cut. -
Step 4
Draw your game board interface by using either a computer graphics program like Adobe Illustrator, or by hand-drawing the interface on paper with pen and ink, markers, or any other permanent media of your choice.
If you want to enlarge or reduce the game interface size, you can scan the artwork into your computer and manipulate the image size in a program like Photoshop. Or you can take the game interface image to a copying service like FedEx Kinko’s. -
Step 5
Either affix the game illustration to the board with spray glue, or print the illustration directly onto a full sheet of self-sticking labels.
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Step 6
For game cards, you can either recycle an old deck, or buy business card stock. For recycled cards, use self-adhesive print labels.
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Step 7
For game pieces or tokens, you can recycle chess or checker pieces. Or if you have craft skills, you might want to whittle the pieces from soft wood or mold them with clay. Or you can browse the knick-knack aisles of stores like Pier One or jobber racks at toy stores like Toys R'Us.
