Make Your Own Board Game
by Jesse Terrance Daniels
Published on August 30, 2022
Have you ever wanted to make your own board game and you're unsure of where to start? This guide is an in-depth look at all things board games, from the mechanics, to the components, to the themes, to the end game variations.
Dip your toes into the board game creating world and use this as your blueprint.
My husband and I are avid board gamers. Okay, that's a bit of an understatement. We've networked with some amazing indie board game companies, test played prototype games, hosted 3-4 board game nights a week (pre-covid, at least), have at least two games in the works, and have probably one of the largest board game collections in our community - perhaps in all of Northern BC! We might know a thing or two about board games.
This guide is a great introduction to the world of board games. It's a very well-thought out approach to designing your own game - I even learned a few things while reading it! It provides a good overview of the different types of games, the mechanics that make a game worth playing, the themes that draw players in and hold their interest, as well as how to provide good end game goals. Jesse even provides four sample games at the end that readers can attempt to play, all of which include aspects of information contained in the guide so that readers can correlate items to their functionality in real-world gaming.
I was at a bit of a loss with the eARC that I was reading off of, as I missed the formatting of the guide. Some photos were strewn throughout the book, but with the way e-readers are, there are limitations in what can be seen for formatting. That being said, from what I've glimpsed in samples on Amazon, the physical copy is a dynamic presentation of artwork and themes. I think this would be a powerful document to have in PDF format as well, since links can be useful when correlating terms and concepts to real-world examples.
Another aspect of eARCs is that the copy provided to reviewers is not entirely complete. They usually miss aspects such as acknowledgements, forwards, indexes, and glossaries. I anticipate that all these things have been thought of for the final publication! In any event, an index is always useful in non-fiction guides to help direct readers to specific places depending on what their search parameters are. Also, this book would benefit greatly from a glossary, as there are terms that may need further definition in an easy-to-locate space.
Otherwise, this was a very thorough guide into creating your own board game. There will definitely be a few things that we'll refer to as we develop our own!
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