‘Board’? Create your own DIY game

Creating your own board game is easy. Pick a defining theme, mix in rules from existing games, and above all, have fun creating!

Every year, when this writer's young cousins fly down for the Christmas holidays, the most important ritual is creating a game that will last the duration of the holidays. Though it seems tedious and labour-intensive, building your own DIY game is actually all fun and games, literally and metaphorically speaking. As Zain Memon, co-founder of Memesys Culture Lab and designer of political game Shasn, puts it, "There's fundamentally no difference between a trained game designer and someone who wants to build games. Everyone knows how to have fun."

Zain Memon

Memon recalls playing with over 15 to 20 boardgames as a child, which he says familiarised him with the nature of gameplay early on. He says the basic funda of a game is telling a story and creating a shared interactive experience for families and friends to enjoy. It's also about capitalizing on an emotion and making that the crux of the game - a theme that runs throughout. For example, if you want get intense, take politics as your theme, and focus on crafting a detailed strategy.

Here's how to create your own board game, DIY style.

Tell a story
This is the theme of your game. Choose whether it's a lighthearted venture or a more political game of stakes, and base your gameplay on that. Add in challenges like dares if you want the game to be difficult and keep the rewards spare as well.

Decide on a game play
You don't always need to use dice. Use a pack of cards to decide how the player moves, or use combinations of dice that add up to a specific number to decide how each player's turn is decided. For example, you can create a rule that requires players to get even numbers on both the dice to proceed.

Switch up the rules
Creating your own game means understanding how the rules of already-existing games apply. "Take a game that you like, but make a small ‘rule tweak' in it: for example, change a rule you don't like. Now, play it with friends, and observe how the gameplay changes. You will see a beautiful recipe emerge," he says. This is how you can also learn to create your own game: by remixing rules from other games.

Focus on having fun
The most important thing is to have fun. The aim should be to enjoy playing the game you've made and not just reach an ending-point, like the oft-repeated proverb, "The journey is more important than the destination." "Experiment, play-test it, and be open to discarding your game if it doesn't work," Memon concludes. "If you see people having fun, that's when you know you have succeeded."