DIY Board Game

I’ve been thinking about making a little board game for me and my 2.5 year old boy to play. My thoughts so far are:

A dice would mean that one of us could jump too far ahead to make it interesting. Plus Archie can’t count very well. So maybe writting ‘2’ on one side of a coin and ‘3’ on the other would do.

Designing the board to make it interesting. Knowing that you either move 2 or 3 squares would make jumping ‘dangerous holes’ of length 2 fun.

Lots of paths through the board.

Have to go down one path to pick up an item to complete the game. E.g. you have to go through the woods to pick up a sword, then back through the woods and into the cave to slay the dragon.

Make it co-operative, some bits require both players to help each other over. One play stands on a switch to lower a bridge while the other player crosses it.

Players can swap moves if they want. Trade moves, items.

Quests to make money and power up the players.

Need to cut out interesting pictures of dragons, trees and landscape to make the board fun to look at.

Part of the story could involve meeting a friendly wizard who casts a secret spell on the player. Then when they get stuck or something happens and they lose interest the spell will activate to help the character and make the game easier.

Multiple endings or loose rules. Talk to the end bad guy. Negotiate a different ending?

Some links to investigate: board game design forum, a blank board game kit.