Board Game Design
Using ancient boards, twisting movement and finding new ways to use established mechanics
Following the completion of my PhD in 2017 I would both create a YouTube channel to analyse games and I would practice tabletop game design. With an interest in ancient board games I wanted to take the board of Alquerque, analyse the movement opportunities and create something new with it.
From this I created Bloom - an abstract strategy game for two players. Each player is trying to capture core intersections on the board whilst preventing their opponent from doing the same.
Initially using various Alquerque boards and matchsticks as playing pieces I iterated on the design and playtested with friends until the design achieved what I set out to do. I then moved on to creating the board and pieces. Finally I designed the rulebook and completed the project.
After finishing Bloom I wanted to make a game that adapted to the specifics of the board design itself. The constraint I wanted to use was a circular board that incorporated vertical movement. Using a kitchen roll holder and making concentric circles of smaller sizes from bottom to top I managed to make it so each level could be rotated. From this board I created Revolutions.
This gave rise to many design possibilities and after experimenting with asymmetrical rule sets I settled on a player count between 2-4 where players had a set of pieces that they could move clockwise/anticlockwise and ascend/descend each tier.
This project took much longer in the prototype phase as certain designs weren’t working to create a balanced experience with asymmetry in mind. Once I iterated to the current design and playtested enough I was able to conclude the project by designing the rule book.
Core to the next project was working with cards as the core mechanic. I went to a square grid to keep things simpler for players as the last two games were quite different to most boards. From this I wanted to make a game about disco dancing!
In Dancing Queens moves are played simultaneously with players writing down the square they want to move to on the card (it’s protected by a plastic sleeve). Core to this is each card having its own ability which can affect other players.
Dancing Queens is still in a prototype phase with iterations being made and brought to board game days for playtesting.
