Games and Concept Designs

Earlier this week, I learned more about board games than I ever have in my life. Yes, board games! Like everyone else, I grew up playing board games; Trouble, Candy Land, Monopoly, Pictionary. However, I don't think I've ever given much thought to how they are made, and why they were made... Not until Monday afternoon.

Most board games are made up of different concepts and different theme's, but you must ask yourself the most crucial questions; What is the story? What is the objective? Who are the characters? Where does the story take place? Why play this game? How does the game work? In my Concept Development class, us students were asked to bring in a couple of games, so that we could engage and analyse them. We went around the room, played a few games, asked ourselves those few important questions, (the who, what ,when, where, why, how), while making some new friends at the same time.

I found, the games that were the most fun were the games that caused the most stimulation, mentally and emotionally. My group and I discovered how one game could cause all of us to feel excitement, anger, joy, pity, and triumph, at different stages of the game. It really was a lot of fun.

After our brief analysis of the games we played, my professor, Jimmy Moss, asked us to really think about the different concepts and designs of the different games. He asked us a few questions about which ones were the most memorable, and which were just plain boring. He then asked us to try coming up with our own original concept designs for games. I didn't realize the challenge until I was at home, jotting down some ideas. What's interesting, is once I was back in class today, and after I saw what kinds of ideas some of my class mates came up with, I realized how much fun some of them had while coming up with their ideas. Some of the concepts they described were traditional and similar to some I'd seen before, and other's were very original and very interesting.

I've decided I will try to come up with some more ideas. I'm gonna put my current concepts aside and start coming up with some new ideas... and this time, I'm gonna have fun. Like Jimmy said, some of the best ideas come from when you just start throwing this out there and having fun.