
At the time, you’re not thinking about theme. You might have a novel mechanic in mind that you want to showcase. Everything is built around and within this thematic shell.īottom-up design is essentially the opposite. This may lend itself towards the types of mechanics and gameplay involved in your design. For example, maybe you want to make a game about a pirate bakery called Pi-rates. Mark Rosewater, who is the head designer for Magic: the Gathering, has some great comments about these two design methods, which you can read about here.Ī top-down design is when you have an idea for the flavor or theme and want to build a game around that. You can either start with a top-down or bottom-up design. There are two main ways that designers go about designing their game. Top-Down or Bottom-Up DesignĪlright, so this first point goes without saying, but you need to have an idea for your board game. However, there is a general creative process that can be followed and applied to a multitude of things, including board game design.

This means that I don’t have any board games published and no designer accolades to back up my recommendations. Now, I’m going to preface all of this to say that I’m an aspiring amateur designer.

You want to design your own board game! Where do you even begin?

You probably eat, sleep, and breathe board games! Personally, I’d recommend balancing out your board game consumption with some Point Salad.īut even after playing so many games, you find that there’s a gaming itch that you need to scratch.
