I learned a lot from the board game design process. Most importantly I learned that most ideas that sound good in your head aren't great on paper. Everyone likes different styles of games and I found that the best games incorporate aspects from various styles of games.
Board game design follows a similar process as video game design. You have to consider your audience, how long the game will stay interesting, etc. The difference between board games and videi games is that there are a lot more options for video games in terms of the design process. The digital world is far greater than the real world, the possibilities are endless.
I liked Omicron and Dare the best because they were the most interesting and suited my tastes the best. Omicron has so many options, like characters, where you place the mine, etc that it never gets boring. Dare is fun because you have to test your ability to do crazy things. All of the games were good but these two stood out to me.

By designing the board game I learned how to work with a group to try and make a product of all of our ideas. I learned how to make a fun game and what makes a game bad. Although it was fun, it was challenging to think of good ideas and come up with a game which people would want to play.

feel the burn

My game is a physical fitness and educational game. There are two teams needed to play this game. The teams can be as small as one person or as large as you want. The objective is to get the most questions right before every member of your team can not complete their physical challenge. The two teams trade off asking eachother questions. So for example, a member of one team will ask a member of the other team a question. If the member from the other team gets the question wrong, he/she has to attempt to complete the physical challenge on the back of the question card. An example punishment would be something like 15 push ups. If the member attempting to complete the physical challenge cannot complete the challenge, let's say they only get 10 push ups instead of 15, the next time the other team has to complete a challenge, they can subtract 5 reps from their challenge. Eventually, when every member of one team can not complete their physical challenge in one question cycle, meaning when everyone can not complete their challenge in the same round, the other team wins.

Materials:
- cards
- game piece (weighted stick, similar to that used in yoga)
- floor mat

about me

Name: Taylor Zulauf
Age: 17
Grade: Senior
Hometown: Ridgewood, NJ
Favorite games: Halo 3, Gears of War, Oblivion, Supersmash Bros Brawl
Interests: sports, drumset, girls