Do you enjoy board games? Sure thing. Have you considered creating your own? You don’t need to have the “God complex” to bring one to life.
You might ponder about costs, time, materials, and the concept. Let’s pause and formulate a simple outline. What genre resonates with you? Do you desire elements of mystique that demand astute strategic skills, intricate moves, and clandestine twists known only to YOU? Are you an advocate of timeless classics, aiming for equilibrium between tradition and innovation? Do you relish dissecting diverse phenomena? Then, conceive your cherished social game. If diplomatic intricacies feel overwhelming and you fear being engulfed, why not be the trailblazer that elevates the game to iconic status? If you’ve been so influenced that you continually dream of Walking Dead episodes and “banning zombies,” gather your reverie and conjure your diabolical masterpiece from the ashes like a phoenix.
Equip yourself with paper and pencil, sketch a rudimentary plan. How do you envision your creation? First, establish a plot introduction and the overarching theme you aim to address. Contemplate the gameplay style. Will it incorporate card mechanics? Shall dice play a role? Or perhaps something entirely novel? How will the game board be designed? Draft a preliminary representation of its core components. A realm of fantasy? A tropical utopia? A board that’s either elegantly simple or dizzyingly complex? Fashion your own characters. Wooden figurines? No, embrace novelty over convention—venture into the uncharted. Fiery monsters wrought from the forge of a double-bladed steel. Petite figures resembling diminutive beings. Heroes, warriors, and creatures. This time, YOU stand as the godfather, shaping the destiny of all within your grasp.
Proceed with crafting rules and gameplay methodologies. Infuse it with your creative freedom, establish constraints, and engineer ingenious mechanics. Begin your solitary journey to forge your personal monopoly. Embrace each move, each nuance, exploring the full spectrum of permissible choices. Conceive tactics, bluffs, the very essence of your vision, culminating in a masterstroke. Account for potential serendipitous errors. Impose time limits, participation criteria, and an age range. In solitude, you possess the power to manifest any thought, embodying the unseen hand that fashions a phenomenon. Summarize your vision into an architectural diagram. Embolden yourself, evoke liveliness, temper or accentuate a player’s role, and grant each participant’s unique attributes equitable consideration.
Next, summon your alter ego to compete with the game’s creator. Strive to uphold the temporal constraints and deploy every disarming tactic. A pivotal question emerges—who shall emerge victorious? The savant and mastermind of the game, or a mere contender? Once the contest concludes, bestow accolades upon the victor and record the final facets. Take your journal and scrutinize your creation. Assess the merits and drawbacks of your board game. Conclude by revisiting your initial exposition. The moment arrives to seal the treasure trove and present it to fellow enthusiasts. The narrative of construction has reached its zenith. You’ve come to realize it was never about grandiosity. Rather, it stemmed from courage, persistence, fervor, and unwavering focus. (A GOD, indeed).
Panos Patroulias
