Game design - an art

As we all know, game design is an ancient art. People love to spend lot of time coming up with new games.

On that note, what can be better than encouraging our kids to design their own games? This will give their creative minds an amazing boost and also a sense of satisfaction playing their own designed games. Designing a game will include all the aspects of creativity. Games should be easy to understand but challenging. Answering questions like how many players? What is the winning strategy? What material is required and so on will keep their thinking minds going.


Once I was playing a good old game of Snakes and ladders with my 5 year old and an idea came to my mind. Why not change this game using some ups and downs of our own like – Car tire punctured on the way so loose one turn, Car battery is charged so advance 2 places and so on. We had so much fun coming up with our own ‘ups and Downs’. After that day, he always wants to design his own game and play with it.
Another interesting way to nurture their creativity is designing a crossword puzzle. Take a topic like sports. Help them design a crossword first and then ask your child to come up with ‘Across’ and ‘Down’ clues for that puzzle. Give these clues to another family member to solve that crossword puzzle.
The possibilities are endless and each child can expand his/her creativity in this area.