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Before you begin work on the finished product, create a rough prototype (test game) so that you can play around with it. It doesn't have to be pretty, but a hands-on experience will help you to see if the basics work the way you planned. A prototype is a vital part of the game creation process, as it gets ideas out of your head and into the real world where you can evaluate them with other players. Hold off on adding artistic details until you begin assembling the final product. Simple, pencil-drawn game boards and cards will allow you to erase and make adjustments as necessary. This will give you a sense of whether your board is too large or small. Depending on the theme and mechanics of your game, your board may or may not include the following elements: A path. Simple games may have a single path that leads to a finish line, more complex path games may have splits or loops in the path. A playing field. Games that have a playing field do not have a set path. Instead, players move as they see fit through areas that are usually divided into squares or hexes. Landing positions. These can be depicted with shapes or images. Landing positions can have special effects, like allowing you to advance a square or draw a card. Buttons, checkers, poker chips, chess pieces, and knickknacks work well as prototype game pieces. Avoid using game pieces that are too large for your prototype, since these can make it difficult to read information written on the board. Game pieces can change considerably over the course of your game's development. Keep prototype game pieces simple so you don't invest a lot of time designing something that ends up getting changed. Randomly shuffled game cards will affect players in unexpected ways. A card often tells a quick story about an event that befalls a player and then changes their score/position/inventory accordingly. Decks have about 15 to 20 card types (like trap cards and tool cards). These types are limited to about 10 cards to a deck to create a balanced mix. Cards can have out-of-game requirements, like one that challenges a player to talk like a pirate for five minutes for a prize. Failed challenges may have a penalty.
Use prototypes to evaluate your game. Sketch a rough draft of your board design. Assemble prototype game pieces. Use game cards to add variation.