My daughter came up with a board game today. I can’t say how well thought-out it was before she drew it onto a large art book-sized page–she’s hacked around with “a start-to-finish path with spaces that have effects”-style board games in the past that were clearly thought up and filled in on the fly–but this one actually… kind of works?
My wife played it with her while I was out today, and then we all played it after dinner. I can’t call it beta testing, because the game isn’t fully working yet and needing just final elements hammered out; it’s an earlier stage than that. Rules are changing on the fly as my wife and I make fundamental suggestions. Hence “gamma testing”.
Is that a thing?
If it wasn’t, it is now.
This one is another start-to-finish path style, but it’s definitely better developed than her others have been. There’s more depth to it, more layers, and more forethought put into the layout. And what I love, more than just her being a kid who enjoys her interests enough that she’s taking the next step into making her own art/music/stop motion videos/stories/board games, is that she’s now also mature enough to accept the constructive criticism we’re offering. She gets that it isn’t us putting down her perfect creation, we’re trying to help improve what isn’t yet as good as it could be. That’s a big jump for anyone to make, let alone a nine-year-old.
I have every intent of helping her develop and improve it. My graphic design background will be put to genuinely fun use, and it won’t even take a ton of time to make it look pretty sharp.
And as an added bonus, if we can get it to the point where we actually like playing it as an active game option, I even know a place where gaming contents like fully customized playing cards and folding boards can be printed to order and shipped out. It’d make a pretty unique birthday gift for her to have her own game created as a real, boxed, professionally printed version, even if it’s the only one that’s ever made.
Pandemic isolation, parents: A great time to get your kids to express their creativity and for you to encourage it to grow and expand.