Back to activities
Thinking playMaking and imagining

Design and Playtest a Game

Child designs an original board game with rules, tests it with family, gathers feedback, and revises the design.

Cartoon illustration of a parent and child at home doing Design and Playtest a Game.
  • Age8 to 12 years
  • TimeAn hour or more
  • EnergyModerate
  • CostFree
  • WhereIndoors
  • Prep5 min

Your child invents their own board game, writes the rules, plays it with the family, then changes the design based on what did and did not work.

How to do it

  1. Ask your child what the goal of their game is and how a player wins, and have them jot it down.
  2. Have them draw a board or lay out cards, and decide the pieces, the turns, and the rules.
  3. Write the rules out simply enough that someone else could follow them.
  4. Play a full round together as a family, sticking to the written rules even when something feels off.
  5. Afterwards, ask what worked and what was confusing or unfair, and let your child change one or two rules and play again.

What you need

  • Board material
  • Pencils
  • Small objects
  • Dice or spinner
  • Scissors

Make it yours

Younger, 6 to 8 years: Start from a game they know and change only a rule or two, rather than inventing from scratch. Older, 10 to 12 years: Add a scoring system or a twist card and write a proper rules sheet. Siblings: Co-design one game together, splitting the board, the pieces, and the rules between them

Try this with your child.

Tell PLAI™ about your child and this moment. It shapes the activity to fit.

Try it in the app