Have I Ever Designed a Game?

A question I have been getting very frequently lately is, “have you ever designed a board game?”. The short answer is no I have not designed a game. However, like many other board game players, I frequently have ideas for games. I would venture to say that almost daily, I see something in my life that would be an interesting board game concept. While I do not believe I will ever make a game, if I were going to make a game I know what theme and base mechanics my game would have. It has kept me up at night thinking about how the game would work, and what would make it engaging.

The reason I don’t take that idea a step further? I think that good game designing is an art. It is something that is both time consuming and requires a great deal of both logical thinking and creative vision. While I find myself to be a very creative individual, I don’t think I have the strong logical thinking to create a well balanced and mechanically strong game that would be unique on an increasingly large market. If I were to release something, I would want to be as thorough as possible, and release something that I could be proud of.

The other problem with me releasing a game would be time. I dedicate a lot of my life to my career. I would hate to add another project that would distract me from my teaching. While I am passionate about both gaming and teaching, my students and my classroom will always come first for me.

While I would not say I will never design a game, I would say that if I were going to design a game, it would be a long time for now. I will gladly however, continue to provide feedback to those who have taken that leap and are in the process of developing a new game. My hats go off to all the designers out there. Thank you for spending the time to produce well thought out, creative games.