Lessons Learned From Building Board Games

Francisco Ortega-Grimaldo

Abstract

Back in 2001, when I created my first board game I approached it naively, using Game and Play Theories by instinct and dragging from my early memories all the knowledge and feelings I gathered as a child related to games and reflected them in my board game. For my dissertation, six years later after the creation of that first game, I explored those same topics with a keen mind, fully aware of the capacity within my art pieces and eager to apply their social potential. In the process, I learned to dissect games and understand its parts and how they related to culture, education and the potential that board games have to influence society. In this essay I described the elements that I faced and applied while creating new board games and some of the outcomes that came from participants who played my games when I was in the process of gathering information for my dissertation. I conclude with my vision of what can games can accomplish if they where introduced as a common practice in schools.