Friday 20 September 2019

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 20th September 2019: "Board Games to Create and Play" by Kevan Davis and Viviane Schwarz (Pavilion Children's Books)


Our Second Book of the Week should appeal to those of you who know your Meeple from your Exploding Kitten! Super-fab board game experts Kevan Davis and Viviane Schwarz have created the ultimate maker project book for those of us who love to shake a dice or spin a spinner in our spare time.

"Board Games to Create and Play" is the sort of book that's designed to be pulled apart, scribbled on and turned into something truly amazing (I know, it's not easy for us to wreck gorgeous books - but this one positively begs you to!)

Inside, Kevan and Viviane have given you all the information and templates you'll need to start building your own games - and a ton of superb ideas covering just about any subject you can think of basing your game on.

"Cobweb Castle" - A superb example game to get you started with ace ideas!
Game design is educational, teaching kids valuable lessons about building rule sets, structural construction of the actual game / play pieces (if you really want to go all-out to create something super!) but also about building something that's fun to play, even downright sneaky and tactical if you're so inclined.

The example games are fab fun to just play through as well, if you're not feeling creative. But once you've dived into this book you'll find the perfect entry point - not just for board gaming, but for making your own - which is durned exciting stuff in itself.

An introduction to game design and what you'll need.
It's a truly brilliant timesink - and it's definitely going to be something we'll spend a lot of time with as we're absolute board game fanatics. In fact if you want to find out how our first game design went, check out our accompanying article here!

We really can't recommend this book highly enough and can't wait to start building our next game! Thanks Kevan and Viviane, you've come up (top) trumps with this one!

Sum this book up in a sentence: A superb jumpstart kit for would-be board game designers, or just folk who love playing games from a truly amazing creative team!

"Board Games to Create and Play" by Kevan Davis and Viviane Schwarz is out on 3rd October 2019, published by Pavilion Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).