One of my projects during this time has been to create a board game. My inspiration was the game of Monopoly. My family loves this game and we took to playing it several weekends in a row. I decided it would be fun to create a travel boardgame similar to Monopoly.
I started with pencil and paper and drew an outline of a boardgame on it. I used the paper then to brainstorm and came up with all kinds of ideas. At first it was going to be Hotels around the world and then I changed it to Countries, Cities, and Continents in the world. Every continent is represented in some form or another. It is very much a traveling real estate game. The game changed over several weeks as I continued to brainstorm.
At first my teenage son, Samuel thought it was so silly of me. When the package arrived from Amazon though he got very excited and started seeing the vision I had. He helped me create cards for the game too and helped with the stickers. I was overjoyed when he started getting excited with me.
I bought a large blank game board that folds into a small rectangle for storage. It came with its own box for nice keeping when we are not playing. I purchase some blank poker size game cards, some calligraphy pens, stickers, and pawns. Instead of writing on all of the cards, I got some labels so I could use the computer to make nice labels for the backs of the cards.
The board is definitely not symmetrical. I think I started out that way and then decided my idea of a perfect looking board was going out the window. This made it even more fun though. The stickers I bought were so much fun. Travel stickers from around the world. I went through them and started laying them on the board first where I wanted my countries to go. Then I drew my lines with a sharpie to indicate spaces. I created a whole new set of properties in the middle of the board game. One of the spaces is an Island retreat space and if you land on it, you go to the middle of the board. The Airport is the space that gives you money when you pass through it. The travel card spaces allow you to draw a card. I spent hours researching facts about countries, cities, cultures, and anything else I could find.
Another fun idea that came out of this was using poker chips instead of money. It was a tiny bit more expensive, however the primary reason is we live in a very windy area. We have a river literally a few stone throw away and this gives us a very cool breeze in the summer. It’s built in air conditioning so I do not complain. I like to sit outside though with my family to play board games in the summer. The poker chips will not blow away in the wind. We also decided to use the poker chips for our shares.
The first time we played we did have a few bumps and so I went back and fixed a few property items and created a new space on the board game. My family really liked it though and we learned a lot. We have facts about cultural dances, foods, and customs. We have silly cards about the most haunted places in the World and little facts that most people don’t know. For example, the least populated place in the World, but it is also a research area. I even have a space on the board game to buy the North Pole and the Moon!
This project really brought me a lot of joy. I had not used all of my creative skills in a long time and that was so fun. Picking out the stickers to match our cards like India, Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, New York and so many other places. We put the travel stickers on the board to indicate spaces and then put matching stickers on the property cards. I did find out the calligraphy pens do not work on the type of game board we purchased. The permanent sharpies did work though and this is what I used to label the board and draw the outline. We use two dice to roll for play and then I added some spaces to roll a single dice to land on extra spaces.
Really you could create any type of game. The board and cards were inexpensive. You could use anything around the house too like paints, stickers, rocks, or other board game pieces you no longer use. Paper money can be made without purchasing by drawing on paper and cutting them out.
It’s a great stress reliever, you learn something new, and if you have a family they can get involved too. One extra benefit I got from the three weeks I worked on this was reduced stress which in turn helped me not focus on my food intake. I’ve maintained my 95-pound loss although the last few weeks I had been thinking about food more and more. This project really took my mind off of it. I hope you will share your ideas with me too.
Next time I am writing a piece on motivation and inspiration. One of my support groups has a member who made herself a story board/motivation board. I am totally loving this idea and want to share it with you.
Until next time, wishing you all the best,
Mandy