Exploring Tabletop Game Design
Dates:
- Session 2B (July 12-16, 2027) @ Cascadia
- Session 5A (August 16-20, 2027) @ DigiPen
Early Bird Price: $899 $719.20
Locations: DigiPen (Redmond, WA), Cascadia (Bothell, WA)
Description:
Every great game begins long before anyone touches a screen. Board games, card games, and playground classics like tag and hopscotch all follow the same building blocks as video games: rules, goals, challenges, and the fun of figuring things out. Learning to design games teaches young minds to think in steps, spot patterns, and solve problems, all while laughing, moving, and playing together.
Explorers will step inside their games as they invent board games, giant floor mazes, and active challenges using cards, dice, chalk, and craft materials. Along the way, they’ll “program” one another with arrow cards, hunt down and fix “bugs” in their rules, and discover how coders give instructions. Through playtesting with friends and improving their ideas, students build their own unique ProjectFUN game, a hands-on creation they can play, share, and bring home to enjoy with family.
Projects May Include: Designing and playing a giant life-sized board game on the floor and creating an original card or dice game with custom rules
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- What makes a game fun
- Playtesting, teamwork, and improving ideas from feedback
- Conditional thinking
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- This workshop’s curriculum has been reviewed by a panel of college-level faculty from DigiPen Institute of Technology to ensure its relevance and appropriateness for students aged 9–13.
- As with every Open World workshop, a special visit by an industry guest has been arranged to help students see the connection between their workshop and real-world careers.
[The] instructors are awesome and friendly, and the activities are engaging.
Parent of an Adventurer
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