Introduction: How to Make a Strategy Game - Practical Tactical Warfare

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I really enjoy playing strategy/war board games, such as Risk and Axis and Allies. I thought it would be cool to try to make one, so I did, and now I made a guide on how to make your own!

The guide is going to be showing the parts of how to make a game and how to get it to be fun to play. It will also show a simple game "framework" that you can build on, adding Navies and Airplanes as you make it your own.

Step 1: Parts of a Game

If you look at a strategy game, or really any game, you will notice some common patterns and things each game have. These are what are generally needed to make a compelling game, and then you can make it your own. I will list them all here, and then go more in detail on the following steps.

These components are:

  • Objective
  • Strategy
  • Reward
  • Aesthetics
  • Fun

Step 2: Objective

This one is pretty obvious. Each game needs something you are trying to achieve.

Some examples for strategy games are:

  • Capture a Enemy Base
  • Dominate the World
  • Control a Area
  • Complete some Missions
  • Destroy this many Enemy Tokens

The objective should be something that relates to the game, and is not too hard or too easy to complete.

Step 3: Strategy

A strategy game needs some form of strategy, not just random chance and dice rolling. However, you probably will want some chance, and once one person gets a edge, it will be easier for them to get more of a edge.

In war strategy games, this is mainly where the players places and how the player moves their tokens. In almost all war board games there will be a component of the player getting more money or better tokens the more land they control. This makes it so that it will not just be a endless battlefront, with waves of tanks defeating the other and vice versa, and nothing really happens that makes you want to keep playing. When you add small amounts of chance, the person who wins still is based a lot on how they play, but two people with similar gameplay methods won't get caught in a stalemate. However, this doesn't fix it all. The lead will just be pushed back and forth. To stop this, you should make it so that when you get land you get stronger, and this will make so someone can actually win.

Step 4: Reward

Games need to be rewarding, otherwise there would be no reason to play.

Rewards can be many things, and they tie into the other aspects talked about here. Some examples are:

  • Bragging rights
  • Exciting
  • Fun
  • Sense of Accomplishment

All of these base on one idea: you're game is compelling. You should make it original and have a couple of gameplay mechanics to add fun to the game. A lot of fun comes when the game is intense and you really don't want to lose. This also ties into aesthetics.

Step 5: Aesthetics

Aesthetics means the looks of the game. A good game should have detailed boards and tokens, and art should not be sloppy. A great way to make boards is Canva, a completely online drag an drop image based editor. I used it to make the Cover and Parts images in about five minutes. Following with the online theme, for making tokens to 3D print, you can use Tinkercad.

Step 6: Practical Tactical Warfare (PTW)

Practical Tactical Warfare (PTW), is a turn based competitive war strategy game, in which you try to destroy the other person's base (See images of board and control tokens above). I have made it just as a simple, fun framework that you can build on. I have included all aspects talked about, and most games are based on something like this, then made much more complex. You can add anything, from planes and bombers to destroyers and hunter-killer submarines. Try adding a better board and more types of tokens! The following steps will show you how to make your own board and tokens.

Important: The instructions to the game are above in the Word document.

Attachments

Step 7: PTW - Board

To make a board, you will need the following supplies:

  • Large Grid Graph Paper
  • Markers
  • Scissors

First, you should draw the bases with two different colors of markers. Then, draw in front of the bases as the Build Line, the place where you can't place tokens beyond of when you buy them. After that, create obstacles by drawing bodies of water and some forests. Finally, add locations and the value of each location at it's center.

Now cut out little squares of paper and draw little flags of each color as the flags to show control of the locations.

Now you are finished with you're board!

Step 8: PTW - New Tokens

To add new tokens, just decide what it's Cost, Range, Damage Modifier, Size, Movement, and Health are. Then draw or 3D print out a token. Don't have a 3D printer? There are a lot of companies online where you can send files and they will print them and send it too you, like this and this.

Step 9: Done!

I hope you enjoyed this Instructable, good luck on making your game!

To quote Star Wars "May the force be with you."

- Image from XKCD