Game design for kids: plan your first game on paper

Great games start on paper. Designing before building teaches kids to think about players, rules and fairness, and it keeps the first project small enough to finish.

What you need

Paper, pencils, squared paper if you have it, a dice or coins and a willing friend or family member.

Step 1: Choose an idea

Ask: what is the player trying to do? Examples: escape a maze, collect all the stars, survive for three minutes, build a shop. One sentence is enough.

Step 2: Set a goal

A game needs a clear way to win. Write it at the top: "Get to the flag without falling in lava."

Step 3: Make rules

What can the player do, and what can't they? Keep to three or four rules.

• You can move one square at a time.
• Lava squares send you back to the start.
• Stars give one point.

Step 4: Draw a level

On squared paper, draw a map. Use symbols: S for start, F for finish, L for lava, a star for points. Make it solvable, and not too easy.

Step 5: Add a score and a shop

Points make progress visible. For older kids add an in-game shop: what could players buy, and how much would it cost? This is a gentle first lesson in prices and balance. Bip's Creator Jobs world has children try exactly this.

Step 6: Playtest

Ask someone to play your paper game while you stay quiet. Notice:

• Where do they hesitate?
• What do they enjoy?
• Where do they get bored or stuck?

Step 7: Improve

Change one thing at a time. Add a rule, remove an obstacle or change the score. Play again.

Step 8: Build it

When the paper version is fun, build it in a tool. See how to make a game on Roblox or coding for kids.

What it teaches

Planning, fairness, cause and effect, testing and improving, and being kind to a player who is having a hard time.