- 1). Decide on a setting. Your tactics game can take place in the future (science fiction), the old west (western) or even in a made up world (fantasy). Deciding on a setting will impact what type of graphics, boards, and pieces you create.
- 2). Draft a general idea of the game. Is it going to be a strategy game like chess, where the objective is to eliminate the king? Perhaps you have to defend an area for a certain amount of turns? Decide what the overall objective of your tactics game is going to be. Remember, for a true tactics game you want strategy to have a bigger impact on the game than chance.
- 3). Create the rules. You'll need to figure out what order people move in and what they can do when they move. For instance, in chess, players alternate turns, and certain pieces move in certain directions. The more complicated the action, the more complicated the rules will have to be in order to eliminate loop holes.
- 4). Create the game board and pieces. You can use whatever material you want for this, from a piece of construction paper to a piece of wood. It may help to draw the game board first on a piece of paper to figure out what exactly you need to do. Do the same thing for the various pieces. You may need to paint the pieces different colors, so that each player knows which characters are theirs.
- 5). Play a test round. The idea of a test round is to go through the game a few times to try and figure out what the problems are. Perhaps there is a way around a certain rule that makes the game too easy for someone. Perhaps the rules are too complicated. It's a good idea to have someone unfamiliar with the game play through the test round with you, as they'll bring a new perspective to the game.
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