At PlayWise, we believe in the liberating power of games for the imagination. But what happens when creativity specifically becomes the focus of a board game? Welcome to the world of creative board games. Let's explore why we love them and what are the most important titles in this category?
I believe that board gaming in itself is a creative activity, as even abstract games invite us into a world operating under a set of rules different from reality, which we then need to manage collectively during play. What is this if not a task requiring creativity? Imagining that I am actually running my economy, imagining that the meeple there is me, imagining the stakes of a battle. To me, this also includes the ability to delve into others' thoughts, set traps, and continuously analyze situations. This is precisely the key to using board games for educational purposes: skills develop unnoticed. Creativity is one such area.
What is a Creative Board Game?
A creative board game is not merely about winning or losing. I particularly like seeing how, for example, players do not tally up their points in Dixit because the focus shifts elsewhere. Creative board games revolve around storytelling, imagination, and stepping out of conventional frameworks. These games often offer open-ended gameplay, allowing players to create, imagine, and choose their own paths. We build civilizations; we craft stories.
Benefits of Creative Board Games
Creative board games are tremendously developmental, whether you consider cognitive or emotional skills. They encourage players to think critically, solve problems, and adapt to changing game dynamics. This not only strengthens cognitive flexibility but also fosters skills such as empathy, negotiation, and collaboration. Furthermore, creativity is often linked to the arts, which can be somewhat intimidating because it is synonymously used with talent. However, these games are excellent at bringing out the inherent creativity in everyone.
Examples of Creative Board Games
You're probably eager to try these games out, but where to start? Here are some popular creative board games:
- Dixit: This game tests your ability to think creatively and interpret others' ideas.
- Mice and Mystics: It's a game where players are turned into mice and must navigate through a castle's many dangers.
- Betrayal at House on the Hill: This game offers a new spooky storyline every time you play.
Each of these games stimulates creativity in unique ways, offering a departure from traditional point-scoring or race-to-the-finish board games.
Who are Creative Board Games For?
Creative board games are not just for children. Like board games in general, they target a wide audience—from children and teenagers to adults. Games like Rory's Story Cubes are great for children—though I've seen adults playing it too—while The Extraordinaires Design Studio is excellent for teenagers. Adults can enjoy Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, which requires complex decision-making and strategy. But these are just a few examples; the point is that everyone can find their own game within the creative category.
Most Popular Creative Board Games
Betrayal at House on the Hill
The game comes with multiple room tiles, character tokens, and cards.
Tools
The game includes story cards and ending cards.
Skills Developed
Enhances creative thinking, storytelling, and language skills.
Concept
It's a game of abstraction and association.
Tools
1 game board, 110 concept cards, 4 player aids, 47 plastic tokens (39 cubes and 8 double cubes), and 1 storage tray
Skills Developed
Creativity, abstract thinking, communication skills as players use symbols to convey ideas without words
Dixit
Dixit is a card game that invites players to rely on their intuition and imagination to guess which card one player, the storyteller, is describing.
In Dixit, one player is the storyteller for the turn and makes up a sentence or phrase that might describe one of their cards. Then, each player selects a card from their own hand that they feel best matches the storyteller's description, and after shuffling and revealing the cards, all players except the storyteller vote on which card they believe belongs to the storyteller.
Tools
Dixit includes a deck of 84 unique, beautifully illustrated cards, a game board, six wooden rabbit tokens as player markers, and 36 voting tokens in six different colors.
Skills Developed
Dixit develops creativity, abstract thinking, and social interaction skills as players interpret and guess the story behind the images.
Mice and Mystics
Players, transformed into mice, go on a whimsical adventure through a castle full of dangers.
Tools
Game includes mouse figurines, cards, tiles, and a storybook.
Skills Developed
Enhances problem-solving, teamwork, and storytelling abilities.
Once Upon A Time
This is a narrative card game where players create their own stories while playing cards from their hands.
Tools
Deck of cards featuring elements, characters, and events to weave into tales, along with ending cards to conclude the stories
Skills Developed
Reading and storytelling skills, creative thinking, understanding of language structures
Pandemic Legacy: Season 1
A cooperative board game where players work together to prevent global pandemics.
Tools
The game includes a game board, letter tiles, and tile racks.
Skills Developed
Encourages vocabulary expansion, spelling accuracy, and strategic thinking.
Pictionary
A classic drawing game where players have to guess what their team-mate is trying to draw.
Tools
The game includes a game board, word cards, a timer, and drawing tools.
Skills Developed
Enhances creative thinking, non-verbal communication, and teamwork.
Rory's Story Cubes
Players roll dice with different images and weave a story based on the results.
Tools
The game includes nine dice, each with different images on the faces.
Skills Developed
It enhances imagination, storytelling, and lateral thinking.
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
The game includes case booklets, newspapers, and a map of Victorian London.
Tools
The game includes case booklets, newspapers, and a map of Victorian London.
Skills Developed
Encourages problem-solving, logic, and cooperative play.
Snake Oil
Players invent unique products and sell them to all sorts of quirky customers.
Tools
The game includes word cards and customer cards.
Skills Developed
Encourages creativity, persuasive speaking, and entrepreneurship.
Scrabble
Scrabble is a classic word game where players earn points by creating words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15x15 grid.
In Scrabble, players take turns drawing letter tiles to create words on the game board, with each word laid out either horizontally or vertically. Each letter has a point value, and players aim to make high-scoring words based on the board's bonus squares to accumulate the highest total points.
Tools
The Scrabble game set includes a 15x15 grid game board, 100 letter tiles, 4 tile racks, a tile bag, and optionally a scorepad and timer.
Skills Developed
Scrabble enhances vocabulary, spelling, strategic thinking, and mathematical skills through word formation and scoring.
Abszolút képtelen sztorik (Absolutely Improbable Stories)
In 2022, I also designed a creative board game. Its title could be translated as "Absolutely Improbable Stories" It's a story-writing game. We defined eight story elements (character, twist, setting, object, etc.) and the title. Each story card contains 9 instructions. Each round, everyone writes a sentence based on their own card, and then we vote on which sentence should be included in our collective story.
Two important aspects of the game design stand out to me. First, the game values (scores) voting for a good sentence just as much as writing a good sentence. So, not only players with great writing flair can win the game, but also those who have a good sense of public taste. The other point I would highlight is that in this game, you can vote for yourself. I think this is a missing skill. We find it hard to admit and proclaim when we do something well.
I usually laugh a lot during the game, for example, when we have to incorporate a handsome garbage man into a sci-fi story set on an alien planet. The game requires solving incredible improbabilities, which demands considerable creativity.
Creative Games for Reading
We've put together a learning material for you, featuring several games from this site. Check it out to see how modern, creative board games can support children's reading motivation!
Minimalist Creativity
I believe there's another way to approach creativity. When a game uses its components in a creative way, gamifies non-traditional materials, or introduces something unusual, it can have a strong impact on the players' creativity.
A great example of this is Coin Age, which we've written about before, or Dicke Dämonen, which consists of just a few strings and pawns, yet manages to be a modern board game with brilliant ideas.
I think creating value with minimalist components is an incredible challenge that requires a great deal of creativity. And by playing these kinds of games, we can learn a lot about the nature of creativity itself.
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