4. Getting Started – Thinking of Ideas for your Game

This resource is part of the Tool Box series by AccessArt, which shares design and technology project ideas via a series of lesson plans.

Getting Started – a Video for Pupils
So what are you going to make? Thinking of ideas for your game.

Please note this page contains videos housed on You Tube. If your school blocks You Tube AccessArt would be happy to provide an email to confirm the integrity of these videos. Please email us here. 

“OK you’ve got your materials, you’ve got your tools and you’ve cleared a space – lets get cracking! Tool Box would like you to work either in small groups, or alone. Your teacher will help you decide. Lets go back to the thinking about the theme for Tool Box: Making a Game. Designers would call this “the brief”. We’re going to call it: “Your Challenge”

So Your Challenge is: To make a game which is fun, and which others can play. The finished game should be strong enough to survive people playing it – we don’t want broken games! It should work, for example do the job you want it to do, and it should look good – you want people to play it after all!

So lets get started. In your groups, or alone, have a very quick think, or chat, about what kind of games you like. You might even do some web research to think what kinds of games you could make which others could play. But here’s a list to get you thinking!

Mini or crazy golf: You could make some fantastic crazy golf sections. Make one or make a whole load as part of a team, which form a course. You could even design the putting club!

Marble Mazes: Small or large, hand held or table top!

Splat the Rat: an old favourite which you could develop

Mini sledging: Make a cardboard downhill course, and make a sledge which you weight to get it to run down the course

Coconut shy: Or a variation of a coconut shy where you throw a bean bag at carefully balanced ping pong balls.

When you’ve got some ideas, rather than draw, we’d like you, as a group or alone, to be able to present your ideas (by talking) to your class. If you could make a video of this, fantastic, you can upload it to the site, otherwise maybe you could quickly jot your ideas down and let us know what you’re thinking. It will be really interesting to see how your ideas develop!”

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Get your Materials and get Making

This is a sample of a resource created by UK Charity AccessArt. We have over 1500 resources to help develop and inspire your creative thinking, practice and teaching.

AccessArt welcomes artists, educators, teachers and parents both in the UK and overseas.

We believe everyone has the right to be creative and by working together and sharing ideas we can enable everyone to reach their creative potential.