Instructify

July 30, 2009

Before all these fancy-shmancy video games, folk used to play games on slabs of cardboard. “Board games” we called ‘em, and I don’t recall people getting bored playing them.

Now, a few of you creative types as like as not have games you play in your class. You think to yourself, “This is a pretty fun game, and my students actually learn something. I wish I could play this on an actual game board instead of drawing it on the blackboard like a caveman.” Well, you can make your game idea a reality with The Game Crafter.

The Game Crafter is to board games what Lulu is to books and Cafe Press is to coffee mugs. Upload your game art, select how many dice you need, design your deck of cards, create the rule book, and everything else you need to bring your game idea to life.

Unlike most stuff on Instructify, The Game Crafter isn’t a free service. However, it is a low-cost way to build your game idea — think the $15 to $20 range. You can keep a handle on costs before you place your order with the cost estimator. If you don’t want to shell out for an entire game but just need a few extra dice or player tokens or game cards, you can get those for cheap, too.

In addition to playing games in class, you could use The Game Crafter to build board games to sell as part of an economics or entrepreneurship class. Possibly create a game based on your school and sell it as a school fundraiser. Or create an assignment where your kids have to design a game based on, say, the life of a famous author. You’ll pick the best one and have it made for them. Whatever you want to do, TheGame Crafter allows for a variety of ways to bring board games into your classroom.

The Game Crafter

Games aren’t just for fun, but for learning too

Sandra Day O’Connor Presents Our Courts