How to Make a Digital Board Game

Regarding mobile gaming, the number of mobile games at the end of Q3 2022 is 490,000 at Google Play and 208,000 in Appstore. Both markets show growth in the number of mobile games compared to other periods.

Nowadays, games come in various genres, and traditional board games are also available for download. Digital mobile games are top-rated not only among smartphone users but also among investors. In April 2022, the most well-invested project on the Kickstarter platform was a digital board game. The game’s developers managed to raise about $13 million.

Does the idea of making an online board game sound enticing? Let’s figure out how to create an online board game and for what to keep an eye out.

What is a Digital Board Game?

Before going into the nitty-gritty of how to create a board game app, let’s define what a digital board game is.

A digital board game is a computer game with the concept, rules, and logic of a board game. They arrive at mobile and web apps and online and offline formats.

Board games emerged before online games gained their fame. If you remember the basic set of games on Windows, it used to feature solitaire, which is undoubtedly a board game. Nowadays, board game app development features well-known checkers, solitaire, and chess monopoly, as well as rare and less-known genres. Moreover, in today’s world of technology, any physical board game can be converted into a digital one.

Digital Board Game — Things to Pay Attention to

Any development requires some preparation and things to think over to let the development flow without interruption.

Technical Documentation

Typically, technical documentation is compiled to understand how to make an online board game. The documentation is divided into two parts:

• The vision of the game details the game’s theme, components, and mechanics.
• The game concept outlines the initial aspects of the game, the rules, ideas, and description of gameplay.

If developers have a clear and unified understanding of the game, the development process will be more coherent, and the chances of achieving the desired result will increase.

Platforms

One can’t create an online board game without knowing what platforms it will run on. Releasing the game on both platforms will reach a larger audience and profit. But there are times when it is necessary to make a choice in favor of one or another operating system. The choice is tricky because each of these OS has its strengths. For example, Android has a more significant number of users, and iOS users are more inclined to make in-app purchases. Whatever the case, we recommend investigating the strengths and weaknesses of each to make a decision.

Monetization

Monetization is the process of generating profit from game development. Therefore, if you want more than to create a digital board game but also make a profit, it’s better to pick the best working monetization method and implement it technically in the game. Various ways of monetization exist — in-game purchases, advertising, subscriptions, etc. Which approach to choose is up to your game and audience. For example, in Celadon, before we set up monetization, we research to select the method that will work best for the game.

How to Make an Online Board Game

Once you have detailed your idea and rolled out the information in technical documentation, it’s time to let the development team create a mobile game. Here’s what it takes to implement the board game into the app.

Map Out the Game Design

Shortly, the game design is everything about a game. The game design comprises three vital aspects — theme, components, and mechanics. Even if the idea to create a digital board game is a simple concept like checkers, thinking through all the features is nevertheless an essential element of development to ensure seamless gameplay. The technical documentation lands a helping hand at this stage.

Come Down to Game Graphics and UX/UI

If you’ve played games, discussed games with friends, or watched game reviews, you may have heard that a game’s visuals are essential to players. So if you decide to make a board game app, make sure the visuals are rendered with high quality and look appealing, and the UI/UX is effortless and intuitive. It’s unlikely that a player will want to keep playing if they have to think about in-game navigation and buttons.

Import the graphics and interface into the board game code once completed.

Work with a Playing Field in the Engine

It’s time to work out the playing field (if your game has one) and the game players. Again, these elements are developed in the engine. We prefer to work with Unity in Celadon, but you may select another.

When designing the playing field, you must ensure that the tiles are in the correct order. A disruption in the gameplay can take time and resources to fix.

As for the game pieces, they can be as simple or more complex detailed pieces. They can also be animated or represented as characters.

Get the Coding Going

The code is a magic wand that brings the finished game elements to life on devices, allowing users to play and interact with the game. As mentioned earlier, we use the unity engine to develop a digital board game. So to set the game in motion, our developers use C#. For other engines, other programming languages can be used.

Take Care About Quality Assurance

If you’re wondering how to make a board game app that will run smoothly, quickly, and consistently, the logic will be understandable, and the gameplay is fun, it is worth taking one crucial step — testing. First, run all possible tests to identify weaknesses and bugs. After testing, reports are made to the developers to fix bugs and errors.

Ready! Steady! Deploy!

Finally, the game is ready to go live. You may think that’s the complete answer to the “how to create a digital board game” question, but development doesn’t end with the game launching. Once the game is uploaded to the stores, the development team continues to work on game updates and troubleshooting.

Celadon Is Your Guide to the World of Digital Board Games

Board game app development requires a broad range of skills and know-how in various aspects of action to make a game that users will perceive as engaging and fun as the physical board game. Our team of talented developers knows how to make a digital board game from start to launch and beyond and has extensive experience in the field as a part of mobile game development services. So whatever your inquiry is — a classical board game or a thin-on-the-ground one, we possess the required expertise and skills backed by our successful board game projects. It’s time to get the board app development going!