Learn game design and get help making your own game.

Workshops tailored to your needs and the participants

Whether you’re interested in stimulating some creativity amongst friends or a team building exercise, a board game workshop is a great way to work together to make something amazing.

Each workshop is carefully tailored to your needs, your locations, and your participants.

The goal is to have participants learn about what makes a game fun, work together in teams to make their own games. and enable them to work with plenty of components.

Workshops for kids, teens, or adults

Workshops can be tailored based on the participants’ age, previous experience in game design, and amount of time for the workshop.

Workshops can start with a lecture or discussion to get participants primed for the creativity they’ll need to make their own board games.

Depending on the number of participants, participants may be encouraged (or required) to form teams that will work together to brainstorm and make their game.

All materials provided

Just provide the space and the participants, and I’ll take it from there.

Presenting ‘The Case’

This is my Samsonite checked-bag full of components. It weighs about 20 kilograms, and it has a bit of everything.

I don’t always lug the full case around – sometimes I’ll pack a carry-on-sized bag instead. The goal is the same either way: give participants a bunch of things to play with.

Perfect for a classroom setting of (almost) any size and any age, from kids to adults. No previous design knowledge required.

The usual structure:

Set some expectations that we’re here to have fun, learn, take notes, brainstorm, play games, etc.
A chance to chat about games in general – what is a game, what makes games fun, how have games evolved from Monopoly and Ludo to Catan and Codenames?
Talk about the design / iterative loop and how it’s similar to the scientific method – theorize, test, iterate
Start with a published game or two to warm up our brains. Change one rule to see what happens
Quick break
Time to make a game! People break up into groups. I’ll break out my bags / boxes of pieces and give everyone a theme.
People will brainstorm game ideas that fit that theme
Near the end of the time, I’ll ask one person from each group to present their game to the rest of the group.
As the session ends, I’ll encourage people to continue working on their game, exchange contact info with their group, etc.

Great for a small group setting of any age, from kids to adults. No previous design knowledge required.

The usual structure:

Set some expectations that we’re here to have fun, learn, take notes, brainstorm, play games, etc.
A chance to chat about games in general – what is a game, what makes games fun, how have games evolved from Monopoly and Ludo to Catan and Codenames?
Talk about the design / iterative loop and how it’s similar to the scientific method – theorize, test, iterate
Start with a published game or two to warm up our brains. Change one rule to see what happens
Quick break
Time to make a game! People break up into groups. I’ll break out my bags / boxes of pieces and give everyone a theme.
People will brainstorm game ideas that fit that theme
As the group’s prototypes develop, I’ll ask people to circulate around the room so everyone gets the chance to playtest the games made by other people. Groups will come back together to iterate, grab more components, compare notes, etc.
Near the end of the time, I’ll ask one person from each group to present their game to the rest of the group.
As the session ends, I’ll encourage people to continue working on their game, exchange contact info with their group, etc.

Great for as few as one awesome person to a handful. No previous design knowledge required.

The usual structure:

Set some expectations that we’re here to have fun, learn, take notes, brainstorm, play games, etc.
A chance to chat about games in general – what is a game, what makes games fun, how have games evolved from Monopoly and Ludo to Catan and Codenames?
Talk about the design / iterative loop and how it’s similar to the scientific method – theorize, test, iterate
Start with a published game or two to warm up our brains. Change one rule to see what happens
Quick break
Time to make a game! I’ll break out my bags / boxes of pieces and give everyone a theme, or let the group expand on an idea they’ve already had
People will brainstorm game ideas that fit that theme / their idea
Lunch break
Begin putting the pieces together – come back to play, hand-draw / write out some cards, and get into the design loop
Playtest, brainstorm, refine, etc. for the rest of our time

By the time we’re done, we’ll have made a ton of progress and given people a great start on a game they’ll be proud to continue working on.

These are just general guidelines, of course – they can be tweaked or changed to suit.

A few pictures from the last workshop I taught:

Previous clients and testimonials

Isaac Grillo, game designer

Working with Chris Backe has been an absolute game-changer (pun intended) for the progress of my inaugural card game Standoff. From the beginning, he provided invaluable insights covering every aspect of game development. His attention to detail and availability to answer questions surpassed my expectations and caused many processes to occur smoothly. At every turn, he helped address my needs and ideas and found ways to get me to reflect on other areas and questions I hadn’t originally considered, showcasing once again his expertise and creativity.

Luke Daughtry, Game Designer of Standoff by Enter the Box Games

“We just hired Chris Backe to consult with us before we start pitching our game to publishers and it was a big help. Chris gave us a lot of helpful advice on focusing our materials more toward what publishers actually want to see. I just wanted to give him a shout out. Highly recommended!”

Brett Trout, game designer

“…your meeting was extremely insightful and proved to give me tons of helpful pointers making my journey as a developer much more clear. I feel like I dodged bullets and got refined direction from you!”

Ryan K., game designer

“Chris has a wide breadth of game knowledge and an excellent eye for quality game mechanics. He was very comprehensive with me on the feedback he gave. He’s extremely easy to work with and I was glad I got a chance to have help me on my game.”

Taylor Hayward, designer of ‘Dawn’

“I think direction was the real value. Actions I can take, are always more helpful than ideas. “Define the high level look of the game-play, and focus on creating a polishing introduction scenario experience.” In my situation, with where my head was at before, that advice was incredibly helpful.”

Jason Terry, game designer

Chris Backe helped us develop our game Mⱥhr during the past year and it is fair to say that without his expertise we would not have brought the game to the state it is in: fully developed, playtested and ready for production. Would we recommend Chris to other game designers? Hell yeah! And we will hire him again for our next project.

Benjamin Effer, designer of Mⱥhr

Let’s chat

Whether you’d like to create something bespoke or go with one of the options from above, let’s chat.