Butcherboard

Butcherboard was a board game I made with a small team in undergrad. The goal of the game is to move any one of your pieces from your end of the board to the opponent’s end. However, at the beginning of the game, there are no spaces that pieces can move over - players have to spend turns building paths to travel. With several pieces with different effects, and the butcher piece which can destroy it all, it’s a fluid and strategic game. Attached below is the original design doc.

Some of the big takeaways from making Butcherboard were, first of all, you always need to follow what’s fun and evocative for you. Being anything less than completely honest about what you like and don’t can’t slow design down to a standstill. The team I worked on this with spent a long time sitting on our hands without implementing anything, and the night before the due date I basically made the entire game by just following what I actually liked, and testing it.