Last week, I tweeted that I was brainstorming random board game ideas, and that they were literally random: I’d rolled them off a table.
Well, that’s not entirely accurate. There are tables, but the dice-rolling is all automated and web-based. I wasn’t rolling so much as clicking, but the results were the same. I love these sorts of random generators. There’s nothing quite like a dose of context-free chaos to wake up the imagination and shake up the design process. In fact, if you’ve got the game-making itch but aren’t exactly sure how best to scratch it, I’d recommend checking out one of these game idea generators:
- Boardgamizer: As you might be able to guess from the name, this generator is focused on board games. With every click of the button, you get a random new mechanic, theme, and victory condition.
- The Ludemetic Game Generator: According to the site, it “randomly combines categories and mechanics from those at BoardGameGeek to create new (and largely useless) game ideas, with arbitrarily appropriate titles.” Yeah, I’d say that’s a pretty accurate description.
- Game Idea Generator: This generator is more aimed at folks making video games, but a lot of the ideas can carry over to tabletop without too much effort.
- Orteil’s Game Idea Generator: Again, this one is more video game than tabletop, but the mad genius of the generator comes from the premises it suggests. When it generates games where you “bury the president through social engineering” or “motivate sky whales but you’re a ghost” or even “drag and drop bees to become successful” you can’t help but be inspired.
- Python Game Ideas: This is one is very specific with its video game mechanics. It includes a page of definitions and examples for each of those mechanics.
- Game-o-tron 3000: Another video game-oriented generator, this one shows a list of all the entries it’s choosing from, so you can just pick your favorite rather than rolling for it.
- Abstract Strategy Game Generator: Just like it says in the title, Martin Grider’s generator kicks out ideas for abstract strategy games that are suitable for both tabletop and digital.
Did I miss your favorite game idea generator? Drop a link to it in the comments* and I’ll add it to the list!
*Assuming the comments are working properly. I haven’t really tested them out on this new blog yet.
