KTBG/Burnt Island Games

Designing Games that Appeal to EVERYONE!

By Sean Jacquemain

At Kids Table Board Gaming (KTBG) we walk a very fine line, making games that appeal to a widest audience possible. The company started when Helaina Cappel, an avid gamer and parent, realized that there were no games out there she could play with her kids that also engaged her strategic mind. Teaming with her game designer husband Josh, they set out to fix that. Starting with Foodfighters, they collaborated with many different designers and artists to create a catalogue of games with something for everyone.

To become a KTBG game, a design has to have some specific criteria. The core concepts have to be simple enough to attract younger gamers or those new to the hobby, however, it should also have enough interesting decisions and depth of strategy to bring in more experienced gamers. It’s a delicate balance of accessibility and layered complexity.

We approach each design with a few core rules. First, we always try to follow the fun. We want to identify what it is about the game that will make people want to play it again and again. Second, we want to identify our audience. Some games are made specifically for kids. Instead of this approach, we try to make games that kids CAN play, but not at the sacrifice of strategic depth. We want to make games that we, as gamers, want to play. Finally, we look for the hook. What is different about this game? What can players find here that they won’t see anywhere else?

With these core principles as a guiding philosophy, we can more easily find designs that would be a good fit in the KTBG library.

Often a KTBG game will introduce a new mechanism for people discovering the hobby for the first time. For example, Haunt the House teaches the concept of bluffing (and when kids learn they can ‘lie’ within the context of a game, they get pretty excited), Wreck Raiders helps players learn the idea of worker placement, and Fossilis is a great example of set collection. When we’re developing a new game, tackling a mechanism we haven’t used before in previous designs is really important to us.

Layering our rules is another important part of the design process. In our experience, kids pick up rules very quickly. In fact, they’re often better at learning new games than their parents. Having said that, it’s really helpful for anyone learning a game to do it in stages. As we’re developing a game, we look for the tiers of complexity and layer them, so that players can choose how much to add each time they play. Providing this sort of option allows you to customize the gaming experience you want. It means you can learn games quicker and add rules at your own pace.

‘Kids’ might be part of our brand name, but there’s nothing childish about our process. We bake strategy and complexity into an easily digestible package. Not every game is going to be for everyone, but by following our design principles, we aim to capture the imagination of as many gamers as we can!

Learn more about KTBG and their games at kidstablebg.com.