A board game is a great way to hype up the boring days. Most board games online are overly expensive. Also, there are some fun games you can DIY that are not available for purchase. Are you ready?
We have compiled a list containing DIY board game ideas. Have a good look at each game and decide which you want to make for your home. Trust me, the making process of all the games is easy and costs little.
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DIY Cardboard Board Games
Why are you still spending on getting a board game when you can make one from cardboard with little or no cost? In this article, there is a list of ideas on how to make cardboard board games of different types and styles. The materials might differ but they are quite functional and fun.
1. DIY Self-Isolation Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $5-$10 |
The first board on the list is this amazing snake tail. It is made from paper, glue, and scissors. Join four pieces of paper together to form a large square sheet. Then use a pencil to outline the snake on it. After this, cut some small pieces of paper and write a question mark on the bark of everyone.
2. DIY Literacy Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $4-$7 |
This is made from a cereal box, scissors, dye. Cut open the cereal box, cut off the side and lid leaving a triangular sheet of cardboard. Outline the game on the cardboard and design the cardboard as you like. Then, cut and label the game pieces.
3. How To Make Unicorn Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $5-$7 |
Get a piece of cardboard then wrap a piece of paper around it and hold the paper to it using double-stick tape. Then attach another piece of paper to the back of the cardboard with double-stick tape. After this, attach some paper floral to the top of the board.
4. DIY Rainbow Board Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $10-$40 |
It’s all fun making this rainbow paper plate game. The concept is making a bean bag out of rainbow rainbow-colored, a paper plate, and large dried beans. For the game pieces, there’s a free downloadable template provided in this guide. To make the bean bag, start by folding the paper plate and drawing a rainbow on one side of the folded paper. Then, fill the bag with beans and staple/tap the opened edge to seal it.
5. Paper Board Game DIY
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $0-$10 |
All you need for this paper board game might not cost you anything because they are readily available materials; a sheet of paper, colored pencils, a glue stick, a pencil, and a black marker. Draw nested small squares across the edges of the paper as shown in this video. Then, indicate the start and finish point, and label each of the squares with figures starting from the last square. After that, color each of the squares with colored pencils. You can choose cool colors and each color should be evenly distributed among the squares.
6. DIY Japanese Board Game Sokoban
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $8-$14 |
To make this, place a sheet of cardboard on the ground then glue four PVC holders to each of the four corners. Frame the cardboard with PVC pipe then place two PVC holders on opposite sides then place two PVC across. After the board is set up, connect the batteries and the electric motor. The materials used are 4 batteries, electric motors, PVC pipe, wires, buttons, magnets, and caps.
7. DIY Tetris Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $0-$1 |
The materials used for this include colored paper (preferably seven different colors), white paper, scissors, a marker, and a ruler. Take the seven-colored papers and grid them, then put out the Tetris puzzle blocks from the papers. If you don’t identify all of the Tetris blocks you can check them out so you don’t make mistakes in cutting them. Then, use the white paper as the game board and get red bricks as the game pieces.
8. Football Table Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $5-$10 |
How would it be if you have your favorite football game on board? It’ll be amazing right? All you need to build this soccer board game include Cardboard, a hot glue gun, a glue stick, a cutter, a magnet, paper, and bottle covers. Start by cutting three boards from the cardboard box for the board base. Use strips of paper to demarcate the goal area and the centers’ (halfway line, center line, and center mark). Customize a little pulley system to monitor the movement of the balls.
9. DIY Monopoly Board Game Diary
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $8-$12 |
The materials needed for this include a Stanley knife, ruler, diary, guillotine, binding machine, binding wires, and side cutter. Cut the diary from the gap where the hardcover is attached to the inner cover. After this, cut the edges and the cover of the diary. Then, bind the diary together using a binding machine. Flip the dairy back in place and you’re good to go.
10. DIY Drunk Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $5-$9 |
This is made from a sheet of paper, color, pencil, and dice. Get a piece of paper and draw the game structure on it. Draw some small squares that form Letter Z, then color each square and label them. Then get two dice and start playing
11. DIY Basketball Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $7-$13 |
This basketball bird game is made from absolute cardboard. Get some pieces of cardboard, glue, and scissors. Take one piece of rectangular cardboard and round its edges. After this, drill holes on the cardboard and another hole at the center of the cardboard. Frame the hole at the center with cardboard and do the same for each of the holes surrounding the center.
12. Santa Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $3-$8 |
What other board game would be perfect for Christmas if not for this Santa game? To make a Santa board game, all you need include cardboard, a sharpie, and paint sticks. Draw the game board on the cardboard using the sharpie. Make sections on the twisted path created. Paint the first three sections with red, green, and white respectively.
Repeat this order till you have even numbers of sections with the dane color all through. Add snow slides to the white section – anytime you fall on the white section you can slide down. Then, on the red section, add stairs to climb up anytime you fall on the red. Check the link below for what happens if you fall on the green.
13. DIY Board Game For Kids
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $0-$1 |
This is very simple and it’s a good game for the kids. It is made from pieces of paper. Get a piece of paper and draw small circles across the piece in Z Shape then, another small circle that forms Z above the other Z dividing the sheet of paper into four parts. Use two different colors to identify each of the groups of circles. Number each of the circles but number each group separately. Get a dice as the game piece.
14. Cereal Box Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $0-$1 |
All you need for this cereal board game include a cereal box, sharpie markers, scissors, dice, game pieces (they use plastic dinosaurs here), and plastic tablecloths (if you’re using a permanent marker to protect your furniture). Cut open the cereal box and cut out the flaps. Use the sharpie to draw a snake-like thing on the box surface, then add sections to it. Color each section with different markers and you’re good to go.
15. Marble Race Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $5-$8 |
You can make a marble race board game from cardboard, a hot glue gun, and popsicle sticks. Start by cutting the popsicle sticks into pieces as shown in this video. Then, assemble them for the pulley system that will make the game function. The popsicle sticks are joined together with a small wooden dowel. After that, assemble the game board frame with cardboard pieces.
16. Hydraulic Labyrinth Board Game
| Level | Expert |
| Cost | $10-$15 |
Have you ever imagined syringes can be a key part of any board game? Well, here you have a board game powered by the movement of syringes attached to every corner of the board. You’ll need eight syringes for this board game. Attach one to each corner of the board. Then, fill the other four syringes with different colors. Use a rubber pipe to connect the filled during the empty ones. The movement of the liquid in the connected syringe will determine the movement of the ball. It’s quite fun!
17. DIY Basketball Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $5-$7 |
This basketball board game is made from cardboard, glue, toothpicks, plastic cups, a bottle cap, and a popsicle stick. Shape a Z at one corner of the cardboard with strips of cardboard, then frame the cardboard with two uneven cardboard by the sides and the play arena is ready. Now, you can move to the throwing pitch and the ball collecting space.
18. Paper Circuit Board Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $10-$13 |
All you need for this paper circuit board game include colored paper, cardboard, copper tape, LED light bulbs, lithium coin cell batteries, scissors, and tape. After putting all of these materials together, you’ll need markers, dice, and boxes for storage. You need to be very careful when working with lithium cells; they’re dangerous and fatal. The first thing to do after all this is to design how your game is going to look and what the concept will be.
19. Literacy Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $5-$15 |
Adding board games to your family fun time is super amazing. Also, board games can be a way to teach your children some social lessons. For this, you need an empty cereal box, marker, index card, scissors, and some small objects(for game pieces). Cut open the cereal box and cut off the top and bottom flaps. Then fold the triangular cardboard in and out to make it lay flat. Now, plan out the board game by drawing two twisted lines across the board. Then segment the twisted line and color it.
20. DIY Warship Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $4-$10 |
The steps in making this warship board game are very long but simple and understanding. The materials needed include cardboard, glue, popsicle sticks, scissors, and tape.
21. How To Make Super Mario Game From Cardboard
| Level | Essy |
| Cost | $5-$15 |
Mario is an electric game as we all know. Now let’s make a non-electric version of the game with a cardboard box and craft paper. Cut some craft paper in halves and join them together horizontally with glue. Then, draw the Mario game on the sheets and color it. After that, form a circle with the sheets and put it inside a cardboard box template.
22. How To Make A DIY Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $4-$10 |
To make this, get pieces of cardboard sheets, some tiles, a pen, and glue. Get a short strip of cardboard and bend it at 1-3-3-3 cm, fold the strip and hold it with glue. The making process of this DIY board game is pretty much easy to follow.
23. DIY Board Game For Kids
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $5-$7 |
The materials needed for this board game include Swisco shells, a sheet of paper, beads or coins, and dice. Take the sheet of paper and draw a small box around the four sides leaving the center plain. Color each of the boxes with different colors and leave the center in plain white. Put all the coins in the center and shells at one corner of the paper.
24. Board Game DIY
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $5-$15 |
Are you planning a family game night? Here is one of the board games that should be on your list. You can create this with materials available in your home; cardstock, cardboard, heavy paper, craft paper, any of these will work well for your game board. Then, draw the game path and color it according to your desire. Then label each segment of the path. The next big step is gathering the game pieces, you can use any materials for these as well.
25. Jeopardy Game Board
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $10-$25 |
Trivial game is a good way to ask your kids questions indirectly and let them ponder on them. The trivial can be anything but this jeopardy game board is perfect for any of the games. To make this game board, get some thick poster cards, and double sides for the game pieces. You need colored cardstock (five different colors is okay), what paper to write on the cardstock, and velcro dots. Check the link for more details.
26. DIY Backgammon Board Games
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $10-$12 |
The materials required for this DIY project include canvas, adhesive vinyl, mixing cup, craft paints, a popsicle stick, washi tape, small hexagon dice tray, and scissors. Start by painting the canvas in a bright and bold color, then cut the backgammon points from vinyl; 12 gold and 12 white each 4″ tall. Spray paint the dice and the doubling cube. After the canvas and the dice are dried, assemble everything and your gaming board is ready.
27. How To Design A Center Board Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $10-$14 |
If you’re looking for a nice board game to play, then you should try this simple board game. All you need to do is to gather some colored paper cards. Cut the colored papers into small dowagers and use them. To create a path on the start and finish spot on the bird. Ensure to use all the rainbow colors to make it look colorful. Take out a set of colors and draw different objects on them. Use any small object you can find around as game pieces.
DIY Wooden Board Games
One great thing about wooden board games is that you can easily get scrap wood if you’ve been working with wood before. Using scrap wood will cut down the cost of the game board. Try out some of the ideas below.
28. Pocket Board Game
| Level | Expert |
| Cost | $20-$30 |
Puckett is a family game and it is made from MDF board and some scrap 2×4s. Cut the scrap 2×4 into one-inch by one-inch pieces. Cut the MDF board to the size of the game board you want. Then, place the four 1×1″ pieces of the MDF to frame it. Attach one of the 1×1″ pieces to the center of the board to divide it. Spray paint the board and the pieces. Then, use wood glue and CA glue to attach the side rails and the centerpiece.
29. DIY Maths Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $7-$12 |
This is made from foam board, plywood for the base, copper wire, buttons, pencils, colored paper, and dice. Cut a piece of the circle from the foam board then cut two grooves at each side of the circle. Then, pass a copper wire through it and attach the other circle made from paper to it. Rotate the circle around the copper wire and write numbers on the circle below the foam. After that make a board for the circle and you’re good to go.
30. DIY ISO-Path Board Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $10-$14 |
Cut a piece of plywood into a hexagon using a laser cutter or a CNC router and engrave a small hexagon shape on the plywood. After that, cut small pieces of a hexagon from another piece of plywood and test it on the engraved plywood to make sure the hexagon fits properly well. Coat the engraved board and the hexagon then, attach them with glue.
31. DIY Pucket Board Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $10-$13 |
The materials needed for this DIY pocket board include plywood, strips of hardwood, a miter saw, sander, drill, spray paint, and screws. Start by making the base of the board from a piece of plywood- cut and frame the base with strips of wood. Then, spray paint the base and design it.
32. Wooden Tic Tac Toe
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $10-$20 |
Do you know how axing a tic tac toe game is and how great it will be to give your kid this kind of game in this computer era? It’s going to be superb. All you need are scrap wood pieces, a miter saw, a handheld plane and a magnet. Cut two square blocks and some strips from the wood pieces. Segment one of the blocks into 9 and drill holes in each segment. Make a quite large (¾” of the block) hole on the second block. Use a handheld plane to turn the strips into dowels and cut them into small pieces. Use a magnet to attach the blocks and put the dowels inside the hole on the second block. It’s time to play the game.
33. Center Of The Universe Board Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $10-$20 |
To make this peg board game, you need a piece of wood, a drill, a sharpie, a compass, a protractor, and red and blue paint. Cut a square out of the wood (at least five inches wide). Then, using the compass and protractor, draw two circles (one bigger than the other) on the square. Find the center of the inner circle and draw a line through the diameter. Divide the circle into tenths (36 degrees each). Check the link above for more details.
34. Wooden Soccer Board Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $15-$20 |
What would you like to have on your soccer field? You can use anything as your player. In this video, all you need are nails. Get a wooden board and draw the football pitch on it (the goal area and the centerline is important). Then, attach side rails to the board using nails and a hammer. After that, add longer nails (longer than the ones used on the side rails) to the playing area – the number of nails should be equivalent to the number of players required on the pitch.
35. DIY Guess Who Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $10-$13 |
This is made from craft plywood, rectangular woods, hinges, double stick tape, super glue, and pegs. First, get pictures of people from their Facebook pages or any other social media then photoshop the images and print them out. Attack the image to the pehs and place them on the plywood board which serves as the base of the gaming board.
36. DIY Smart Board Game
| Level | Expert |
| Cost | $10-$15 |
Start building this smartboard game from the module. The materials needed for this module include 4 LEDs, 4 resistors, a piezo speaker, an Arduino, a bunch of wires, and 4 buttons. After building the module, it’s time for the code.
37. Wooden Ludo Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $50-$150 |
Making this wooden ludo is purely amazing. You don’t have to stress yourself if drawing the ludo pattern, you can get a ludo template as in this video, and print directly on the board. The first thing to do is to get a scrap wooden board, and some strips for the framing. Add wood filler to cover all the holes in the scrap wood. After that, paint the board in a butter color and let the paint dry. After that, take the board to the ink press for the logo pattern. It is so much fun watching the process.
38. Wooden Horse Racing Game
| Level | Expert |
| Cost | $30-$40 |
This video will take you through the steps required to build a wooden horse racing game board. The first step is to gather the materials and tools required for the build. After that, prepare the wood and cut them into pieces – add the necessary hooves and holes for joinery. Then, assemble the wood pieces and you’re good to go. It is not as simple as this, so you need to watch this video to get the full details.
39. DIY Magnetic Hnefatafl Board Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $10-$15 |
The materials needed for this DIY board game include a laser cutter, table saw, band saw, miter saw, orbital sander, polyester felt, birch plywood, gauge copper wire, and magnets. Cut two pieces of boards from the plywood. Design the pieces for the top of the board then engrave the design on it using a laser cutter. After this, glue the top and bottom piece together then frame the board with plywood and add support to the board.
40. DIY Kalaha Board Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $5-$12 |
Are you thinking of getting a gaming board and you’re out of ideas if what you want? Kalaha gaming board is just for you. Kalaha is made from a piece of cardboard or plywood with 14 holes. Start by crafting the design of the Kahala on pieces of paper then cut the pieces needed and gather the tools and materials needed.
41. DIY Obelisk Board Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $5-$12 |
The materials needed for this include a laser cutter, printer, scissors, USB sticks, dice, thick MDF, and an old sock. Download the obelisk file and install it on the USB stick, then cut the game tiles using a laser cutter. Then, get the hex monster and color them according to the number of dots on them.
42. Wooden Puzzle Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $20-$25 |
You know how tactical puzzles can be! It’s still the same for this wooden puzzle. All you need is two wooden boards – one from s plywood and the other can be a wooden block. Cut out the patterns you like on the wooden block leaving some inches on the block. Attach the plywood to the bottom of the block such that if you’re rearranging the pattern, there will be support.
43. DIY Guess Who Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $10-$13 |
Guess which game is always perfect for a party but it is always more fun if you have the game on board with everyone’s pictures facing down. All you need is a plywood board, plastic rectangular sheets, hinges, and strong glue. Cut two pieces of board from the plywood, prepare them, and segment one of them into small squares. Attach both boards with hinges. Then, glue the plastic sheets on each square.
DIY Giant Board Games
Here are amazing guides that will show you step-by-step instructions on how to make a giant board game using some easy-to-get materials. Though the game boards are giant, they’re not very expensive.
44. How To Make Giant Board Game
| Level | Easy |
| Cost | $5-$25 |
Do you want your kid to up his counting game? You should try making this great board game with your kids. Get strips of wide cardboard and scale them from zero to twenty. Draw a person on another cardboard, this will be this game piece that will be moving up and down. Make wooden dice. Roll the dice and move the image to the number on the dice. The person that got to number twenty-first won the game.
45. Giant Checkers For Backyard
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $15-$50 |
To make this checker’s game board, stain a plywood square with recent color wood. Then wipe the excess stain off. Create a board across the edges of the square with marker and masking tape. Mark and tape even 8×8 squares on the board. Then, with the aid of masking tape, paint the squares in contrasting colors. Once you’re done with the game board, gather and color the game pieces.
46. DIY Giant Word Game
| Level | |
| Cost |
This giant board game is made from wood squares, chalkboard contact paper, magnetic tape, chalk, Gorilla glue, letter and number stickers, time bag, and engineer print. Get a magnetic board and frame it with plywood then make the letter tiles but you can buy them if you don’t have the time to make them yourself. After this, glue small magnets to each of the tiles.
47. DIY Giant Checkers Set
| Level | Expert |
| Cost | $20-$30 |
Do you live playing checkers? Well, your family fun time will not be complete without this giant checkers set. The checker’s board was made from plywood pieces, Cricut vinyl (two rolls of different colors), and duct tape. Measure and cut the vinyl into rectangles. Then, apply them to the board such that both colors formed intermixing square tiles. Then, the game pieces were made from an empty cream container (ice cream container). Use duct tape to cover the lids and if you’re playing the game outside where there’s a breeze, you need to color some stones and put them inside the containers to make them stable.
48. Giant Scrabble Wall
| Level | Expert |
| Cost | $20-$30 |
Imagine having a giant wall-sized magnetic scrabble board along your wall. Amazing right? Here is a quick video to walk you through the process from start to finish. It is bigger than four base sheets of plywood so the creator used a big sheet of a whiteboard that was veneer on one side and primed on the other side. The whiteboard is pretty expensive because of these features. Ti out the board tighter he used pocket hole joinery and it was amazing. The process required the use of some complex tools as well.
49. DIY Harry Potter Monopoly
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $10-$14 |
To build this harry potter monopoly board game you have to get blank monopoly board templates. It is not necessarily you build what is on the template but it gives you the direction of what you are making. You can divide to modify your board from having 10 spaces to having 11 spaces.
50. Giant Wooden Rebound Game
| Level | Expert |
| Cost | $15-$25 |
This video will take you through the steps required to build this4 foot rebound game board. Start by getting some maple plywood, cut it to length, and make pocket grooves for the pickets on it. You can use a CNC router or a handheld router with a straight edge. The CNC router will prevent possible tear out along the line that’s while it’s preferably. Then, take the board to the lase to make the pockets inlay for the scoring markers.
51. DIY Giant Chess Set
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $10-$20 |
Chess is one of the board games that can enhance strategic thinking in both young and adults. Having such a game during your family fun time will be so amazing. This particular checkerboard was built from two 4-foot by 4-foot boards. Paint the board in while all through and get sheets of self-adhesive vinyl of any color (blue was used here) to mix the white. Cut the vinyl into squares before using. The two boards were joined together with two piano hinges. The hinges are big, unlike the regular hinges which are small and very hard to work with.
DIY Mini Board Games
Mini board games are very easy and cheap to put together and you can use any materials available for the game board and the game pieces.
52. DIY Halloween Board Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $5-$10 |
What are you planning for Halloween? What about board games? I know it’s a nice idea. This Halloween board game is both fun and scary. It is made from an MDF panel, a drawstring bag, black construction paper, and a glitter foam sheet with adhesive backing. Cut the MDF board to fit the glitter foam sheet. Adhere the foam sheet to the MDF board. Then, cut the construction paper into strips to form the grid for the board. After that, make the game pieces (shaped ghosts and bats). There’s a free ghost and bat printable link in this guide.
53. How To Make A LEGO Chess Set
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $10-$15 |
This is made from a square base plate and chess pieces. Setting up this LEGO chess is very simple but it’s very difficult to get the pieces of the chessboard completely but with a little perseverance you should find all pieces and build your LEGO chess board.
54. Zombie Apocalypse Board Game
| Level | Expert |
| Cost | $8-$15 |
Have you heard about Hare and Hounds before? It is an old French Military game. The game is more strategic than you expect. Then, the rules use another thing entirely. So, the great old game can be played on a board drawn on paper and four counters. But if you have a 3D printer, it would have been great to print the game in a tactile version. There is an online version of the game that you can try out first. Check the link above for more details about the zombie apocalypse game.
55. Fabric Board Game
| Level | Intermediate |
| Cost | $$10-$30 |
Fabric board game is nice until you’re looking for the right method to get the fabrics on. Let’s try quilting here. So, if you live quilting here is a nice project for you. The first step is to gather the materials and tools required. Then, cut seven strips from the fabric you want to use (four strips from one color and three from another color). Now, pin one strip of each color together (right side facing each other). You’ll do a lot of sewing in this project, so a standard sewing machine and knowledge are required.
Conclusion
Board games enhance your family’s fun moments, prepare your kids for strategic thinking and help them with counting and mathematics generally. These are some of the benefits of playing board games with your family. The above list will help you with step-by-step instructions on how to make board games by yourself.
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