Make Your Own Board Game with Mariana Roa Oliva from ¡CityArts!

On March 13, 2021, we hosted Mariana from ¡CityArts! For a Cultural Connections workshop where we learned how to create our own board game inspired by their game, Tiny Utopias. (PDF Download)

Follow these steps to create your own version of Tiny Utopias!

MATERIALS

• Blank Index or Playing Cards (10 minimum, the more the better!)
• Piece of cardboard or a sturdy flat panel (we used chipboard)
• Markers, colored pencils, or crayons
• Box to store your game

Creating the cards

Using blank cards create a card for each of the following categories. Draw a picture and
write a word or sentence about each topic.

• Favorite place: This place can be real or imagined. Maybe it’s your bedroom or outer space. Example: the beach
• Favorite food: Your favorite meal or snack – it’s up to you! Example: Ice-cream
• Favorite Smell: Is it warm cookies or pizza? Maybe it’s the smell of a new book. Example: Cinnamon
• Favorite song: What’s a song you like to sing? Or do. You have a favorite type of music? Example: Row, row, row your boat
• Favorite texture: Do you like squishy slime or fuzzy sweaters? Example: Bumps on a basketball
• Favorite movement: Do. You like to dance or jump or stretch? Example: touching my toes
• Favorite person: A friend or family member, maybe someone famous? Example: My baby brother
• WILD CARD: What’s something interesting, exciting, or surprising that you could make a card for? Example: Mermaids

Once you have made all the cards we suggested, what are some other cards you can make? You can make as many cards as you like-it is up to your imagination!

Creating the gameboard

• Take 6 of your cards and arrange them side by side on your board
• Trace their outlines and set them aside
• Then, take a card and arrange it the underneath your outlines of the other card. Trace the outline and set it aside. Put a star in the center of the outline.
• Next, on a piece of scrap paper write out words that make you think about why people make art. Ask your friends and grown-ups what they think too.
• Once you’ve written all your ideas, circle the words that are most important. Pick 6 of them to put on your gameboard.
• In each of the blank card spaces write one of the words.
  Examples: Joy, peace, creativity, love, storytelling, expression
  Now you have built your board!

How to play the game

• Shuffle your cards and flip them to the blank side.
• Without looking at the cards pick one and put it face up on the star space,
  this is your main card and title of your world for this round.
• Next, keep drawing cards and put them one in each space on the game board.
• Now you have created your Tiny Utopia! Read them out and starting with your star space to hear about your world. It should sound something like this…

In the world of cinnamon, joy is touching my toes, peace is the beach, creativity is ice-cream, love is my baby brother, storytelling is mermaids, expression is bumps on a basketball.

What Tiny Utopias will you create?