The manufacture of board games has been part of human play since records began, one of the many enduring games is tic tac toe or noughts and crosses as we know it in the uk.

At keystage 3 I would have the students design a new game. It is surprisingly difficult to design a new board game that would compete with the old favourites. I would start the pupils off by getting them to research board games then perhaps play cluedo or a similar strategy game. Monopoly has a very long history and Waddingtons thought they had plumed it's depth to the full, falling sales and the perceived doom of the company made them sell the right to the game, it's new buyers realised that they could re-market the game by regionalizing it to the point that there are versions out for individual towns, as a marketing strategy it proved to be stunning.

At keystage 4 I would start them with an in depth analysis of three top selling board games then move on to an expanded brief to encompass the manufacture of the new game.

At both stages I would then invite other classes to find any loopholes of problems in the games. It would be the intention to create constructive criticism.