Board Layout Design
📋 What it is
A board's shape — grid, path, hex, or freeform — shapes how players move and what strategies work.
🗣️ Coach says
The board is the stage. A GRID (like chess) gives even movement; a PATH (like a race track) forces a route; a HEX grid gives six neighbours instead of four (great for wargames); a FREEFORM map connects regions your way. Choosing the layout is one of a designer's first and biggest decisions.
🧠 Memory hook
Grid, path, hex, or freeform — the board's shape decides how the game moves.
😂 Giggle
Why did the card deck break up with the shuffler?
It said, "You keep mixing me up!"
😲 Whoa!
Hexagonal grids are loved by strategy-game designers because every hex touches SIX neighbours evenly — unlike a square grid, there's no awkward "diagonal" distance.
✅ Quick check: Why do many strategy games use a HEX grid instead of squares?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
Because every hexagon has six equal neighbours with no awkward diagonals — movement and distance are even in all directions.
Hex grids give uniform adjacency, avoiding the diagonal problem of square grids.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Sketch the same simple game on a grid and on a hex layout. Notice how movement options change.