All LEGO Games are designed to be designed. The board is built out of LEGO pieces that can be assembled and reassembled into countless configurations. Each face of the LEGO dice can be changed, its functions endlessly redefined. Even the rules are written so that they are not only clear, but easy to change.
Designing a new variation is as much a part of the LEGO Game experience as playing it. Children are designers
Children are born designers. They design dances and music, they paint with food and build with cups, they play whenever, when they are by themselves or with us, sometimes even despite us.
They don’t have to be taught how to design a game. They can create a game out of anything.
But, like all things children do anyway, given the companionship of an adult, the permission and the tools, children will learn how to make even better games, even more beautiful art.
So this is written for adults, specifically for parents. Your children won’t need your help. But they might want it. And when they do, this article will help you understand a little more clearly what they are about, share the adventure of making something fun, and make your wisdom and love a little more available to them.
Think of it as playing together, you and your child. Not only playing a game, but playing with the game, to see what you can make of it together.
Why games?
Given dance, art, music, and all the other amazing gifts of childhood, for adults, children’s ability to design games is probably one of the least appreciated. It’s one of those things that kids do that amuse us, but, more importantly, amuse them. When we see our ha busily engaged in making up their own games, we generally let well-enough alone. They’re happy. They’re occupied. And as long as they are, we can get on with all the other significant adult activities we have become heir to.
Art, music, dance, these we recognize as “important” activities, valuable, directly impacting our children’s growth. Games, not so much.
On the other hand, the skills that our children learn to master in the process of making-up games are as basic to their development as reasoning, as the scientific method, as discovering how to make and keep friends, as learning about system dynamics and systematic thinking, as understanding rules, fairness, reciprocity, as the practice of kindness and empathy.
http://games.lego.com/en-gb/parents/parentsguide/default.aspx?id=Designing%20Redesigning%20part%201
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