The role of wargames in the development of game design

Abstract

During the third quarter of the XX century, board wargames led the way in  innovation in game design. Although small in comparison with present-day digital games industry, the wargames industry was far from inconsequential, and several leading digital game designers started their careers playing or creating board wargames. Even the term “game designer” was first used about the creators of board wargames. None of the information in this paper is new or unknown. However, we believe that, as in any other human endeavour, game designers can benefit from knowing some of the history from their field. Accordingly, in this paper we present some information on board wargames, with special attention to the influential role played by Redmond A. Simonsen, a graphic designer. As a case study, we use the board wargame Second Front in order to explore the design methods, decisions and innovations that continue to influence game design today.