Earlier this year, my brother-in-law Travis told me about an idea he had for a party game. It sounded like fun and I was eager to play. We iterated on key concepts and rules until it felt like it was ready to try. He and my sister worked hard to put together a prototype, and they brought it to friends and family to play test.
We played, we observed, and we had surveys for the players. The core mechanic was well-received, but scoring was too complex and was taking away from the fun. We brainstormed more, simplified the scoring, and tweaked the materials.
None of us had experience in board game manufacturing, but Travis was very motivated to learn. He found a company who could produce everything needed, so Jess made some box art, digital assets were assembled, and an order was placed. They sent a proof, some revisions were made, and the manufacturers went to work. Meanwhile, we setup a simple website with a store.
Now the game has arrived and we’re ready to sell! Bet the Line! is a trivia game where you don’t have to know a single answer to win. One player, in turn, is that round’s “bookie”. They start the round by reading a question card out loud, and then they “set the line” by making their best guess at the answer.
Every answer is numeric, so other players have to decide whether the correct answer is higher than the first player’s guess (over the line), lower than the guess (under the line), or exactly correct (betting the line).
Once players have decided, they reveal their response cards and the bookie reads the correct answer from the question card using a red decoder.
Points are awarded to players who correctly bet over or under the line, and the bookie earns points when players bet the line - even when the line isn’t exactly correct. Bonus points are awarded when the bookee is exactly correct, but that’s rare - maybe once or twice per game.
The next player becomes the bookie for the next round and play continues from there. First to 20 points wins and a single game takes around 30 minutes. It works with 2 to 8 players.
Making the game has already been a fun journey, but we made the game to share - so please check out Bet the Line! if any of these apply to you:
- You want to see what a homemade game looks like once it’s professionally manufactured
- You like party games
- You don’t normally like trivia
- You do like trivia because you know all the answers
- You know someone who thinks they know all the answers, and you want to rub it in when you beat them at a trivia game
tldr - I helped make a game, so check it out!