KENYA · GUIDE 0640 · EDITION 4.2
Educational board game making in Kenya: Customers and Market Demand
The buyer and the buying decision
Families and educators wanting reusable group learning activities. The offer to test is: Make educational board games that practise a specific skill through clear play rules.
Define the board game by learner age, player count, learning objective, session format, and the decisions players should practise through original rules and components.
Separate interest from an accepted order
Build a paper prototype and observe a small supervised playtest before manufacturing.
The purpose of this test is to establish whether the buyer accepts the specified result, delivery arrangement and payment terms. An encouraging interview does not establish repeat demand. Ask what the buyer currently uses, what would make them change supplier and who has authority to approve the first order. Record a refusal as carefully as an enquiry so that unsuccessful offers do not disappear from the evidence.
Collect evidence specific to this offer
Record setup questions, turn counts, instructions misunderstood, scoring disputes, disengagement, learning explanations, missing components, and rule changes tested again with a fresh group of players.
| Question to resolve | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| What exactly will the buyer accept? | Observe supervised, unfamiliar players from the intended age group using the rulebook and prototype, recording setup, turns, scoring and disputes without designer explanation. |
| What is included in the first trial? | Define the board game by learner age, player count, learning objective, session format, and the decisions players should practise through original rules and components. |
| How will a prospect see the offer? | Demonstrate a complete short round at approved school or family events. |
| What must happen before repeating the trial? | Players can begin using the supplied rules and the pieces suit the intended age. |
Decide whether to continue
Review the specification with the buyer before committing to tools or stock. A trial is commercially useful only if actual costs, rejected work, time spent and cash collected can be reconciled. The game fails when the designer must repeatedly explain rules or when winning depends on guessing instructions instead of practising the intended educational skill through play.
If a buyer changes the required output, record a new scope and re-cost the test. Do not count a request for a different product as proof of demand for the original one. Keep personal contact details in your private records and use customer statements publicly only with permission.
Turn the example into a buyer test
Market Mission: Four-Round Challenge is the supplied original 48-card game, not a proposed game idea. A commissioned four-team paper prototype contains one A3 board, eight A4 card-front pages, eleven portrait rules/key pages and four copies of the landscape score page: 23 A4 impressions plus one A3. The downloadable PDFs contain 21 unique pages; three extra score copies produce the four-team physical set. Use pencils and scrap paper, no dice, coins or counters. Canonical editable rules, market-game.json and commercial templates are in the Original-Game folder of the downloaded pack. Permission permits adapting and selling physical sets; it grants no trademark exclusivity or permission to resell the entire guide collection.
| Buyer discussion | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| Specification to confirm | Eight sheets times six cards equals 48, not an invented expansion deck. |
| Output to inspect | Proposed ages 8+ and 20–30 minutes remain untested; no curriculum, safety certification or learning-outcome claim. |
| Failure that can defeat acceptance | Too few score sheets |
Ask the buyer to describe one acceptable and one unacceptable result. Record the decision maker, price basis, quantity, handover point and payment date privately. A sample request, an encouraging conversation and an accepted order are different evidence. Keep the first commitment within your demonstrated capacity; no customer interview or successful trial is asserted here.
What a failed test should change
Count four teams against page 12 copies.. If the offer cannot meet that check, revise the specification or process before promising a repeat. Keep rejected offers and reasons in the same register as positive replies so that your record does not exaggerate demand.