Game Design Merit Badge
Eight requirements that need other people eight separate times: four play sessions at requirement 4, three playtests across requirement 6, and a blind test at requirement 7 which must use players who have not seen the game before. The prototype needs the counselor's approval first, stated in an unlettered note, and the game design notebook has to be kept as the work happens rather than written up afterwards.
The plan behind this
Eight times you need other people
| requirement | who is needed |
|---|---|
| 4(a) play a game normally | enough players for that game |
| 4(c) play it again with one rule changed | the same, and twice more with two other changes, three sessions |
| 6(b) playtest the prototype | as many people as the player format needs |
| 6(c) repeat 6(b) at least twice more | two more sessions |
| 7(b) the blind test | a group who have never seen it |
That is eight occasions, and the badge never counts them in one place. If you are working on this badge in a troop that meets weekly, it is the schedule that decides how long it takes, not the designing.
The blind test needs strangers
Share your prototype from requirement 6 with a group of players that has not played it or witnessed a previous playtest.
Everyone who helped you with requirement 6 is now ineligible. So are the people who watched. Plan for two separate groups from the beginning: one to iterate with, one held back for the blind test.
And when they play it, you may watch but not help:
Provide them with your instruction sheet(s) and any physical components. Watch them play the game, but do not provide them with instruction.
That is the whole point of the requirement: it tests the instruction sheet you wrote at 7(a), not the game.
The approval that isn't lettered
Requirement 6 begins with a note, before 6(a):
Note: You must have your counselor's approval of your concept before you begin creating the prototype.
It has no letter of its own, so it is easy to read as a preamble. It gates everything from requirement 6 onwards. Show your counselor the requirement 5 design work and get the concept agreed before you build anything.
The notebook is a record, not a write-up
Requirement 5 introduces the game design notebook, and it then appears in 6(a), 6(b), 6(c) and 7(b), each of them recording something into it, before 7(c) shares it with your counselor and discusses what it shows.
What 7(c) actually asks is what you learned about the game design process and what your testing showed. That is a question about how the game changed between playtest one and playtest three, and only a notebook written at the time can answer it. Written up afterwards from memory, it is a summary of a finished game.
What the badge tells you about its own order
Four requirements name another by number, so these are not inferences:
| requirement | names |
|---|---|
| 6(a) | prototype your game from requirement 5 |
| 6(b) | compare to your descriptions from requirement 5(b) |
| 6(c) | repeat 6(b) at least two more times |
| 7(b) | share your prototype from requirement 6 |
What this page is
The Game Design merit badge, drawn so the people, the approval and the notebook are visible from the start. It is not a copy of the requirements and it defines none of the seventeen terms: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs and which change from year to year.
Sources for this page
- Game Design Merit Badge Requirements, Merit Badge Hub, last modified 2025-09-19 · The requirements themselves, and the free official pamphlet linked from them.
- Guide to Advancement, 2025, Section 7.0.0.3 · The process every merit badge is earned through, which this page does not repeat.
- Guide to Advancement, 2025, Section 7.0.4.3 · Which version of a changed requirement applies to a Scout who has already started.
- Guide to Advancement, 2025, Section 4.0.0.1 · Why the requirements are not in the Guide to Advancement and are expected to change annually.
Last checked against its sources on .