Perhaps you might want to create your own version of one of the classic board or card games. They look so attractive. But I want to warn you about the possible pitfalls (not the pitfalls on game cards or boards) but the real-world difficulties you can encounter. First of all, many classic games are not so easy to code; it is not hard to create logic for moving game pieces on a board, but it is much more complex to develop a smart AI for the computer opponent.

It should have very talented prevision to play with a human well, calculating possible future moves in advance. Sometimes, it is quite impossible or is extremely hard. For example, Go, on the face of it, is a pretty plain game with simple rules, while in actual fact, it poses the biggest challenge to programmers to create a proper AI.

Another important aspect is "a place in the sun", there are dozens of good realizations of classic board games on the App store, and can offer you something new. For example, more powerful AI, better graphics (there is a meaning in this, as many talented applications have smart intellect, but middling artwork), advanced social mechanics of playing, or unique extensions of gameplay. All these things require a lot of effort and time, and are therefore very costly. In case you still want to check your programming skills on a classical board game, it is reasonable to choose something easy to produce. A very good instance is the Reversi game; it has very interesting gameplay and it was wrongly forgotten. The AI for this game is not complicated to design, so it is worth working on. Remember that it does not require a lot of graphics but only a regular background for the game board and two tile textures for game pieces; the first is black and the second is white.

Of course, you also can try to find something rare and original to work with. For instance, some games from a specific region, for example, Karnöffel—one of the oldest card games, dated and mostly from the German-speaking parts of the Europe. Or my favorite one, the Scandinavian board game from the 19th century named Daldøs; it features a unique game board that looks like a deck of a sailing vessel with some squares. The player's goal is to eliminate the opponent's game pieces from the board. So, in some sense, this is a game about a boarding attack, true entertainment for marine pirates! The list of such extraordinary but lesser known games is pretty long; you only need to search for them carefully.

A more daring approach is trying to create something new, a game created almost from scratch. I say "almost" because it is reasonable to use a traditional basis for it but enrich it with some original rules, ornamentation, and details. I'm not sure that you should try to invent a new chess game. In other words, it is not worth working on a new strategy game with a minimalistic setting and rules. A more relevant goal is an attempt to design a modern game that will include RPG elements and is based on cards, a game board (something of a cross-and-circle scheme), and a random number generator. Players would need to reach a specific rank in the game. The concept is pretty simple but it can be lit up with few bright details. Let's start with the plot and settings. It is predictable to begin thinking about another clone of Magic: The Gathering, something that has fantasy worlds, magic spells, swords, chain armors, dragons, and other such stuff. This can get quite dreary because there is a huge army of various fantasy creatures in the world—thousands of them! Many desktops, consoles, and other such stuff, even browser-based games use fantasy settings; some of them succeeded, but others only trailed behind.

Without a fresh idea, we will unwillingly become part of this lost army. So let's think about more original ideas. How about sci-fi, for example? The genre is now quite popular, and there a lot of sci-fi movies in the theaters. This setting is also pretty wide and includes a rich background full of various alien creatures, amazing technologies, and tools. Who is the main character? Say an astronaut, for example. This is good. What else? A robot! This is even better, because robots can have various designs, sizes, and purposes. So a lot of characters can be created. Another good thing is the possibility of upgrading a robot; it is a machine, so some of its parts can be replaced easily, and here comes in the RPG component. The character is the robot; it can be upgraded with some new tools, giving it some new skills. What are the robots doing? They collect some stuff, searching inside special containers where there can be a reward or a pitfall in the form of an evil force. You shouldn't forget about the main goal: each player would need to reach a higher rank for his character, for example, there can be ten rank levels in the game. The idea has been formed, so let's create the plot.