Determine the overall style of game play that you want for the game. List topics such as "Mark Twain," "Characters in Tom Sawyer" or "Tom Sawyer Geography" for a trivia style game. Make a lighter, humorous game by creating an amusing objective and filling the game spaces with amusing quotes from "Tom Sawyer." Create a game that is team-based by having players collect clues to catch Injun Joe and find the treasure. Decide whether you want it to be fast-paced and competitive, to focus on particular events in the novel or to have many different options. These decisions will help you in each of the next steps. Whatever style you choose, you will want the game to be internally consistent.
Re-read the novel and select particular events that you wish to feature in the game. Decide whether you want the entire game to take place in a particular setting, such as the school room, or to move between different locations in the novel such as the picket fence Tom paints, Tom's home, the cemetery where Tom's funeral is held and the church.
Create rules for the characters in the book. These characters can be the playing pieces for each player, with each character having different abilities or they can be stops on the board that help or hinder the player. You can choose from major characters in the book such as Tom, Huck Finn, Becky, Aunt Sally, Sid, Widow Douglas, Injun Joe, Judge Lawrence, Joe Harper, Muff Potter and Amy Lawrence.
Write what you want to have on individual board spaces or playing cards that spark different events in the game. Get someone else to proofread these for you before you set them down in ink or on pre-cut cards. Possible individual board spaces might include the church, a graveyard, an island and a cave.
Design a movement system that will work with the style of game you have chosen. Common movement systems include dice, cards or a set number of movement points per turn that can be modified by character special abilities or cards.
State the objective of the game clearly. The "how to win" section should be early in the rules and defined in a simple manner. One example of a how to win objective would be, "Collect 10 tickets to trade in for a Bible prize at Sunday School and then be able to answer two trivia questions correctly." Another option might be, "The first player to find Injun Joe's hidden treasure is the winner."
Write the rules in a step-by-step fashion with simple, easy-to-understand language. Get someone else to read the rules after you have written them and get their feedback on how well they understand the rules. Make any necessary changes. Also, make sure your rules explain how the game is related to the Tom Sawyer books and how they purposefully differ.
Examine the game and the rules for possible points of confusion or unusual situations that could crop up in a game. Solve those situations and put such things in the rules. This might include what to do in case of a tie or if a card gives Huckleberry Finn a penalty that makes it impossible for him to win. Balance the authenticity of the game and the novel with game playability.
Write sections in the rules on how to set up the game and how many pieces should be present in a complete set. For example, your game may require the game board, four character pieces (Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Becky Thatcher and Widow Douglas), 30 Sunday School Tickets, 100 gold coins and a pair of dice.
Cut out a piece of thick cardboard or a thin piece of particle board. Paint it and then finish the areas of the board to fit what you have designed. Draw the areas yourself or print out pictures from the Internet. If your game design uses squares, use a ruler to make sure the game spaces are even. Consider making the board three-dimensional by creating stand-up areas on your board such as a steamboat on the Mississippi River or a white picket fence near Tom's house.
Form your playing pieces out of construction paper, foam, wood or clay. Make sure they are small enough to fit onto the squares of your board. If you are using generic playing pieces for each player, you can use any sort of token. If each player will be playing a character from the novel, find illustrations of those characters online that you can print out and glue to the wooden sticks.
Type up any playing cards or create any additional pieces that are needed for the game. Cards might have such instructions as, "Tom names 'David and Goliath' as first two apostles. Go back three spaces." or "Tom testifies to save Muff Potter. Go forward three spaces."
Get a few friends to play test the game. Give them the rules and see if they can figure it out without you answering any of their questions Take notes about how the game plays and ask them for feedback. Make changes if you feel they are necessary.