I got started with Stratego around age 7-8 after my dad taught me.

I showed my friend group and we got bored of the base game very quickly, so we started modifying it and making custom versions. We had a double-wide version (just a hand drawn grid hanging off the side and custom pieces made out of cardboard and stickytape), rivers, boulders, tanks (2x1 pieces), 1v1v1, custom scenarios, etc.

We eventually moved on to HeroQuest and then discovered Warhammer (but couldn't afford it so we used to play our own DIY version with LEGO and dice).

Those rapid prototyping and iteration skills I learned at an early age massively helped me in life and they're used daily in my role as an Infra/Ops Engineer.

I also have a published board game (and hopefully more to come)!