Brilliant Board Games!
Great ideas for using our metal to create fun Board Games! 🎲
Project 029: Brilliant Board Games!
Our Project for this issue is all about Board Games! Board Games have been increasing in popularity among adults, and in many cases have become a bit of a collector’s item!
This can be in part attributed to the pandemic giving people more time to play, as well as a revival of nostalgia causing many to revisit some of their old favourites and discover new games too!
A quick disclaimer: the Board Game designs and ideas in our project are not targeted at creating children’s toys. There are regulations surrounding the testing of products for children to ensure safety (and it can be a bit of a minefield!), so it is solely up to you if you wish to pursue an avenue of marketing towards a younger audience and getting your items tested. We’ve had many ideas aimed at adults in various themes from our Design Teams – some featured in this project – more listed in the Luxury Gift Set category on the site, so please check them all out!
We’re going to be exploring a number of ways that you can use our metal to create some awesome Board Games and Accessories…
Travel Board Game Set!
We have designed a brand new Travel Game Set, with inclusive FREE downloadable artwork!
The set includes options for 5 or 3 x A5 Ricoh Sheets, 50 Round or Square Counters, a Dry Wipe Pen, and a tin to keep everything together – complete with a 0.5 mm White topper to print!
You can mix and match any games that you want to go in the set – from Noughts and Crosses and Sudoku to Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, and Solitaire! You could even create a simple scoreboard to go in the set. Downloads for the games show in the picture of our example Travel Set are included!
This set would make a perfect gift for anyone who enjoys Board Games, and you could take things one step further by offering full personalisation to your customers for each of the game boards to make it an extra special gift!
Dry Wipe Boards!
All of our metal can be used as a Dry Wipe Board, and this works great for game boards! White or Brushed Silver 0.5 or 0.7 mm metal is what we would recommend using as dry wipe pens will show up the best on these finishes!
Use our Alu Sheets or Coasters for simple games such as Noughts and Crosses or Hangman – both work great as a Dry Wipe game as they can be reused over and over!
Additionally, Dry Wipe Sudoku Boards, Wordsearches, and Crosswords are all great candidates for simple game boards – try combining some together in a set complete with a Dry Wipe Pen for a fantastic finished product!
Score Charts can also be created as an easy and simple way to track scores for any of the more competitive games – or even for solo games as a way to track a personal best score or time!
Game Accessories!
Game Collectibles are a massive thing and people love to have accessories and keepsakes from their favourite games!
It’s definitely a more niche market, but personalised game counters or pieces, trading cards, and scoreboards will be cherished by any game lover!
With Dungeons and Dragon style games being so popular, dry wipe character sheets are a great idea as well!
This can lead into other areas too! For example: games themed jewellery items, trading cards, bookmarks, wall art, and of course a winner’s trophy!
Trivia Sets!
Trivia Sets are a brilliant party game, and we have a brand new Metal Card Set, with a choice of business card or name badge sized pieces, which are perfect for creating some great, unique sets!
From standard general knowledge to personalised sets including questions about friends & family – the possibilities are endless! A fun scoreboard or answer sheet can be included too! Alternatively, use the smaller sets to create treasured memory cards, flash cards, or even some redeemable ‘token’ cards…
Making a Board Game!
For our Board Game Project, we decided to have a go at designing a Snakes and Ladders style board with a fantasy twist! Settling on the idea of Dragons and Stairs as a suitable alternative, we got to work…
We started by deciding on a size for the board – our 280 x 280 mm Square Alu Sheet – and got to work creating the base grid. Choosing this size allowed us to create a nice sized grid with 100 spaces. However, a lot of our other sheet sizes (and some of our shapes too!) would also work great as game boards.
Then, we moved over to creating the artwork of the Dragons and Stairs for our board! Once the artwork was done, we brought all of the components together and lined everything up to ensure it was where we wanted it to be. Finally, we put the numbers onto each square to add the finishing touches and prepared the counter designs. You could use any shape you like for the counters, as long as it fits on your board!
After everything had been put together, it was time to press! We’re really happy with how it turned out – especially the magnificent Brushed Silver version!
Another popular item within the Board Game community is the 10 x 10 Game Challenge Board! This Board allows you to track 10 occasions of playing a game across 10 different games. Use it to keep track of the winners, or how many times the game has been played!
We put together a super simple 10 x 10 Challenge Game Board with our A3 Ricoh size that can be used with a Dry Wipe Pen to fill in the sections. We also produced a different chart using hook and loop pads and our new Meeple Shapes that can be placed on the sheet when a game row is completed! We have Updated our Wall Chart and Game Board Sets item with all these options, so be sure to take a look.
Often, downloadable files for a Board Game are available to buy and then print yourself – usually onto card. Printing this onto metal instead gives a much sturdier product that can last a lot longer! Plus with the dry wipe capabilities of the metal, it can be reused over and over.
We also asked our brilliant Design Team to have a go at creating some Board Games! They came up with some fab ideas – check these out in the pictures above…
For This Project We Used:
