Design Your Own Board Game Pieces

A store-bought board game comes with pieces already made. Here is how to design and make your own instead.

Brainstorming your pieces

Before you start making anything, think about the game the pieces are for. That decides almost everything else:

• Theme: is your game about space, animals, or something else?
• Shapes: round, square, or something stranger?
• Characters: will they be people, creatures, or objects?
• Colors: what will make each player's piece easy to tell apart at a glance?

Sketch a few ideas on paper first. It is much quicker to change a drawing than to change a finished piece.

Making your pieces

Each material works a bit differently. Find yours:

1. Clay: roll it into a ball, then shape it. Use something pointed like a toothpick to press in details. Harden it following the instructions on the packet.
2. Cardboard: draw your shape, cut it out, decorate it. A second identical shape glued on the back makes it much sturdier.
3. Wooden blocks: paint the base color first and let it dry completely, then add details on top.
4. Beads: thread them onto a pipe cleaner, which holds its shape better than string.
5. Paper: roll it into a cylinder or a cone, or fold it. Secure with glue or tape.

Make them easy to tell apart

A game piece has a job to do: a player has to spot theirs instantly from across the table. So before you finish, check that yours differ in more than one way — different color and different shape is much easier to read than color alone.

Try this

Design a piece that changes during the game. A clay ball that can be squashed flat when your player is knocked out. A cardboard square that folds up into a cube when it gets upgraded.

A piece that changes shape mid-game — squashed flat, or folded into a cube — says what happened to it without anyone needing to explain.