A great game deserves a great game box #1

board game boxes

A great game deserves a great game box #1

A great game deserves a great game box. How to decide the best box for your game? It might seem that the type of box is the least of your concerns when designing a game. But that is where you are wrong! Although the game play is of course one of the most essential things, followed by the artwork, today we want to talk about choosing a box. How do you know what kind of box is right for your game? We previously discussed the many types of boxes, but today we want to delve into it further.

What often happens is that designers have experiences with certain games that inspire them to create their own game. If the game that served as their inspiration came in a certain type of box, then they will likely envision their game as coming in that box as well. Other times people simply deduct the box type from a “will all the components fit” type of thinking. But here at Boda Games, we have seen the difference a box can make for a game. For you see, an undeniable part of this experience is the impression it makes on you. For example, if you see a small tuck box, do you expect it to be a 2 to 3 hour lasting game? And similarly, if you have a huge telescoping box filled with components, will you be satisfied if the game finishes in 15 minutes? These and more are merely thoughts from the gamer’s point of view. But then there is also the designer’s point of view.

How to utilize a box to it’s fullest?

What if you have great artwork that you want to show off? Or if you have very short rules and you would prefer to print them on the inside of the box rather than a separate rule book? Perhaps you want the inside of the box to be where the players keep track of scores. Or where they roll their dice. The possibilities are near endless with how you can design your game box to be part of the total gaming experience. As we see wonderful game box design pass through our hands on a daily basis, we wanted to highlight some of our favourite game box designs from recent times and discuss why we think it works so well for this particular game. In hopes of giving you inspiration to think all the way through to the game box the next time you design a new game.

Yukon Airways –  Telescoping box – Inside printing –

Yukon Airways - Telescoping box with inside printing

Yukon Airways has the perfect artwork to match the theme of the game. When you see the title and look at the cover art, you are reminded of classic movies from a time when travel was exciting and adventurous. In Yukon Airways, you become the pilot that is entasked with transporting travelers to different points of the Yukon. For a game that creates such a great atmosphere with the artwork and overall theme of the game, the artwork on the side of the box is the cherry on the cake. You open the telescoping box and proceed to place it next to the main box. Ready to start the game. But you cannot help but feel drawn towards that single plane on the inside of the top cover, a promise of things to come as you proceed to play the game.

Yukon Airways was published by Asmodee.

Wormlord – plastic window panel

Wormlord - Board game telescoping box with plastic window panel

Wormlord is a game where the title describes exactly what kind of game theme you can expect. Worms! But these worms are not as united as you might expect. Before you know it, you find yourself in the midst of a battle of the worms! Besides having some unique game play elements, such as playing simultaneously rather than taking turns, Wormlord has a lot more to offer. Rather than using tokens or punchboard pieces to depict the worms. The game comes with different colored strings that represent the worms. To show the unique components of this game, Wormlord uses a cut-out clear window panel to highlight their unique components in an extremely effective way. For a game that is themed with something that people normally don’t want to see, it’s quite the eye-catcher!

Wormlord was published by Sit Down!

Battlecon – storage system

Battlecon - Board game storage box

Battlecon – where to start with a title like Battlecon? With its many renditions it has amassed a loyal following of fans who are dedicated to this dueling card game. You pick a unique character and go head-to-head with your opponent in a classic card duel style combat system. You trade blows whilst attempting to take your opponent down. Taking inspiration from classic TCG games, Battlecon allows you to customize decks with the plethora of cards at your disposal. And to help make that slightly easier, the game box itself comes with storage solutions for different decks! To make sure you don’t have to spend precious playing time finding your favorite cards and putting together your deck. With the many expansions that the Battlecon franchise has seen. This is an essential feature that elevates the game to greater heights.

The Battlecon franchise is published by Level 99 Games

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