Boda Games Manufacturing

December 13, 2020 In Uncategorized

“What Board Game” Blog interviews Boda Games director

When we're not busy manufacturing board games, on of our other favourite pastimes are talking about board games! So when Jim Cohen from What Board Game asked if we would be interested in doing an interview with him, we immediately said yes. Boda Games' director, Jeff, talks with Jim about the history of Boda Games. Some of the past projects we have had the honor of working on. The finer details of board game manufacturing and much more. We had a great time trying to come up with the clever questions we received from him, and hope that you guys will enjoy reading it and learning more about Boda Games and board games manufacturing in general. Click here to read the full interview on the What Board Game website. What Board Game? What's that? Jim runs the "What Board Game" website. He is a massive fan of board games who wanted to share his hobby with the world. Or, in his own words: "I am commited to only featuring the greatest of games, especially ones that have not had as much press elsewhere. Get in touch if you would like to be a part. Or head on over to the forum to start right now! I would like...

November 30, 2020 In Boda Games, Design

Color mode: CMYK or Pantone?

If you’re a board game designer or publisher, you will definitely have heard one or more of these terms thrown around as you prepare all your artwork files for printing. You might even have a vague idea of what the terms stand for. But what is a color mode exactly? What is the difference between CMYK and Pantone? And when should you use which one. These are all questions we commonly get from customers. In this article, we will explain what the differences are between these color modes. When you should use which one. And what to watch out for when working with a specific color. Different board game components have different requirements for the color mode, so make sure you always check before you get started. We specify the color mode for each component in our Artwork Guidelines. So we always recommend starting from there when you start working on your files. CMYK (4C): The term CMYK is an abbreviation of the words Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key. In case these colors don’t ring a bell, you can think of them as blue, red, yellow and black respectively. CMYK is also referred to as four color printing (4C) sometimes. With CMYK...

October 27, 2020 In Boda Games

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...

September 2, 2020 In Boda Games, Pre Production

The multiple sides of dice

The multiple sides of dice. Dice are to this day the obvious choice when you need to generate a random number. Although over the past few years board games have developed a lot and with it a vast variety of other mechanisms to create randomized elements in games, few can beat the ease of use along with the reliability of a dice. As such, the majority of board games will have them being used in some shape or form. And they can be customized in many ways. Whether you change the amount of die faces, the colors or the size, you can make it as unique as well as exactly how you want. And let’s not forget: how much fun is it to roll a dice? The excitement of rolling and hoping for that one lucky 6 you need to win! For a component this important to many games, we of course also had to include it in our sample box. But as said before, there are many different ways to customize a dice. So instead of settling for only one type of custom dice. We designed 3 different ones! In this article, we will explain the different production methods and...

July 28, 2020 In Boda Games, Design

Boda Games Temple – how to design a punchboard building

..When we started work on our previous sample box, we set a goal that the components would not only be indicative of the Boda Games quality, but also had to be great to look at and fun to put together. Thus when we were brainstorming what to do with the punchboard, we decided on a punchboard building. Our punchboard building is made to look like a traditional Chinese temple, including details such as circular windows, slanted roofs and paintings of Chinese door guards. Prototyping When you are creating a complex punchboard such as our temple, the first thing is to sketch the overall structure. From there on, you can start thinking how the different pieces can fit together to eventually form the shape you have in mind. If you are unsure how to start, have a look at some board games (or one of our sample boxes) that you have on hand and carefully study each individual piece and how it comes together to create an overall structure. We also highly recommend first working on the shape before you get started on the artwork. That way, you can print blank versions and check whether all the pieces fit together and adjust sizing...

July 23, 2020 In Boda Games, Design

History of 3 Boda Games Meeples – Part III

The final member to be introduced in our history of the 3 Boda Games meeples is Shenlong the dragon meeple. Unlike the other 2 meeples we’ve discussed, Shenlong is not in our newest version of the sample box. But he was in the previous one, so a lot of you have already seen him! Shenlong was a favorite around the office when we first made him, and has some really cool details. The inspiration came from traditional Chinese paintings, where dragons are often depicted. Then we started brainstorming, how can we do something cool and different with the design of this meeple? In the first part of the history of the 3 Boda Games meeples, we introduced you to our artist meeple. There, we also explained the wood cutting process of meeples. A long piece of wood is cut into a shape, and then the meeples are “sliced” off from the wooden stick. This is a common method for manufacturing wooden meeples and it gives great results, particularly for smaller and more traditional shaped meeples. But, actually there is another way to make wooden meeples. This time, each individual piece of wood is cut out from a flat plank of wood, one at...

July 16, 2020 In Boda Games, Design

History of 3 Boda Games Meeples – Part II

We started our ancient China illustration themes with the large walled city illustration that you have seen at a convention, on our website on the home page or on Instagram. One of the many things that made it so much fun to work on was that we did our very best to hide small details and easter eggs in there wherever possible. We particularly liked the small yet cute meeple dog we hid in there, that we have since named Xiaogou. After getting great feedback from our own staff as well as our customers, we decided to turn Xiaogou into one of the meeples for our latest sample box. A silk screen meeple to be precise. For this meeple, we decided to make it using a silk-screening process. With silk-screening, you can print multiple colors and shapes on top of the meeple, allowing for a very detailed design. In the case of Xiaogou, we wanted to capture the playful nature of the dog with the tongue hanging out and the happy eyes as well as show off the different colors of fur he has. The first thing you need to do is create the overall shape of the wooden piece that will...

June 29, 2020 In Conventions, Kickstarter

Kickstarter Do’s and Don’ts #2

Last month we kicked off the Kickstarter Do's and don'ts series with the KICKSTARTER DO’S AND DON’TS #1. This time we are picking up where we left off and sharing some more of our experiences. As we are a board game manufacturing company, we tend to see things from the other side of the table. As board game enthusiasts ourselves we have of course also experienced a Kickstarter as a backer. Some of our staff has even ran a Kickstarter themselves for one of their private projects. But overall, the vast majority of our experience comes from the manufacturing side. So without further ado, Boda Games will show you some of the do's and don'ts that we've observed over the years. DO: Discuss your components with your account manager! Last time we discussed getting an itemized quotation. With an itemized quotation, you can tweak your project and make configurations with different components. Maybe you find that the price of the game is a bit higher than you were aiming for, or you find out that all those special finishes on different paper components do add up quite a bit. And you had a certain manufacturing cost in mind. A price that lets you...

June 23, 2020 In Boda Games, Pre Production

History of 3 Boda Games Meeples – Part I

Meeples: as part of our artwork guidelines, this time we will explain the process behind making wooden meeples. Without a doubt the most iconic piece for board games, meeples are a staple of the board game industry. So how to best explain making wooden meeples? This time we are changing it up a bit. Instead of just describing every step in a boring way, we will show it! For our latest version of the sample box, we also had a number of meeples made just for us. So we will take 3 of the meeples that we created for our sample box, and explain the entire process we went through when designing these meeples. The things to pay attention to design wise, the different ways we can produce meeples and how it changes the way they look when finished: we’ll tell you everything. The Painter meeple - a laser engraved meeple. The first meeple we will introduce is our Painter meeple. Keeping with our ancient China theme, we planned for this meeple to look like a traditional Chinese Painter. We took the classic meeple shape that everyone knows and loves, and started to modify it to make it look more traditional Chinese...

June 1, 2020 In Boda Games, Kickstarter

Interview with Mothership designer Peter Sanderson

Peter Sanderson, the designer of the hit game Mothership that combines miniatures, strategy and dice games into one, took some time out of his busy schedule to talk with us. Well into the final stretch of the campaign for the 2nd edition of Mothership 2nd Edition Kickstarter, Peter shared with us some of his experiences, learning moments and other things to pay attention to when running a Kickstarter. - This is the 3rd Kickstarter campaign you’re running for Mothership, first of all congratulations! What would be the biggest lesson you’ve learned over the course of these campaigns? Peter: Thank you! I've learnt so many lessons over the course of these 3 campaigns (plus one failed!). But to narrow it down, these come to mind: 1. Have a good, well playtested game 2. Present the Kickstarter well 3. Love your backers That last one is really important. Kickstarter is a community, not a store. The backers on kickstarter are giving you their hard earned money because they believe in your game. You need to show them love and appreciation back. - A lot of publishers that run Kickstarter campaigns name the backers as one of the most fulfilling albeit it challenging parts of the process. Any fun...