Pre Production

July 14, 2023 In Boda Games, Pre Production

Artwork guides – white lines when exporting to PDF

White lines that appear in exported PDF’s are a common question we get from customers. In the process of preparing all the artwork for their board game, artwork files are commonly exported as PDF’s. These PDF’s are sent to Boda Games and we check whether they are ok for manufacturing. Quite often we get concerned messages from customers who cannot understand why their exported PDF is showing white lines. And more importantly, whether these white lines will show up when we start printing the paper components. We will explain why the white lines appear when exporting to a PDF and how to prevent that from happening. In this guide, we are using InDesign from Adobe.

Another example of artifacts appearing in a PDF file

Why white lines are visible

First of all, in general the white lines that are visible will not show when printing on a high resolution device, even if they are visible on low resolution devices such as monitors. The reason these appear is due to image flattening in combination with anti-aliasing and the existence of transparency effects in the file. When you flatten on export, the page gets cut up into pieces. The way the page gets cut up is handled by the Transparency Flattener preset that is chosen under the Export Advanced tab. If the file is saved in a format that does not support transparency, such as Acrobat 4 / PDF version 1.3, the white lines may occur.

Flattening transparency means “faking it” by creating opaque areas that look transparent. But these opaque areas have to fit together like a mosaic, each piece right next to the next. The result is that sometimes white peeks out between them. In the vast majority of cases, this appears only on screen. Sometimes it shows up on low-resolution printers, too, but virtually never in high-res commercial output.

How to avoid this

To prevent this from happening, we need to adust the settings when exporting the file to PDF. Set the standard to PDF/X-4:2010 and check that the compatibility is set to Acrobat 7 (PDF 1.6). With these settings, the problem shouldn’t occur and the files look exactly like they should.

Remember to export the PDF using a modern standard to avoid artifacts appearing in documents

Still have further questions? Send us an email and we’ll gladly help you with any problems you may have.

April 6, 2023 In Boda Games, Pre Production

Board Game Prototypes

Board game prototypes for marketing and promotion can be a powerful tool for generating buzz. And building interest in your board game. By creating demo versions of your game, you can give potential customers a taste of what your game has to offer. And create excitement around your product. It also allows you to draw attention with the artwork of the game and generate interest. How to best use board game prototype There are a few key strategies for using prototypes in marketing and promotion: Create demo versions of your game: A demo version of your game is a simplified, shortened version that can be played in a shorter amount of time. This allows potential customers to try out your game and get a feel for how it plays without committing to a full game. You can use these demos at events and conventions to introduce your game to a wider audience. Use prototypes in your marketing materials: A prototype can be a powerful visual aid in your marketing materials. By showing potential customers what your game will look like and how it will play. You can generate excitement and anticipation for the final product. You can use prototypes to gather feedback. Then, you can...

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...

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...

December 1, 2019 In Boda Games, Pre Production

Dice design guidelines

Dice are one of the most ubiquitous items in the board game industry. You can use them for almost anything, design them in every shape, colour and size you like. Because a dice is not just limited to numbers, you can put (almost) any image on there. And on top of that, it’s just fun to roll dice. When you’re designing dice for your game, it is important to keep a few things in mind. First of all, check what type of dice (material) you will be using. There are some minor yet not insignificant differences between the different types of dice. The different types will be explained in detail below, as well as in this article. The vast majority of dice are made from resin, acrylic or wood. The differences between resin and acrylic dice mostly stem from different production methods, as they are similar in appearance for the most part. The choice between resin and acrylic dice depends on the quantity needed. Besides the choice for dice material, there are different methods to put the design on the dice. Laser engraved A laser engraved dice has layers of the surface burned off with a laser. The laser is extremely precise...

September 8, 2019 In Boda Games, Pre Production

Pin-badge artwork guidelines

So you’ve seen them around at conventions. Those kick ass pins-badges adorning lanyards, bags, bright and shining. And now you want to make your own pin-badge! To promote your game, your company, or just because you have an awesome design in mind. But how? Artwork for pin-badges First things first, the artwork. When designing a pin-badge, keep in mind that there is a limit to how detailed it can be. The fewer lines and “parts” you use, the more effective the design tends to get. Although there is no fixed size for a pin-badge, most of them are between 2-5 centimeters in diameter, meaning they are pretty small. Therefore, bright and bold colors tend to work best. Every part of the pin design can only have 1 color. So shading or gradual colors should be avoided when designing the pin. Because each part of the pin is separated by a thin silver line, having offsetting colors next to each other works very well. The file itself can be a pdf or a single layer photoshop file. When making the artwork, you don’t have to “draw” the separation lines, we will do that for you at the factory when converting the artwork into the actual...

August 16, 2019 In Pre Production

Get your game box up to sniff

A game box is the business card of your game. It is the first thing you see. You pick it up, you turn it around. You study it from all sides, wondering what will be inside that plastic shrinkwrap. The most important thing with a game box is to remember the main purpose of the box: to hold the items from your game. People get so swept up in trying to decide what type of box they want. That they forget that first and foremost, all the components should fit. This actually sounds easier than it is in reality. Particularly when you have sized and larger components. You need to account for the total volume they take up. As a general rule of thumb, your box should be at least 15mm bigger than the largest component in the game. 15 mm bigger in every single possible direction. But also keep in mind how the items will fit into the box. And how to do that in such a way that they are easy to take out of the box. At Boda Games we have a lot of experience with this after doing it countless times. So normally our customers let...

August 5, 2019 In Pre Production

A game board for every game

When you think about board games, you think about game boards. Even more than cards, you think of the foldable, big game board that greets you when you open the box. When opening a game for the first time, what is the first thing you check? Not the rules or the meeples, no you go for the thing sitting on top of everything. The game board that gives you a sneak preview of what you can expect from the game. You fold it out, put it down flat on the table and the gaming session is underway! However, this article is not about the fun you can have with a game board, but about the way to prepare the necessary files to make one in the first place. Even though it seems like one of the more straightforward and easy items to design and prepare, there are a few things to pay attention to in order to ensure a smooth and trouble free manufacturing process. As always, this may be the first time for you to handle these type of things but it definitely isn't for us! So make sure to get in contact with your account manager if you run...

July 11, 2019 In Pre Production

Great punchboards – how to create them?

No game is complete without punchboards. As such, punchboards play a central role most modern board games. They make up a wide array of components in a game and can be used for almost any purpose. The game board, the tokens, the player boards and anything else that you can think of, can be made from punchboard. These punchboards themselves can be made from multiple layers with cutouts, different thicknesses and so on. The fact that punchboards can be used in so many ways and take so many different shapes, is also what can make it a bit more difficult to prepare the files for. Similar to cards, one must take care to leave enough bleed and margin. But unlike cards, you also have to consider things such as folding lines (for game boards) or optimal token placement. Then there are special margin requirements, dielines, thickness of the material to keep in mind.. All in all, quite a bit! Fortunately these are all things that we at Boda Games have a lot of experience with and will gladly help you with . By optimising token layout, we can reduce the amount of cardboard and space needed in the game box, which is...

April 3, 2019 In Pre Production

Getting cards ready for printing

Card games, cards in board games. There is a fairly good chance that you have designed a card game at some point. For many, their first steps into designing games start with a card game. Easy to prototype, easy to carry around, endless possibilities. Now, there is a lot of information out there about the intricate details of designing a (card) game. In fact here are entire discussion groups dedicated to it. Lots of ways to let your creativity run wild and create something amazing. But there is one thing that a lot of those articles tend to leave out. The practical aspect of it: getting them transformed from an idea, from artwork, from a rough draft.. Into a file ready to be send off to the printer. Let's get into the other side of board game manufacturing! So even though it is not as thrilling and creatively satisfying, this article will discuss getting your cards ready for printing. Files that are not ready end up needing a lot of back and forth between the designer and the printer, which is a huge waste of time and effort for everyone involved. But more importantly, it could mean the difference between getting...