Greetings,
I was wondering what size would be cosidered "too big" for a game board and do you find more success when the shape is square/round or oddly shaped (pentagon/ellipse)
Any thoughts on this?
thalor42
Game Board Size and Shape
Wed, 12/29/2004 - 12:00
Wed, 12/29/2004 - 12:47
#2
Unusual is good
I don't know about the max size question. Given that boards can be composed of several pieces that fit together, you can get awfully large without going overboard on the box size.
However, as to the shape of the board, I will say this: anything you can do to distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack is good. Obviously, player enjoyment is the most important thing, and often a distinctively shaped board will help increase the "wow" factor. Having said that, my two board games (Ice Lake and SiegeStones) are rectangular.
Which brings me to one compelling argument for rectangular shaped boards: production costs. I don't know any game manufacturers capable of producing a an elliptical board.
- Pat
Wed, 12/29/2004 - 12:56
#3
Game Board Size and Shape
A pentagon or Hex shaped board would be cool, but could you get it to fold right? And into what shape?
A Hex board could be cut, scored, and folded into a triangle in the same way a rectangular board can be folded into a square (see Tigris & Euphrates for example).
A Pentagon board could similarly into 5 trapezoidal sections with a seperate middle piece which could be placed in the hole to finish the board. I'm not sure about the geometry, but the pentagonal middle plug piece could probably be made to be about the same size as the trapezoidal board segments.
- Seth
Wed, 12/29/2004 - 23:34
#8
Game Board Size and Shape
Seth, you might be amused to learn that Everest was originally on a pentagonal board, with each of up to 5 players climbing the mountain from different sides.
Player interaction was, however, quite limited, as you can easily imagine. :)
-- Matthew
Twister is a fairly large boardgame. I would guess that it is about 5 feet by 4 feet - [I don't have one and am guessing from memory.] There are many wargames that use 8 feet x 3 feet long tables or even 8 feet x 6 feet of table space. However, most wargames are played with terrain that is assembled by the player, so I would not classify it as a "boardgame". Typical large tabletop board games measure around 30 inches by 20 inches.
Something to think about are typical table sizes. Cafe tables are small and typically less than 30 inches in diameter. Round dining tables will be around 40 inches in diameter. Rectangular dining tables that sit 4 people will be around 30 inches by 40 inches. Of course if it is not a tabletop board game (for example, a large chess set that is played in the garden) then you can ignore typical table size.