I am in year 12 and making a board game for my DnT Major design project.
I want to get the board and box produced professionally because i dont want it to look tacky.
does anyone know of a company that would do this for me?
I would pay ob.
thanks x
Honestly, the cost to print a boardgame and it's pieces can be crazy. It's fairly simple to make it look nice. Use your favorite art program, go to goodwill and find an old board from a game (.50 tops). Go to kinkos or somewhere and glue it to it. Actual pieces can be salvaged. As far as box, same thing. Find an old box, print out very good images and bam, recycle and it looks professional.
Chazhall gives some good advice. Here are some details to piggyback on what he said:
1) You can find full sheet (8.5" x 11") labels at office supply stores like Office Max and Office Depot. They usually come in "laser printer" and "inkjet printer" flavors. If you have a color printer, you can use these labels to quickly "resurface" used boxes and boards.
2) If you use these labels -- or any similar technique -- you'll want a paper cutter. I use one like this (http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/836650/Fiskars-9-Personal-Paper-Tr...). These will dramatically increase your efficiency and reduce waste.
3) If you need software for graphic design, I highly recommend OpenOffice 'Draw' (www.openoffice.org) and/or GIMP (www.gimp.org). These are both powerful and free.
If you still feel that having someone else manufacture your game is the best way to go, then search for "Board game manufacturers" on google. You'll find a number of links to sites that can do it.
Good luck!
i agree that you probably should do it by hand, but for the sake of giving a more complete answer, there are printers out there who'll make a "prototype" for you. for instance, i believe Imagigrafx.com will do them... or if you're overseas, perhaps Ludofact.de? however, you will probably be spending several hundred dollars to do it that way, even with minimalistic components.
A fantastic graphic drawing program is Corel Painter Essentials 4 with Bamboo drawing tablet. $60 from BestBuy. I use it for all my drawings. Quick, professional. Also, if you can't draw, it gives even the non artist a way to show their designer what they want.
Everybody has given you some really good advice so far:
Here are some more ideas to add to what's already been said:
I use paint.NET for the pictures and images for my games...also powerful. Also free. Good support online, too. (www.getpaint.net)
These guys have very inexpensive homemade gaming materials. http://www.barebooks.com/gameboards.htm
They've got a bunch of different sets, but if you buy their Game Board Kit you'll get everything all at once for $7.95 plus tax and shipping. Then use the 8½ x 11 labels mentioned earlier and print out your board. Works like a charm. I've done it and it works great! Browse their site to get singular items if you don't want the entire kit.
If you've got specialized pieces that you can't get from barebooks.com, try these guys: http://www.plasticsforgames.com/us/us_prod_pegs.asp
I've ordered from these guys (http://www.megaglass.com/) because I wanted some "flat marbles" for my current game. They were quick and everything arrived as described. They've got lots of things you could use for game pieces if the above suggestions aren't to your liking.
Good luck!
-CB-
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