How Board Games Are Made, Step by Step

How are board games made? Every part of a game is made on its own production line, and the lines meet at the end. The box, the boards and tokens, the cards, the paper parts, the inserts and the rulebook each follow their own steps: buy the material, print, finish, cut and glue, then check. Then the assembly line puts every part into the box, the game is shrink-wrapped, inspected and packed. This guide follows each line step by step, the way it runs in our factory, so you can see why each design choice adds or saves a step.

Before Production: Three Steps

Three things happen before any machine starts, and each one decides how smooth the run will be:

1. The quote and the specifications. Every part is listed with its size, material, print and finish, and the price is agreed. Our guide to the board game manufacturing quote request shows what to send.
2. The artwork setup. Your files are checked and prepared for the press: size, bleed, colour and layers. See our print-ready artwork setup guide.
3. The samples. Prototypes for your campaign and reviewers, and pre-production samples made just before the run, so you can approve the real thing. See board game prototype printing.

Printing: Every Part Starts as a Sheet

Almost every printed part starts as a large sheet on an offset press. In offset printing the image is printed in four colours, cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK), each from its own metal plate, so a full-colour picture builds up as the sheet passes under the four plates. We print on Heidelberg Speedmaster presses, which run about 10,000 sheets an hour once set up and keep colour and alignment (registration) very consistent. Setting up a press for a new job takes about an hour, which is why small quantities cost more per copy. A few special prints, such as holofoil and nano printing, run on a different press.

After printing comes the surface finish, which protects the print and gives the part its feel. The usual finishes are lamination, a thin film that is matte or glossy, and oil coating (varnish), a water-based coat dried in an oven. Extra effects such as a linen texture, spot UV gloss and foil stamping are added after that. Our guide to playing card finishes shows each one. How the press setup turns into price is explained in board game printing cost.

Every Production Line Follows the Same Five Steps

Each kind of part has its own production line, but every line follows the same five steps: buy the material, print it, finish it, cut and glue it, and check it (quality control, QC). What changes from line to line is the order, the extra steps and the machines. The flow charts below show each line from start to finish, and the notes under each chart explain only what is special about that line.

Gold: the material arrives. Solid boxes: every order. Dashed boxes: only when your part needs it. Dark red: quality control (QC).

How a Board Game Box Is Made

A game box is printed paper wrapped around a cardboard shell (greyboard). The lid and the base each go through this line.

What makes this line different:

• The cutting mould. A standard box size reuses a mould we already have; a custom size needs a new one.
• Reinforced edges. Large boxes that hold many parts can get reinforced edges at the pre-glue cut, but only on cardboard 1.5 mm or thicker.
• Two kinds of gluing. The automatic box gluer wraps the paper around the cardboard; hand gluing is added only where a box needs glue the machine cannot apply.
• Finger slots, the cut-outs that help you lift the lid, are added later on the assembly line.

Box types and sizes are in our guide to the board game box.

How Game Boards, Tokens and Player Boards Are Made

Game boards, token sheets, player boards and map tiles are printed paper glued onto thick cardboard, and they share one line.

What makes this line different:

• One-sided print. The paper is printed on one side. Two-sided parts are also printed on one side and folded, and a game board can have print on both sides.
• Lamination or oil coating. Game boards are usually laminated; tokens and player boards usually get an oil coating.
• Two cuts. The pre-glue cut sizes the paper and the cardboard. The post-glue cut cuts the shapes through the glued board, so the tokens can be punched out.
• Wrapped edges. On a foldable game board the paper wraps around the edges, which stops them from fraying.
• Hand work. Double-layer boards that hold pieces in recesses get their second layer glued by hand, and map tiles are collated into sets by hand.

The details of each part are in foldable game board and board game tokens, and the cardboard grades in board game cardboard.

How Playing Cards Are Made

Cards are printed on both sides of one card sheet, finished, then cut and collated into decks.

What makes this line different:

• Another press for special prints. Holofoil and nano printing use a different press from the standard one.
• Linen and oil. When the ink on the cards is heavy, an oil coating goes on before the linen finish. Some publishers laminate their cards instead of oil-coating them.
• Standard or not. Standard sizes are cut, corner-rounded and collated into decks automatically. Non-standard cards are die cut, collated by hand and round-cornered on a semi-automatic machine.
• Shrink wrap or a bag. Cards that do not fit the shrink-wrap machine (custom shapes, fewer than 50 cards, smaller than 50 mm, or 90 cards or more) go into OPP bags instead.

See playing card size and playing card material for the choices behind each step.

How Paper Parts Are Made

Tuck boxes, reference cards, paper money and other thin paper parts follow a shorter line.

What makes this line different:

• Lamination by default. Tuck boxes are laminated by default; other paper parts may get an oil coating instead.
• The cut. Parts are die cut with a mould (stamp cutting). Paper money uses precision cutting, and some parts use other cutting methods.
• Folded or flat. Tuck boxes and other folded parts are glued and folded; flat parts are collated for assembly.

How Corrugated Cardboard Inserts Are Made

A corrugated cardboard insert has the shortest line of all, with no optional steps. Plastic inserts are a separate process, moulded or vacuum-formed. Both are compared in board game inserts.

How Rulebooks Are Made

A rulebook is printed on both sides and folded, and a booklet is also bound.

What makes this line different:

• Coating. An oil satin coating or lamination is added only if you want one.
• Folding. A one-sheet rulebook is folded by machine, or by hand when the fold is unusual. A booklet is folded by machine.
• Binding. Booklets are bound and cut: stapled through the fold (saddle stitch) or glued. A book with a hard cover gets a special glued binding, and its cover is made separately. Sticky notepads use a different binding machine.

Page counts and binding choices are in board game rulebooks.

Wood, Plastic and Dice

Wooden pieces, dice, plastic pieces and miniatures are made on their own specialist lines and join the game at assembly. How they are made is covered in wooden game pieces, types of dice and board game miniatures. Plastic moulds take the longest of any part, so a game with new moulds has the longest lead time.

Assembly, Inspection and Packing

On the assembly line, workers and semi-automatic lines collect every part and place it into the box: the insert, the board, the decks, the token sheets, the bagged pieces and the rulebook. Finger slots are added to the box here. Then the game is shrink-wrapped and the finished games are packed into cartons. Assembly is more hand work than most people expect, because small parts must go into exactly the right place.

Quality is checked at every stage: the materials when they arrive (incoming quality control, IQC), each part during production (in-process quality control, IPQC), and the finished games at the end (final quality control, FQC). The final inspection follows AQL General Inspection Level 2, with limits of 0.6% critical, 1.5% major and 4% minor defects: a random sample from each batch is checked, and the batch passes only when defects stay under the limits. Production takes about 30 days for a simple card game, 35 for a medium-weight game, 45 for a heavy game and 90 for a game with new plastic moulds, counted from approved files. Our guide to how long it takes to manufacture a board game explains what makes it faster or slower.

Visiting the Factory

You are welcome to see your game being made. Our factory is in Yiwu, Zhejiang, in eastern China. A board game factory is a practical, industrial place: printing halls with stacks of sheets, cutting and gluing areas, and long assembly lines. On a visit you see the steps above in person, check colours and cuts on your own parts, and meet the people who make your game. Our sample room shows games we have made for other publishers, and we can arrange visits to the suppliers who make your wooden and plastic parts.

To get the most from a visit, come during your own production run if you can, bring a list of questions, and tell us beforehand what you want to check, so the right people are there. A visit is not required to make a great game, but publishers who visit learn why some requests are easy and others are slow or costly. Our facility, machines and capacity are described on our manufacturing process page. To arrange a visit, contact us.

The Bottom Line on How Board Games Are Made

A board game is made on several production lines, one per kind of part, and each line prints, finishes, cuts, glues and checks before assembly brings everything together. Every extra step on a line, such as a second print, a special finish, a custom mould or hand gluing, adds time and cost, which is why standard sizes and finishes keep a game affordable. Knowing how to manufacture a board game starts with knowing the line each part runs on, so you can design every part to run smoothly. Board game production starts with a good quote: when you are ready, contact us.