Hero Time Academy · Step 2 of 10
Board Game Components and Pieces
Board game components are everything inside the box: the cards, the board, the tokens and tiles, the wooden and plastic pieces, the dice, the rulebook, the insert and the box itself. Choosing them is step 2 of the ten steps in how to make a board game. The pieces you pick decide how the game feels, what it weighs and what it costs to make.
Know Your Pieces
Every part of a board game has a name, a material and a standard size. Our overview of board game pieces goes through them one by one: what each piece is called, what it does in play, and what it is made of. Together, the elements of a board game fall into two groups. Printed parts (cards, boxes, rulebooks, token sheets, game boards, player boards and inserts) are made in the factory. Sourced parts (dice, meeples, bags, sand timers, acrylic pieces, miniatures and mats) come from specialist suppliers and take longer, so they are confirmed first.
Fewer, smarter pieces make a better game and a cheaper one. Component efficiency shows how art and design can replace whole stacks of tokens, and our guide to board game weight explains which choices make a box heavy and expensive to ship. Standard sizes matter just as much: a standard size fills a standard printing sheet, a custom size still fits one but may need extra setup, and a unique custom size needs custom paper, about 2,000 sets and 15 to 30 more days.
Boxes and Inserts
The box is the first thing a player sees and the last line of protection. The board game box guide covers the three standard box types (tuck box, two-piece box and magnetic flip box), the standard sizes with their usual retail price, the cardboard thickness by box size and the 15 mm fit rule. Almost every game also needs an insert to hold the pieces in their slots and stop them rattling in transit; a single deck in a tuck box is the one exception. Start with board game inserts for the four materials (400 gsm paper, corrugated cardboard, thermoformed PET plastic and foam) and which one fits which game, then read when a plastic insert beats cardboard. Laying out the slots is a design step: board game insert design is in the Design category.
When your component list is ready, our free Guide for Selecting Components lists the standard sizes and materials for every piece on one sheet.
Cardboard: Boards, Tokens and Tiles
Tokens, tiles, player boards and the game board are all cardboard components. Artwork is never printed straight onto raw cardboard: the design is printed on thin paper, which is then glued onto a cardboard core, and the pieces are stamped out with a cutting die. Board game tokens explains the punchboard (token sheet) process, the chipboard thickness guide covers the 1 mm to 3 mm choices, and the token sheet cost guide shows how the sheet layout sets the price.
The foldable game board is the largest cardboard part: our guide covers the fold types, the sizes that fit the printing sheets, the 2 mm board with its paper wrap, and how the folds are cut so the board lasts.
Playing Cards
Cards are the most handled component in most games, so three choices decide how they feel. The first is the playing card size: poker size, 63 × 88 mm, is the most common, and the standard sizes are laid out to fill a printing sheet. The second is the playing card material: the paper's core and weight set how opaque and how durable a card is. The third is the finish, which protects the print and changes the shuffle: our guide to linen finish playing cards compares varnish, lamination and linen.
Wood, Plastic and Dice
The playing pieces are the parts players move. Wooden game pieces covers meeples, cubes, discs and pawns: the shapes, the sizes, the woods (MDF, plywood and beech) and the printing. Custom dice explains the dice types from D4 to D20, the materials (acrylic, resin, wood and metal) and what custom printing costs. Plastic miniatures are the most detailed and the most expensive pieces, because each shape needs its own injection mould; our guide to board game miniatures covers the plastics, the moulds and their costs.
Custom Plastic Pieces and Miniatures
Custom plastic pieces are made by injection moulding: melted plastic is pressed into a steel mould of the piece. Every shape needs its own mould, so the mould is the cost that matters, not the plastic. A simple piece uses a mould cut by machine (CNC), ready in about 40 days. A detailed miniature uses a mould cast from a clay sculpt, ready in about 60 days, which holds fine detail. Each injection run makes one colour, so a piece in three colours is three runs. The usual plastics are ABS and PVC, and PVC or TPR is often mixed into ABS so a thin part bends instead of breaking; PP suits simple, bendy parts. Standard plastic pieces (cubes, pawns, standees, sand timers) come from stock moulds and cost little; a custom sculpt is a project of its own. Our guide to board game miniatures has the materials, the mould costs and the prototypes, and the 3D files and design rules are in STL vs STEP, in the Art category.
Rulebooks
The rulebook is a printed component too, and its size follows the printing sheets like every other part. Rulebooks print on both sides in multiples of four pages, sixteen pages to a sheet, so a page count of 4, 8, 12, 16 or 20 costs least, and a size that fits only twelve pages on a sheet costs more. The standard booklet sizes are 100 × 140, 140 × 200, 210 × 280 and 280 × 280 mm, on 128 or 157 gsm paper. A short game uses one folded rule sheet instead. A booklet is saddle-stitched (stapled through the fold) up to about 48 pages. Above that, choose perfect binding (a glued spine, like a paperback) from about 40 pages, Smyth-sewn thread binding from about 80 pages, or a hardcover for a deluxe edition. Writing and laying out the rulebook is step 3: see board game rulebooks.
Next Step: Board Game Rulebooks
With the pieces chosen, the next step is the rulebook: how to write it, how to lay it out and how to test it with players. Continue with board game rulebooks, step 3 of the ten.