Laser Cutting a Customizable Board Game

Over the summer, my friends and I decided to create a board game we could play whenever we felt like it; however, we ended up playing it so often that many of the questions started to feel redundant. This was when we decided to make a new version of the game we dubbed "Loko Land," in which the board pieces could be customized and swapped out to ensure that we would have a new game to play no matter the occasion.

In this instructable, I will guide you through the design and laser-cutting processes needed for this project. I have attached a blank and detailed template for those who want to customize the game or laser-cut the version shown.

Adobe Illustrator

Glowforge Laser Cutter (Any laser cutter should work as long as it can cut through 1/4" of material)

Two 24" x 13" x 1/4" panels (This one was made using Glowforge's white acrylic panels)

Extra-Strength Glue (Wood or General Grade Gorilla Glue should do the trick depending on the chosen material)

The main board consists of five core segments: the title box, the pathway straightaways, the pathway curves, the tile boxes, and the tabs for removing the tiles. The pathway straightaways are simple enough to make. In Adobe Illustrator, create four identical rectangles aligned side to side. Depending on the amount of space you have, you can determine how far apart each rectangle is from the others. In the downloadable model, the outer and inner rectangles are spaced closely together to save space, while the center aisle is spaced further apart to allow for tabs to be cut out. If you have enough space to maximize piece identicality, I would space out each rectangle identically to one another so that all the curved tiles have the same dimensions. 

The pathway curves are slightly trickier. I achieved this by using the Adobe Illustrator shape tool to create a circle whose diameter touches the outer corner of two adjacent rectangles. The side of the circle that overlaps with the rectangle can be cut out using the shape builder tool or by being careful with the eraser and join tools. Repeat this step twice more to create a winding pathway, as seen in the template. The inner curve can be achieved using the same method as the outer curves. 

The tiles can be created by equally subdividing the rectangular sections. I did this by taking the length of the rectangle, dividing it by the desired number of tiles (8), and then using the Adobe Shape tool to create rectangles with those dimensions for the rest of the board. The curved sections are a little trickier, but ensuring that each triangle consists of the same three angles allows the curve to be subdivided into two right triangles and a central figure for your larger designs. In the template, the second curve was subdivided into four pieces, as due to the larger size of the rectangle gap, there was enough tile area to engrave both pieces sufficiently. 

Finally, the tabs can be created by scaling down a rectangle and attaching it to each rectangular tile. The easiest way to make the tabs for the curved section was to copy the arc and then use the line tool to draw perpendicular or angled lines until it touched the tile. 

Your tabs can be as detailed as you please. We designed our tabs using the text feature to write text and then adjusted the font and size to fit the tab. For images, we would either search for stock images, filtered for transparent backgrounds, or click the Window tab, then scroll to image trace, and then finally change the preset to silhouettes. Both are effective strategies for removing unwanted backgrounds from your desired images. You can import these images by going to File and then Place. Scale and adjust them according to how you best see fit. 

This project was cut using a Glowforge laser cutter, allowing you to scale your designs without needing to adjust the original file. If your laser cutter does not possess this function, then you would need to scale your design on your Adobe file. To prepare a file for laser cutting, save the file as a .SVG. Upload this file onto whatever program you will be using to laser cut, and then select which segments you plan to carve out and which sections you plan to engrave. All body segments should be cut out, while the content should be engraved. Adjust engraving settings to the ideal specifications of your material. If you use Glowforge, the program may have trouble identifying your text. If this happens, return to your Adobe file and convert all text into outlines by selecting the board and pressing Shift + Ctrl + O (Windows). Glowforge should now be able to register your unique fonts. The template attached is designed to fit a 24” x 13” board. If you need to scale down your board, ensure the inner dividers between tiles are not too thin, as this may cause the tile dividers to snap, should they not be glued down immediately after cutting.

Congrats! Your board has been cut and is almost ready to be used. Detach all tiles and tabs from the board and temporarily put them to the side. With the now contentless board, use wood glue to glue it down to an identical board to serve as the base. Once the two boards have been set, insert all the tiles back into their respective positions. If your start and finish tiles were cut out with the rest of the body, glue those into place. Next, glue down the dividers that separate the rectangles to ensure they don’t snap while you play. I had the rectangular tiles inserted into the board to ensure that the divider was set in the proper position, and then once glued, I removed the tiles to ensure none were accidentally glued down. Once the dividers are glued down, insert and glue the center aisle dividers (the smaller rectangles found in between tabs). This is all to ensure that the frame is set in place and will not snap or shift around when playing and replacing tiles. 

This is an optional, but valuable step for individuals who want to up the customizability of their game. Using either the attached template or by tracing the tiles in your custom board game, create a new Adobe file that you can use to design an infinite number of custom tiles to be swapped in with your pre-existing pieces. In the template version, there are seven unique tiles: rectangular tiles, upper-bounded central curve, upper-bounded left triangle, upper-bounded right triangle, lower-bounded central right tile, lower-bounded central left tile, lower-bounded right triangle, and lower-bounded left triangle. If your board was designed so that each rectangle was spaced identically to one another, then there should only be four unique tiles.