by Jared Hart
If you’re a big fan of tabletop games, then we’re nearing the greatest time of the year. GenCon 2023 takes place in Indianapolis August 3-6! Many games I know prefer to throw away game inserts and pack everything in little bags. However, I really love a well-designed box insert. Games with bad inserts or none at all drive me crazy. Whether you’re wanting to improve organization for a particular game or create alternate components, 3D printing is a great way to do that. There are already a ton of great models the community has shared on Thingiverse. Get certified to use Ignite Studio’s 3D printers. And read on for a quick guide on how to upgrade your games with 3D Prints
How to Upgrade Your Games with 3D Prints: Storage Solutions
If there’s a game without a box insert or a lot of components that could be better organized, then there is likely already somebody who has thought the same thing and created a solution. Just search the game’s name on Thingiverse and see what options are available. Here are a couple of examples of solutions I have found for my games.
Above and Below
Above and Below by Red Raven Games has a lot of cardboard tokens that need organized. Rather than giving each type of token its own bag or trying to sort them all out during setup each time, I searched Thingiverse and found this storage solutions.
Burgle Bros.
Burgle Bros packs a lot of components into a rather small box. Similar to the Above and Below solution, I found this little slide box that someone designed to keep all of the cardboard tokens organized in a compact space.
Miscellaneous Storage
If you have a less common game that doesn’t seem to have any custom storage solutions, there are many little component boxes that can be used for any miscellaneous bits. This slide box is nice because it has little tabs that help the lid lock into place.
Miscellaneous Storage Slide Box
How to Upgrade Your Games with 3D Prints: Component Upgrades
Some games can also be improved with a little extra customization to the components to make them fit the theme a little more. Check out some of these examples below.
Arch Ravels
Before XYZ Games announced their own upgraded yarn ball components to their game Arch Ravels, I created some custom 3D printed yarn balls for my copy of the game.
Wingspan
Wingspan, by Stonemaier Games is a popular game that has a lot of upgrade options on Thingiverse. One option is to swap out the colored action cubes to birdhouse or bird tokens.
For me, having some fancier components gives an extra incentive to bring the game to the table more often. I hope this has inspired you to upgrade some of your own games using Ignite’s 3D Printers. If you upgrade one of your games, we’d love to see it! Share it with us on the Ignite Community Discussion Board on Facebook.
Happy Making & Happy Gaming!
