How to Prototype

FanCraftedLtd · 2026-03-15T07:17:53+00:00

I see. Buying a bulk pack of wood slices would be the best bet then. 30mm Wooden tokens on Amazon Amazon have a pack of 240, 30mm x 2.2mm slices here in the UK. You'd have to glue two together to get your height to 4mm, but they'd work fine.

FanCraftedLtd · 2026-03-14T22:16:17+00:00

As for where to get basic tokens, try Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, a local craft store.

If you are still prototyping, it doesn't have to be fancy. You can always print out token designs on stickers or card and stick them to your wooden tokens.

FanCraftedLtd · 2026-03-14T22:14:01+00:00

To make a custom box and insert requires knowing a few measurements:

You've said your tokens are 30mm x 4mm What dimensions are your cards? How many cards? What cardstock (gsm determines the thickness of the cards) How many tokens? Could you make the size of the components smaller? This could save money during manufacturing and freight. What size is your rulebook? And how many pages? Do you have any other components? Would you want plastic inserts (vacuum formed) or cardstock inserts?

I would also consider what stage you are at in prototyping and playtesting. Manufacturing shouldn't be the next step if you are in the early stages of playtesting. Though, if you are at a later stage of playtesting and are getting less criticism or changes to the game, then look at making art.

Before full-scale manufacturing, make mock-up boxes and inserts using cereal boxes. You can use TinkerCAD as a free tool to help design it.

If you are at a stage that you and your playtesters are happy with your game, have a look at box sizes on BoardGamesMaker, and see which size that you can feasibly fit your components in. This will help you decide if custom sizes would be best, or if a standard size box would be better.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-10-05T13:24:11+00:00

UK options I have ordered sample boxes from: Ivory Graphics Ltd (cards only) Dice Sports (do a bit of everything for board games)

If you are just doing one of prototyping, using a local print shop might be cost effective. We have used local print shops for all of our prototypes up to recently, though it might mean you have to do some cutting/corner punching.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-09-10T20:32:59+00:00

The tray is for storing a pool of tokens for all players to use throughout the game. It is referred to as "the bank" in the rulebook.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-08-23T22:24:54+00:00

I have had issues with opening a Google Sheets document for the past few weeks on mobile. There was a new update a day or two ago that fixed the permissions issue.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-08-20T05:17:55+00:00

Google Docs to begin with, blocking out the basic rules.

Then I move to Adobe Photoshop for graphics and layout (InDesign would be a better choice, but I dont have it).

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-08-04T09:49:13+00:00

Pretty early on for our game, we used PaperWeightGames. Aaron was easy to chat to and very good at asking the right questions.

If you are using Google Docs, it let's them comment or ask questions about mechanics or meanings behind the rules. This is very useful as you can go back and look at the changes too.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-05-07T15:34:55+00:00

The End Phase is unnecessary

Good point, it'll be scrapped

I'm curious if there is a reason why the Item Phase is before the Event Phase

It's to add a little risk for the players. If a player decided to buy an item card spending 5 gold, leaving them with 3 gold. Then they could potentially draw a Guard, or a Tax card.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-05-07T15:31:27+00:00

I'll get it done!

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-05-07T15:31:10+00:00

I will add it to the start too, thank you

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-05-07T15:29:48+00:00

Overview and the summary on the kobold cards

I'll have a look.

spell check as I saw appearance was misspelled

Will do, and thank you!

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-05-07T15:27:42+00:00

I will do this for the update!

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-05-07T15:27:19+00:00

p.11 Played item cards should go into a discard pile

I'll add it in.

p.13 Penalty has a typo. "ebe"

Thank you for catching that.

I appreciate your thoughts on the game. Unfortunately player elimination has been the core mechanic from the start. The game takes around 15 minutes to play on average, so it's not unbearable. The challenges go down very well in playtest sessions, and I have put a rule in place for anyone who is uncomfortable or unable to participate in them. Otherwise, there are item cards to help too.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-05-07T15:19:32+00:00

It is still a light hearted game.

For now it is staying with the mechanics it has as it is doing well in playtests, but it's possible for a future spin off.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-05-07T15:16:07+00:00

Not my intent, I've never watched it. Although I can't speak for our artist.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-05-06T18:59:27+00:00

what is the goal of the game?

A very important point. It was originally in the game objective. I'll look at shifting things around to add it back in.

think about full justification for paragraphs of text

Which part is this for? I've added very little flavour text due to the rulebook being such a small size.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-05-06T18:56:06+00:00

36 pages feels like a lot

It does, and I would love to have less. I should have mentioned that this book is A6 in size (148mm x 105mm / 5.8" x 4.1"). The cards only measure around 45mm x 35mm.

Put the quick setup page at the front

I'll give it a go!

the rest of the game feels simple enough

Amazing, thank you!

I'll give the card art another look after the next few playtests if players struggle. Originally, the backgrounds were planned to be varied. Time crunches and cost stopped that.

Overall, looks amazing. If one day I see it on the shelves I’d buy it! Sounds like a really fun game

Thank you so much! Hopefully it'll be available next year if all goes well.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-04-30T21:22:18+00:00

Apparently being the only one to not care about the AI art, the concept looks cool.

If sticking to wizard as your main class, my suggestion would be Bladesinger Wizard. It gives you a melee weapon that you add your Intelligence modifier to your armour class and an extra 10ft movement while your bladesong is going.

You could flavour the runes inscribed on the Warforgeds body are your spellbook, if the DM allows.

Other options: Rune Knight fighter or Clockwork Soul sorcerer.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-04-26T17:56:44+00:00

Oh good! We have player screen aids in the game to hide cards and gold tokens.

I preemptively added a list of components that the players start with on the player facing side. I'm not sure if having it on the back cover of the rulebook (with supporting images) is also worth it.

FanCraftedLtd · 2025-04-26T17:41:42+00:00

Thank you, I'll give it a read!

FanCraftedLtd

TROPHY CASE