Week 15 Creating the Game Pieces

Design

The design of the game pieces was a great experience. First, I had to design the game pieces using Adobe Illustrator. I decided to go with the four cars above because those are some of my favorite cars on the road. After I drew these up, I was told that the machine that was going to cut these 4 illustrations out couldn't have any pieces that weren't connected. For example, my wheels weren't connected to the car and the laser cutter would have cut them off in the process. I ended up submitting a revised illustration of my game pieces with multiple sizes. I did this so that I could test them on my game board and make sure they fit okay.

Production

I decided to use the 2.0" pieces and send those into production. This week and part of last week my pieces were made. The game pieces were cut perfectly with a laser cutting machine. The pieces were cut out of a piece of 3-ply plywood.

As you can see above, some people needed to have bases for their game pieces to sit on. I wanted to avoid that so that it looks like my little cars are actually on the road/game board. 

After cutting out the pieces, I rinsed them off in the sink to get rid of some of the marks and to prep them for painting. I used acrylic paint to color the pieces. I had to apply several thin layers to cover up some of the imperfections of the wood. 

Finished Game Pieces