A new framework permits easy creation of 3D printed items for board games.
The Open Board Game framework is a project undertaken by Chile-based Thinker Thing, who we covered earlier. Their previous project involved creating a method for children to easily develop 3D printable robot parts, which apparently was successful. Now they’ve moved on to a new product that evidently uses similar technology: gaming. They explain:
We have developed a framework which allows the simple creation of board games using this technology and a community site to allow you to share your creations with the world and join like minded people in collaborative development of groundbreaking game ideas. The Open Board Game allows you to easily design and build your game using components such as interlocking board pieces, figurines, cards, dice and even interactive electronic elements.
And
The result is a trouble free, easy to print, interconnecting board that can be adapted and refined by you, the community. The standard models are completely open and you can download the models, to print, hack, modify, use and share freely in your own creations.
While you can design and print game pieces and even pieces of the game board itself, there is more to the story. They’ve engineered the design of these models to incorporate electronic enhancements. This means support structures for motors, sensors, lights and more can be easily added. With a bit of ingenuity, you can imagine the crazy games that might be developed with this approach. They’ve even designed a new game to test the framework in it’s entirety, “Rust to Dust”.
Currently their community site is not yet open to the public, but you can visit their crowdfunding page, where you’re able to purchase a variety of printed board figurine sets.
One thing we cannot seem to find is the actual framework, which we presume is still under development. If the framework is truly “open” it should be released in some fashion to the public.
Via Open Board Game and Indiegogo
