Finally! We have finished the assembly of our Chai print and play board game. I roughly estimate that 20+ hours were spent joyfully bringing this beautiful game to life.
The wrap-up!
So let’s talk about everything we crafted for our Chai print and play board game. We started by cutting out and laminating the 74 player cards, and the thermometer. Then we created 77 flavor tiles, 30 coins, 55 pantry ingredients, 10 tip tokens, and 1 first player marker out of foam. Then we created 5 player boards, a pantry board, a money pouch board, and a dual-layer market board. Next, we created 30 tea tokens out of polymer clay and 6 tea cups “sculpted” out of Crayola Model Magic. We also subcontracted out the sewing for our supply bags to my mom. And lastly, We printed out the rulebook and bound it.
And here’s a picture of the finished game! We are extremely pleased with how everything turned out. Lots of experience gained during the creation of our first print and play boardgame and we can’t wait for the next!
Before You Create!
If you’re wondering if we’ve actually played the game now that it’s complete, the answer is yes!! I wanted to mention a few things as a heads-up if you’re thinking of creating a Chai Print and Play game of your own.
- I did not read the instructions for Chai before we created it. This led to some confusion the first time I attempted to play the game. I couldn’t figure out why we had more components than what the rulebook called for, or why there weren’t explanations for some of the abiliteas cards. The answer is that the deluxe components for Chai have been included in the print and play files. The rulebook that was included in our files did not mention these deluxe components leaving me with no idea what to do wtih them.
- After I printed out and bound our rulebook, I realized that there is a version 2 for Chai which contains some important rules. Thanks To Rodney over at Watch It Play I was able to figure that out. See his how to play Chai video below if you’re interested!
- While I was tracking down the version 2 rulebook over at Steeped Games, I stumbled upon a FAQ guide that proved to be incredibly useful. Take the time to read through the whole thing. It covers a lot of confusing things, as well as what to do with all of those deluxe components!
Final Thoughts
I’m not going to lie, after spending so many hours putting this game together, I was nervous about how I’d actually like the game. Fortunately, I love it and so does the family. It’s exactly what we were looking for. A family-weight game that’s full of thematic charm. Once you get the hang of it, Chai is easy to teach. The rounds are speedy which is great if you’re in a time crunch. There are a lot of components for this game, so cleanup does take a few minutes!
Missed any of the Chai Print and Play series? See how we made the rest of the components below!
Flavor tiles, pantry tokens, and coins
Game boards including the dual-layer market board
Tea tokens, tea cups, thermometer, supply bags, and rulebook
