Get started designing your tabletop game

Game Piece Studio is a browser-based workspace for designing card games, board games, and other tabletop pieces. It keeps the parts of your game together: layouts, changing card data, artwork, fonts, prototypes, and files for printing or playtesting.

You can start with a rough card list, a folder of artwork, or one paper prototype. For a finished example, open the Night Market Rush demo game: new accounts start with a copy in Your games, and you can import another at any time from New game → Import from sample library.

The main parts of a game

1. Designs are reusable layouts for cards, boards, tokens, rules sheets, and other pieces.
2. Datasets hold content that changes between pieces, such as a card name, cost, image, or rules text.
3. Assets stores artwork for reuse across designs. Folders, replacement tools, crops, and usage details help keep files organised.
4. Fonts lets you browse supported Google Fonts or upload a font file for the game.
5. Scratch Pad is a freeform canvas for notes, shapes, images, and live design references. Use it to explore an idea before turning it into a structured design.
6. Export previews generated pieces, checks common production problems, and creates playtest or print files.

Variables hold values that should stay consistent across many designs, such as the game title or a brand colour. Team is where you invite collaborators.

A good first path

Start rough, test early, and bring what you learn back into the next version.

For a small card deck:

1. Create a game.
2. Build one card layout.
3. Create a dataset with a row for each card.
4. Bind text and image layers to dataset columns.
5. Preview and check the deck.
6. Export a small PDF.
7. Print it at 100%, cut a few pieces, and check their physical size.
8. Playtest, then bring what you learn back into the next version.

Start small

Make two or three representative cards first: the shortest, the longest, and the most visually complex. They reveal layout problems sooner than a complete data import.

Saving and reconnecting

Studio saves as you work. Saved means the latest changes have reached the game. If saving reports an error or conflict, keep the tab open and resolve it before leaving.

If the Designer finds a local recovery copy after the saved design has changed, choose Apply local to review that copy or Discard to keep the server version. An export uses the saved snapshot taken when it starts, so later changes appear in the next export.

What to read next

• Create your first game
• Tour the game workspace
• Design your first card
• Understand datasets