Knolling

In my third semester during my master studies, I had the unique opportunity to choose a design project completely by myself. I instantly knew, that I wanted to create a board game. I’ve loved board games since childhood and after several small video game projects in my past, I wanted to transfer my game design experience into an analogue format. Since my master’s thesis also focused on single-player board games, I decided to align this project with it. My goal was simple: to design a solo board game I would genuinely enjoy playing and am able to put on my shelf in the end.

To begin, I tested various single-player games to identify what I liked most and found I preferred simple mechanics combined with colourful, cosy visuals. Inspired by A Little to the Left, Tetris, and tile-placement games like A Feast for Odin, I developed the first prototype using Tetris-like pieces. Balancing the difficulty proved challenging, but after several playtests and feedback rounds, I introduced task cards to add variety and refined the rules until everything felt right.

The design phase started with the game pieces, based on the theme of organizing stationery in a drawer. Translating stationery items like pens and rulers into distinctive shapes was tricky, but with experimentation, each colour group gained its own motif. For instance, pink pieces feature a heart symbol for easy recognition. Once the pieces were finalised, I designed the board, dice, and packaging. I modelled elements in Blender to ensure accurate perspectives and created a cohesive, vibrant look for all components.

The box, task cards and game board were printed professionally, but I had to create the game pieces myself. Using a laser cutter, all pieces where cut out of cardboard and their design later glued on. The project concluded with a photoshoot to document the final product. Titled “Knolling,” this game became the most extensive design project I’ve completed so far, combining illustration, product design, and user experience into one cohesive whole. Having a physical product at the end which I actually enjoyed playing felt very rewarding.