This time component first

Sometimes I have issues to figure out how to start a new Design.
The glory question: mechanic or theme first?

This time there was an easy answer for me: Component first!

So I had a rough component Idea for my next kids friendly game which I just had to try out!

From Sketch to Print:

Starting with a rough sketch I had the Idea to create a sheep meeple which you can fill with wool in diffrent colours.

As a 3D-Printer enthusiast, I love to prototype my games components with my printer. So I started to sketch up the 3D model in fusion 360. I´ve searched for a SVG file which fit the sheep meeple look. 

Extruded the sketch and my sheep meeple was alive. By adding some grooves to put in some wool tokens

The last step was to create a 3D printable token looking like wool.
With some magic CAD skills this wasn´t difficult at all:

At the End I was happy about my design, so I started to print the first sheep with some wool.
Two Issues appears:
1) I had chosen a wrong scale so my sheep was a little bit tiny. (the smaller on in the picture below)
2) The wool didnt fit inside the sheep, because of tolerances…

After fixing these problems the second print run went well! (the bigger sheep on the picture below)

In the meantime the sheeps are not alone anymore and I printed some friends for them!

The hard part for me now will be to come up with some nice game mechanics. 
But I´m very excited to go this way!
If you have any Ideas please leave a comment, and stay tuned for the next update, when the first attemp for a game mechanic will hit the table! 

Thanks for Reading!

– wowikon –