Qwirkle

Qwirkle is one of my favorite tabletop games. It's like scrabble, but with shapes and colors, and there's just enough strategy mixed in with luck-of-the-draw that I've managed to beat my family nearly every time we play. For no reason other than that I enjoy the game and also love using laser cutters, I wanted to make a wooden, unpainted, laser-cut version of Qwirkle. Normally, each tile has 1 of six shapes painted 1 of six colors. I was able to copy the shapes almost exactly, but instead of painting the wood, I used patterns to differentiate the different tiles. That meant I had to make patterns that were simple but also different enough from each other so they wouldn't be confused. In the future, I can add my own extension to the game by adding another pattern and shape.

The time lapses below show the laser-cutter engraving onto wood, moving in long lines while flashing the laser on and off to create the correct patterns.