Custom Dice for Board Game Publishers: A Production Guide

Custom dice can be a signature component of a board game — symbol dice, color-coded sets, and special shapes that reinforce the game’s identity. For publishers, the challenge is making them on spec, on budget, and on the same timeline as the rest of the box. Here’s what to plan for.

Designing dice for gameplay

Game dice often replace numbers with custom faces — resource icons, hit/miss symbols, suits, or directional arrows. Keep symbols bold and readable at the table from a distance, ensure they’re distinct from each other, and confirm the face distribution matches your game’s probabilities before tooling.

Color coding and multiple dice types

Many games use several dice types in different colors — for factions, difficulty levels, or actions. Plan these as a related family so colors are consistent and clearly distinguishable, including for color-blind players where possible. Each distinct die usually needs its own tooling.

What publishers should plan for

• MOQ per distinct die design — each unique face layout typically needs its own mold
• Component matching — dice color and finish should fit the rest of the box
• Packaging and pack-out — will dice ship loose, bagged, or in a tray?
• Sampling time — build sample approval into the schedule, not after it
• Production timeline — align dice lead time with the slowest component so nothing holds up assembly

Fitting dice into the production schedule

Dice are rarely the long pole in a board game’s schedule, but a late symbol change or a failed sample can stall final assembly. Lock the dice spec early, approve a sample alongside other components, and coordinate lead times so everything converges at pack-out.

For the broader ordering process and the anatomy of a dice set, see the related guides below.