😀 "Documented thought process from the mind of Jonny Hite"
"Creator of Hitened Games" 😄
Early 2015
The morning after having a pillow thought of using the bottom of a chess board as another playing field, my daughters and I built a prototype out of building blocks. One of our favorite pastimes. Fun to build and entertaining to play, it was clear, the idea had some potential.
Unfortunately, it just was not the right time to start a new project. College graduation was right around the corner and I was in line for a career change. Even after landing a new job, I wanted to mainly focus on family, friends and my new career.
Early 2018
Some years later, I was finally ready to revisit the project. My first thought was to try to superglue magnets to both sides of a glass chess board. I chose glass because players could easily view pieces when looking through. I wanted to do away with the 4 legs. it was difficult to get a hand underneath the original prototype without knocking something lose. Thought to append something to the middle of the board instead, and found a microphone gooseneck to do the trick. Microphone goosenecks are designed to bend, and I though they could easily expose the bottom when manipulated.
Thought the base could be a square box. It needed to be wide and stable to hold the Board in place when tilted down. I found a keepsake storare box, with a slide lid, and envisioned it as a Castle with battlements. I drew bricks along the outer walls, and cut notches to depict battlements. Thought it could also serve as ample storage for the board, pieces and gooseneck. Multifuction became a thing from that point on.
Mid-Late 2018
The next step was to build a stronger prototype. Esentially, I wanted to enclose the glass board to prevent it from sliding out. So I designed the Castle Box to have 3 identical Side Walls with 1 lower Front Wall. Mainly to give the board an entry point to slide in and out of, but also to enclose its contents. Thought to have a Drawbridge lock the board in place, and cleverly worked in the storage location for the metal gooseneck to be behind the Front Wall. As an attraction point for magnets. A proud clever moment. Too bad it was only a stepping stone.
Following several play test sessions, feedback sent me deep into design mode. Flipping the Board and enclosing the magnets became the new direction, thanks again to everyone who provided feedback! A huge pivotal point in the project. It was clear, 3D Modeling and 3D Printing would be the next step. So I bought a 3D Printer and picked up 3D Model in TinkerCAD.
Using the same prototype, I wanted to design a new way to elevate the board. The board needed to be raised more than half of its length to clear a 180º flip. I wanted to work the lift into the theme somehow, and thought of using a Guillotine to match the Medieval Castle Theme. Through rapid prototyping, I designed a Pivot Key to attach atop and flip the board back and forth.
Early 2019
I redesigned the walls in TinkerCAD with more basic detail and variable color to better depict a Castle. Following through with the feedback from play tests, the next step was to target the board design. The idea was to trap 64 magnets inside the middle of a board, rather than having 128 magnets on the outside, top and bottom of every tile. Triple layered acrylic seemed to be the answer, so I picked up a laser cutter and designed a center layer template. Thought to use thinner acrylic Shells to trap the magnets in the least amount of distance to the surface to avoid weakening the magnetic attraction.
Finding a good binding agent was a quite a challenge. After several tests, I found using binding screws to be the best and easiest solution. Especially since the screws served as a good center focal point on the board for Pivot Keys to clamp onto. Preventing gravity from pulling the boards down when flipped vertically. The bonus was, it also made the Boards and subsequent parts interchangeable. Swapping new Tiles and change out scratched Shells.
Mid-Late 2019
Designed a Castle Tower as an alternate to the Guillotine. Also started making up additional pieces, games and configurations. Then just had some fun with it as I continued making new designs, tweaks and adjustments over the next year or so.
10-10-2020
Under the pressure of the potential "End of the World" I decided to launch the boards and pieces, at least to get it out there. Planned to release more in the months following, but lost steam in the midst of the pandemic. Took a break to focus on family, my career and playing Tunes. Other passions of mine.
2023
I'm back at it, starting with redesigning the website and all that it entails.
10/10/2023
Rerelease Day
This was so much fun to build and create, I truly hope it makes a positive impact on the world to some gravity.
I have learned so much throughout the journey, and continue to daily. As I strongly believe we all should.
Moral of the story:
Capture your ideas, especially your pillow thoughts. You never know where they might lead you.
Thanks for listening and thanks for playing.
INSPIRE TO CREATE
Happy Gaming!
Our mission is to promote creative thinking and 3D printing through print and play tabletop gaming. Creativity is a window to our souls, so we encourage our patrons to download and personalize our products before printing them or having them printed. Nearly all of our 3D models have been designed in TinkerCAD. A free online program and great place to learn how to design, straight from the web browser. We are always looking forward to making something unique, and have some fun ideas and pretty cool Gadgets to share.
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"Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else ever thought."
~Albert Einstein
Hitened Games is a tabletop game design company that promotes Creativity and 3D Printing by connecting talent with aspiration and sharing our ideas with the world. We have created a magnetic gameboard design and concept that allows players to move back and forth to the bottom of a Board, adding an exciting dynamic and new way to think. Our Flip Boards can be flipped, held and passed while holding pieces to both sides, simultaneously. A new platform for our products. All of which can be used together in a single game (Battlefield Chess RPG) or used separately in different game setups, with different Rules and select Pieces.
Patrons are encouraged to create additional Games and designs on the FREE Base STL Download. Let's build a 3D Printing tabletop gaming community and put some 3D Printers to work.
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